
Moon Phases
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Waning Gibbous 64% illuminated
Rise: none today
Set: 9:19 AM
Eye on the Night Sky, February 19, 2025
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Today:
On the next clear night, it should be quite easy to find the brightest star – the North Star, right? No! As you scan the skies, tonight our brightest star emerges from the twilight in the southeast near 6:00 PM, and will be due south at 8:35 PM. You are watching Sirius, known commonly as the “Dog Star”, relatively close to us at only 8 light years away.
Thursday:
Night owls can see the Moon, just one day past its Last Quarter, rise in the southeast near 2:30 AM tomorrow morning. Just to its upper left will appear the red star Antares, the brightest star within the constellation Scorpius. As they climb higher, though still low from 4:30 through 5:30, the Moon’s orbit causes it to slide below Antares, fading in the twlight, one quarter of the way up, due south, at 6 o’clock.
Friday:
George Washington’s actual birthday (not the holiday) would have seen the same stars in the same places in 1732, though the planets would have been different. Thanks to modern computer calculations, we know that Venus and Saturn were amazingly close in the southwest after sunset, much like they were at start of the present month.

This program is a partnership between the Fairbanks Museum and Vermont Public.