You might remember that in January 2025 there was a huge amount of public and media interest in the 'spectacular planet parade', with a lot of very inaccurate reporting of it online, making misleading and sometimes outrageous claims about the planets' visibility.
That’s died down now, giving the impression that it’s all over, but that’s also misleading.
During early February 2025, a very impressive planetary chain will still be visible, with worlds stretched out across the sky from west to east.
If you’re not sure which is which, the Moon will very helpfully hopscotch along it, approaching and then passing some of the planets, making them easy to spot and identify.
In the first couple of days of February 2025, the Moon shone near the planets Saturn and Venus.
On 1 February, a lovely crescent Moon could be seen shining between Venus and Saturn.
Saturn was down to the Moon’s lower right, while Venus, dazzlingly bright, blazed above the Moon.
The Moon has now moved on, heading eastwards, so here's how you can use it to enjoy planet-spotting during the rest of February.
5 February
Tonight the Moon, just past its first quarter phase, will be shining close to Uranus.
With a magnitude just brighter than +6, Uranus is technically visible to the naked eye, but in reality it only is if you have very good eyesight, are observing from a very dark location and know exactly which 'dot' it is amongst many dots with the same brightness.
This means you’ll need binoculars and our finder chart above to track it down.
Uranus will only look like a star through even a powerful pair of binoculars, but it has a distinctive — and very rare in the sky — greenish hue which gives it away.
6 February
Tonight the Moon, now at its waxing gibbous phase, will be shining to the upper right of Jupiter.
Unlike elusive Uranus, you’ll have no trouble locating Jupiter because, with a magnitude of -2.5, it is a strikingly-bright spark of blue-white, far brighter than any of the stars around it.
As you look at the Moon and Jupiter you’ll see they are close to a pair of star clusters.
To the right of the Moon is the Pleiades, a knot of blue-white stars that has the shape of a mini Big Dipper in binoculars.
Below the pair lies the Hyades star cluster, a V of stars lying on its side that represents the horns of Taurus the Bull.
7 February
Tonight the Moon will be shining to the left of Jupiter, directly above the hourglass-shaped constellation of Orion.
As you look at it you’ll see a bright, orange-hued star shining to the lower left of the Moon. This is Mars.
8 February
Tonight the Moon will be shining to the upper right of Mars.
By now the Moon will be approaching its full phase, bright enough to drown out many of the fainter stars in the sky, but with a magnitude of -0.9, Mars is easily bright enough to shine through this strong moonlight and appear as a bright star.
Mars is commonly known as the Red Planet, but when you look at it you’ll see it has more of an orange hue than a crimson one.
This colour is still very striking when Mars is shining in a dark sky, but it will be slightly lost with the Moon shining so close by.
9 February 2025
Tonight the Moon will be shining directly above Mars, so close that both will fit in the same binocular field of view.
With the Moon very close to full, it will be shockingly bright but Mars will still be visible as a star just beneath it, even if its marmalade-hue is washed out by the searing moonlight.
So, that’s how you can use the Moon to locate and identify planets over the next few nights as their parade across the sky continues.
By the end of the month, another planet, Mercury, will take its place in the line-up, and we’ll tell you how to spot that then.
If you've been observing or photographing the Moon and planets this month, don't forget to send us your images!
