2025, February 11-12: Night of the Snow Moon

February 11-12, 2025: The Snow Moon follows the planet parade westward during the night.  Find Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars after sundown.

photo of full moon on a twilight sky
Photo Caption: A bright moon. (Photo by Roberto Nickson )

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:51 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:19 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Full moon
Full Moon (NASA Photo)

The moon is opposite the sun at the mark of the Full Moon at 7:53 a.m. Central Time on the 12th, after it sets in eastern North America.  This month’s seasonal name is Snow Moon.

Nightly Planet Parade Continues

Tonight, the lunar orb trails the planet parade, featuring Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars.  With the moon they are along the line of the ecliptic – that is the plane of the solar system.

Moon, February 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, February 11: The Snow Moon is in the eastern sky after sundown.

Begin look for the planets an hour after nightfall.  Beginning in the east, the bright Moon is nearly 20° up.  With a clear view of the horizon, the star Regulus, the brightest in Leo is over 10° above the horizon and over 10° the moon’s lower left.

Mars Near Moon

Mars, February 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, February 11: Mars retrogrades in front of Gemini to the right of Castor and Pollux and to the upper left of the moon.

Mars, over halfway up in the east, is nearly 30° to the moon’s upper right.  The Red Planet retrogrades in front of Gemini, 6.2° to Pollux’s upper right and 6.6° to Castor’s right.  The planet appears to open a wider gap with the two stars until the 23rd when retrograde’s illusion ends and the planet resumes direct or eastward motion again.

Mars is at the east end of the planet parade, less than halfway from the moon to bright Jupiter, standing high in the south-southeast.

Bright Jupiter with Taurus

Jupiter, February 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, February 11: Bright Jupiter is high in the south-southeast, to Aldebaran’s upper left.

The Jovian Giant is slowly moving eastward in front of Taurus, 5.1° to Aldebaran’s upper left, the Bull’s brightest star.  Jupiter’s eastward trek carries it toward the horns, Elnath and Zeta Tauri.  It moves between them during late May when the planet and the Bull disappear into bright evening twilight.

Evening Star and Saturn

Venus, Saturn, February 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, February 11: An hour after sundown, Venus and Saturn are in the west-southwest.

At this hour, brilliant Venus is less than 30° above the west-southwest horizon.  Nearing its greatest brilliancy, the planet gleams as the Evening Star.  As the brightest starlike body, it is over three times brighter than Jupiter and seven times Sirius’ visual intensity.

Venus continues to step eastward against a dim Pisces starfield, above Saturn, which is less than halfway from the west-southwest horizon to the brilliant planet.

Saturn, the western planet in this nightly parade, is slowly slipping into brighter twilight. It is becoming more challenging to see and the atmosphere near the horizon blurs and dims a telescopic view   The Ringed Wonder reaches its solar conjunction later next month.

Night of the Snow Moon

From Earth’s rotation, Saturn sets 124 minutes after the sun followed by Venus over 90 minutes later. Jupiter is high in the south when Saturn is setting.  Mars crosses the south point over four hours after sundown. 

Tonight, the moon mirrors the sun’s daytime arc during early August. The bright Snow Moon is south around midnight and low in the west-northwest before sunrise and several minutes before its official Full moon phase.

Jupiter sets in the west-northwest about four hours before sunrise.  Mars reaches the west-northwest horizon nearly 90 minutes before daybreak.

Begin looking earlier for the planet parade each evening to see Saturn higher in the west-southwest.  Mercury is quickly entering the western evening sky as Saturn leaves.   The innermost planet sets less than 10 minutes after sundown.

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