Astronomical events in February 2016

Astronomical events in February 2016

Dates of major moon phases, conjunctions and oppositions of planets, meteor showers and other important dates occurring in February 2016, from astronomer Fred Espenak.

All times in UTC, the time standard commonly used by nations across the world. Translate to your timezone here.

FEBRUARY, 2016
DATE….TIME…EVENT
Feb 01 03:28 LAST QUARTER MOON
Feb 01 08:48 Mars 2.7°S of moon
Feb 03 19:05 Saturn 3.5°S of moon
Feb 06 07:32 Venus 4.3°S of moon
Feb 06 16:47 Mercury 3.8°S of moon
Feb 07 01 Mercury at greatest elongation: 25.6°W
Feb 08 14:39 NEW MOON
Feb 10 20:46 Moon at descending node
Feb 11 02:42 Moon at perigee: 364358 km
Feb 13 03 Mercury 4.0° of Venus
Feb 15 07:46 FIRST QUARTER MOON
Feb 16 07:41 Aldebaran 0.3°S of moon
Feb 21 17 Mercury at aphelion
Feb 22 12:48 Regulus 2.5°N of moon
Feb 22 18:20 FULL MOON
Feb 24 03:58 Jupiter 1.7°N of moon
Feb 24 06:10 Moon at ascending node
Feb 26 19:05 Spica 5.1°S of moon
Feb 27 03:28 Moon at apogee: 405383 km
Feb 28 15 Neptune in conjunction with sun
Feb 29 18:16 Mars 3.6°S of moon

 

Author

Fred Espenak

Fred Espenak

Fred Espenak is a scientist emeritus at Goddard Space Flight Center. For decades, he has been NASA’s expert on eclipses, and some of you may know him as Mr. Eclipse. Fred maintains NASA’s official eclipse web site (eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov) as well as his personal web site on eclipse photography (mreclipse.com). Now retired and living in rural Arizona, Fred spends most clear nights losing sleep and photographing the stars (astropixels.com). His latest website is devoted to helping you enjoy eclipses (www.eclipsewise.com). He is an EarthSky partner, and – as we move toward the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017 – you’ll find many articles about solar eclipses by him on this website.

Article published on EarthSky