Astronomical highlights in February 2008

The current close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter at dawn (pictures of this morning have come in from Germany, Australia and many other places) will be followed by (as told in Der Himmel über Berlin 2/2008 and other almanacs):

• Feb. 4: The Moon joins the Venus/Jupiter pair at dawn
  
  
• Feb. 7: Annular eclipse of the Sun, visible only from Antarctica; coincides with the Chinese New Year (Year of the Earth Rat)
  
  
• Feb. 13: Jupiter occults a 4 mag. star, the brightest since 1971 - visible only in East Asia
  
  
• Feb. 20: Final Ring Plane Crossing of Uranus, hardly observable
  
  
• Feb. 20/21: Total eclipse of the Moon, in evening in the Americas, in the morning in Europe
  
  
• Feb. 21: Diameter of Mars drops below 10 arc sec
  
  
• Feb. 24: Saturn in Opposition, celebrated with an Int'l Night of Saturn

In other news comet Holmes is still around and - from dark sites - easy to see naked eye as a fuzzy patch of light as recent visual reports and pictures of today and Jan. 30 and 26 demonstrate.