February 1, 2026: Winter’s midpoint arrives with the Full Snow Moon. Track changing daylight, see Jupiter and Saturn after sunset, and follow Mercury’s return to the evening sky.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:03 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:06 p.m. CST. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Almanac for Sun, Moon, and Planets
Winter’s midpoint approaches: In the civil calendar, these days are known as cross-quarter days. Tomorrow, the midpoint is marked by the religious remembrance of Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus. In North America, winter’s middle is popularly noted as Groundhog Day, centered on whether an oversized rodent can predict the weather. This day joins May Day, Lammas Day, and Halloween as calendar markers that denote midseason points. Astronomically, winter’s midpoint occurs on February 3 at 8:55 p.m. CST.
Sun: At Chicago’s latitude, daylight lasts 10 hours, 3 minutes. In Miami, the sun shines for 11 hours, 1 minute, while daylight spans 7 hours, 49 minutes in Anchorage. With the start of this new month, Auckland, New Zealand, is added to this daylight watch. At 36° south latitude, Auckland nearly mirrors the northerly latitudes of Nashville and Fresno. Today, daylight in Auckland lasts 13 hours, 55 minutes. Near 17° south latitude, the sun stands overhead at noon, still directly sunlight toward the southern hemisphere.
Moon:
The moon is at the Full (Snow) Moon, the season’s second bright moon. Two hours before sunrise, the lunar orb is 20° up in the west, more than 18° to Jupiter’s upper left. The Full Moon phase occurs at 4:19 p.m. Central Time. After sunset, the bright lunar orb is low in the east-northeast, nearly 30° to Jupiter’s lower left. If snow is on the ground, the bright moonlight provides enough illumination for a nighttime walk along a familiar path.
Inner Planets
Mercury: The Elusive World is emerging from bright sunlight into the western evening sky. It reaches its best appearance at greatest elongation—its largest separation from the sun—on February 19. Tonight, Mercury sets 36 minutes after sunset.
Venus: Slower to appear in the western evening sky, Venus approaches its first evening appearance. Tonight, it sets about 10 minutes before Mercury.
Bright Outer Planets
Mars: The Red Planet is slowly moving toward its first appearance in the morning sky in nearly five months. This morning, it rises only 10 minutes before daybreak.
Jupiter: With Venus hidden in bright sunlight, Jupiter outshines all stars in the sky tonight, including Sirius, the night’s brightest star. Jupiter continues to retrograde in front of Gemini, standing 9.0° from Pollux and over 10° from Castor, the Gemini Twins. The planet remains in the sky nearly all night. As Earth rotates, Jupiter appears in the south before midnight and low in the west-northwest before morning twilight begins.
Saturn: The Ringed Wonder begins the evening in the southwest. Each night it appears lower in the sky, descending into evening twilight later this month. Tonight, after sunset, Saturn stands about 30° up in the southwest, setting roughly four hours after nightfall. Through a telescope, Saturn’s rings appear nearly edge-on, forming a narrow line that extends across the planet and nearby space.
Faint Outer Planets
Uranus: The Tilted World shares the same binocular field of view with Taurus’ Pleiades star cluster. Moonlight interferes with the view tonight. Wait a few nights until the moon has moved beyond this bright phase.
Neptune: The Distant Blue World is even more susceptible to moonlight than Uranus. Neptune shares the same binocular field with Saturn. When conditions improve in a few nights, take final looks at Neptune. As it sinks toward evening twilight, thicker air near the horizon dims and blurs the planet. After solar conjunction and its return to the morning sky, Saturn no longer serves as a guide to this distant world.
With February open, take a walk under the Snow Moon and look for Jupiter and Saturn, tonight’s only bright planets.
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