The night sky in February 2027
Moon phases, meteor showers, planets and the best nights to look up from the UK in February 2027. Times are UK clock time (GMT) for central England.
Best nights to watch
- Moon-free dark skies on the nights from 1 to 10 February: the best nights this month for faint shooting stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky objects.
- Moon-free dark skies on the nights from 27 to 28 February: the best nights this month for faint shooting stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky objects.
- Penumbral eclipse of the Moon, Saturday 20 February: visible from the UK.
The Moon
Each day shows the Moon's shape in the evening. Shaded days start the best Moon-free dark nights.
Meteor showers
No major shower peaks this month.
Smaller showers peaking this month: Alpha Centaurids (around 8 February, a few an hour at best).
On any dark night you can also see a few sporadic meteors an hour, which belong to no shower. Rates are usually higher after midnight, when your side of Earth faces the direction it is travelling.
Planets
For the middle of the month. Magnitude measures brightness: the lower the number, the brighter, and anything brighter than about 2 is easy to see from a town.
- Mercury
- Mercury is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Venus
- Venus is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Mars
- Visible all night, from dusk until dawn, highest in the south at about 00:50. Brightness: magnitude −1.2.
- Jupiter
- Visible all night, from dusk until dawn, highest in the south at about 00:00. Brightness: magnitude −2.4.
- Saturn
- In the evening sky after sunset, low in the south-west, until about 20:50. Brightness: magnitude 1.1.
Dates for your diary
- Wednesday 3 February: Mercury at greatest eastern elongation. Mercury is 18° from the Sun, as far as it gets on this swing, and in the evening sky after sunset. Mercury is always low and hard to spot from the UK; look for it in a clear sky low in the west, 30 to 45 minutes after sunset.
- Saturday 6 February: Annular eclipse of the Sun. The Moon passes in front of the Sun but is too far from Earth to cover it completely, leaving a ring of sunlight. It is seen from parts of South America, the South Atlantic and western Africa, but not from the UK.
- Thursday 11 February: Jupiter at opposition. Jupiter is opposite the Sun in the sky: it rises at sunset, is up all night and is at its brightest for the year, at magnitude −2.4. It is 652 million kilometres from Earth.
- Friday 19 February: Mars at opposition. Mars is opposite the Sun in the sky: it rises at sunset, is up all night and is at its brightest for the year, at magnitude −1.2. It is 101 million kilometres from Earth.
- Saturday 20 February, before dawn: The Moon near Jupiter. The Full Moon (99 per cent lit) is about 1° from Jupiter at about 05:00. A pairing like this is a good way to find a planet for the first time.
- Saturday 20 February, evening: The Moon near Mars. The Full Moon (100 per cent lit) is about 5° from Mars at about 19:40. A pairing like this is a good way to find a planet for the first time.
- Saturday 20 February: Penumbral eclipse of the Moon. The Full Moon passes through the pale outer part of Earth's shadow from 21:12 to 01:13 UTC, deepest at about 23:13. It is visible from the whole of the UK, high in the southern sky. The change is subtle: look for a faint grey shading on one edge of the Moon around the middle of the eclipse.
Find a safe spot away from street lights, wrap up warmly and lie back so you can see a wide sweep of sky. Give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust and keep phone screens dim. No telescope is needed for meteors. Children should always watch with an adult. Never look at the Sun.
Read about every meteor shower, what a radiant and the zenithal hourly rate mean, and how moonlight hides faint meteors. Children can start with how to watch for shooting stars.