Friday, February 14, 2025

Evening Zodiacal Light (after dusk)

If you live in a location where the sky is free of light pollution, you might be able to spot the Zodiacal Light during the two weeks that precede the new moon on February 27. Starting on Friday, February 14, after the evening twilight has faded, you'll have about half an hour to check the western sky
for a broad wedge of faint light extending upwards from the horizon and centered on the ecliptic below the planet Venus. That glow is the zodiacal light - sunlight scattered from countless small particles of material that populate the plane of our solar system. Don't confuse it with the brighter Milky Way, which extends upwards from the northwestern evening horizon at this time of year.

Goddess of Love at Greatest Brilliance (pre-dawn)

For several hours after sunset on Friday, February 14, Venus will shine in the western sky at its greatest illuminated extent for the current evening apparition. In a telescope, the planet will show a 27%-illuminated waning crescent phase and an apparent disk size of 39 arc-seconds. Even with a less than fully-illuminated disk (inset), Venus' nearness to Earth of only 0.425 Astronomical Units (39.5 million miles or 63. 6 million km) will boost its brightness to a brilliant magnitude -4.85.

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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