Shropshire's Sky at Night - February

Shropshire stargazer Carl Drinkwater tells you what to look out for in the skies above this month - without the need for an expensive telescope:

It's a great time at the moment to see several of the planets in the solar system, and you don't need any special equipment to see them, with Venus, Jupiter and Mars all easily with your naked eye.

Venus + Jupiter

If you look into the southern sky in the early evening, you'll see two bright points of light. The southernmost, and highest in the sky is Jupiter. The other, lower in the sky and towards the west is Venus. Both will be visible even in the most light polluted of areas. You will need to be lucky with the clouds of course!

At the start of the February, Venus sets at about 8pm so you have to go out just as the sun has set to see it at its best. Jupiter sets at about midnight, which gives you a lot more opportunity to see it. As the month goes on, Venus and Jupiter will get closer together, with both setting at about 10pm by the 1st of March.

If you have a pair of binoculars and a steady hand, if you point them at Jupiter, you might be able to make out up to four small dots very close to Jupiter. Those dots are the largest of Jupiter's many moons, and are called the Galilean moons. They rotate around Jupiter pretty quickly, and are often very close, behind or in front of Jupiter, so if you can't see any of them on your first try, try again another night.

Mars

At the start of February, Mars rises shortly after 8pm, and rises earlier and earlier as the month goes on, ending the month rising in the twilight at 6pm.

If you go out at about midnight, you'll see a noticeably red object in the sky almost directly southeast. For those who wake early, Mars will be southwest just before sunrise.

Mars isn't as bright as Venus or Jupiter, but it should be easily visible with the naked eye even in light polluted areas.

If you don't have any luck at the start of the month, Mars gradually gets brighter as the month goes on, and should easily be visible all night as February ends.

Moon

The most familiar thing in the sky is the Moon. The first new Moon of 2012 was on 23rd January, and marked the Chinese New Year and the start of the year of the Dragon.

There is a full moon on the 7th February, which wanes throughout the month until 22nd, when the next new Moon occurs.

If you have a pair of binoculars, and you've never done so before, point them at the moon. You'll see some fantastic detail about a week before and after a full moon, when about half the moon is lit.

Along the terminator, the border between light and shadow, you'll be able to see countless craters and mountains. Through a low-powered telescope the view is even more impressive, and you really get the feeling you're looking at another world rather than just a flat disc in the sky.

Orion

There is one other very conspicuous thing in the sky at the moment - Orion, The Hunter.

Look south at 9pm during February, and you'll see three bright stars in a row. Those stars form Orion's Belt.

Above the belt, you'll see two bright stars. These are Orion's shoulders. Top left, with a definite red tint to it, is Betelguese. There isn't a consensus on how to pronounce the name of this star, but a lot of astronomers will say it as bet-el-jooz. However, a lot of other people, me included, pronounce it as beetle-juice. Just don't say it three times!

Betelguese is massive. It is hard to convey just how massive. Jupiter is currently about 460 million miles from us. If we replaced Jupiter with Betelguese, we'd be pretty much be on the surface of Betelguese. Our Sun would fill only 1/1000th of that distance.

Below the belt, the two bright stars are his knees. In the triangle formed by the belt and his knees is a smaller, vertical row of three stars. These stars make up Orion's Sword.

In fact, the middle star of those three isn't a star, but the Orion Nebula - a massive cloud of dust and gas – where new stars are being formed.

If you have a dark sky, and you let your eyes become adjusted to the dark, you should be able to tell that the middle of those stars looks smudgy. With binoculars, you will be able to easily tell it's not a normal star, and will appear to look like a bird in flight.

For the best views, take a look in the days either side of the 22nd, when the moon isn't bright.