Overview

• Venus dominates the evening sky, reaching peak brightness midmonth and showcasing a crescent phase through telescopes.
• Mars continues to shine brightly in Gemini, offering telescopic views of surface features as it transitions from retrograde motion to an easterly path later in the month.
• Jupiter remains prominent in Taurus, with its moons providing multiple transit and shadow events visible through small telescopes.
• The Moon occults the Pleiades star cluster on February 5/6, a rare event visible from the western United States and other regions along similar longitude lines.
• Uranus and Neptune are observable with binoculars, with Neptune forming a triangular alignment with Venus and the Moon on February 1.