Caoimhín's Content

Today’s video, we are going to take a look at the constellations that we’re going to see during February.

I will be basing this description on the sky from the city, with some amount of light pollution. We will see the planets and of course the brightest stars easily, and a lot of the constellations are famous and recognizable from just their brightest stars. You would of course see more under good conditions, but if is visible in the city then it will certainly be visible form the countryside. We are also going to look a little into the future, just till mid-February, to get the Moon out of the way. Immediately clear to the southeast as the sky darkens is Orion, one of the most famous constellations. With our view here from a city like Cork, we can just about see the tip of Orion’s Sword, but of course it is Orion’s Belt that’s really the famous part, and it stands out much more.

Sirius, the brightest star, is just down a bit lower and further east than Orion, along with the rest of Canis Major. Venus, the brightest planet then just on the other side of the sky, or at least on the opposite side of south towards the west. Much higher, almost at the zenith, is Auriga, one of the less famous constellations, but it is a very recognizable pentagonal shape, with the bright star Capella being very easy to spot. Under Auriga and above Canis Major we’ve got Gemini. Mars can help you find Gemini at this time of year, though the two brightest stars in Gemini, Pollux and Castor, are nice and easy to spot as well. The other parts of the constellation Gemini, even if we take a closer look at the correct region of the sky, we can kind of see those other stars that are part of the constellation, but especially in a city with as much light pollution as Cork, it is going to be a little bit tricky to see the outline of the Twins.

In between Gemini and Canis Major we’ve got Canis Minor with Procyon. Procyon is a nice bright star, higher in the sky than Sirius and it stands out quite well. This is the other dog and being the little dog, the rest of the constellation isn’t very prominent. Taking a look closer to the middle of the sky, high above the south, we’ve got Jupiter. As Jupiter is just a point, it’s really only due south at about 7:20/7:30, while constellations can take several minutes to drift away from a cardinal direction, as they have areas, often quite large ones. A good example is Taurus, and we’ve got Taurus sort of centered just under Jupiter with Aldebaran. However, the horns of Taurus go right up practically to the edge of Gemini and Auriga, whereas the back comes way over to the Pleiades.

Looking at the Pleiades we can see a couple of the sisters there, a sort of duo or trio of stars as we’re seeing them with the light pollution in the city. Taking even a slightly closer look shows all seven of the Seven Sisters, and if we were to zoom in even more, of course there are thousands of stars in that open cluster. While we’re zooming in on things, we will take a quick closer look at Orion’s Sword. It is a star forming region, the Orion Nebula, so there are brand new stars forming in here. While the Pleiades are still a young open cluster, those stars have had time to spread out and shed the cloud of gas from whence they came. The cloud of hydrogen gas, or molecular hydrogen, that formed the stars has been blown away from the Pleiades, whereas we can see it as nebulosity in Orion’s Sword.

Returning high to the sky, just west of Auriga, this kind of fin shape here is the constellation Perseus. Algol is just at the bottom right, or west, corner of the fin-like shape. Algol is the “Demon Eye” of the head in the heroes hand, This is Perseus with the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Just a little further westward we’ve got Cassiopeia up nice and high, and arcing way down towards the western horizon we’ve got the Square of Pegasus. The last time we took a looked at the constellations in the sky, the Square of Pegasus was still reasonably high in the sky to the southwest at 7:20. Now that we’re pushing into the middle of February, we can see that the Square of Pegasus is now way down towards the west, much lower in the sky. it will be pretty far west even in early February, but we’re looking ahead here to avoid excess moonlight, we’re already dealing with light pollution from the city. Low towards the eastern horizon we’ve got a clear view of the Sickle of Leo. I say clear, it would be a lot clearer if we were in the countryside, but the Sickle of Leo there and we can certainly see the bright star Regulus. Regulus is already above the horizon by the time the sky is dark once we’re into the middle of February, though it will take a little bit longer for it to rise more prominently into the sky. The fainter stars in the Sickle will still be hard to spot, but Regulus is mor than bright enough to help you locate roughly where to look.

We of course have the Plough or the Big Dipper, now already over the northeast, still just at 7:20, pointing up to the North Star. The last time we really took a look at the constellations in the northern sky, I think it was just before the New Year so back in 2024, as the sky was getting dark the Plough or the Big Dipper was way over towards the northwest, and by the time we came around to sunrise, the Plough was after coming over to the northeastern side of the sky. Now that we’re this much later into the year, the Plough or the Big Dipper is going to end up all the way around to the northwest, by the time the glow of sunrise is coming up into the sky. Even though it will always take 24 hours for the Plough to appear to make a full circle around the North Star, where you need to start, where the Plough will appear at sunset, will slowly drift over the course of the year. We do get to see the Plough all night long every night of the year, but where exactly you see it, that will vary similar to how the constellations that you see down in the south vary.

Speaking of varying constellations, we will push through to morning time. Still looking at mid-February, we will have the glow of the slightly-past-Full Moon, but we are also looking late enough to have some of the sunrise glow starting to come over the horizon. Despite all that light, we’ve got Scorpius nice and clear, mostly thanks to the bright star Antares, in the south as the Sun is coming up. As we continue to get closer and closer to summertime, Scorpius will end up being pretty much in the middle of the sky in the middle of the night, or at least directly over the south in the middle of the night, even though it will be quite low in the sky for those of us here in Ireland. This is where the core of the Milky Way is, passing through Scorpius and Sagittarius. As we move further and further from midwinter, we’re going to start seeing more and more of that constellation. Given that we have Leo, now towards the west, the nice bright blue star just off south must be Spica in Virgo. It is, but to double check you can use a star hopping guide. To get to Spica in Virgo, start with the Plough or the Big Dipper. The arc of the handle of the Big Dipper, or the tail of the bear, is what you need to follow. You follow the arc to Arcturus and then you spike on to Spica. Following the arc from the Plough to the next bright star is a good way to find Arcturus in Boötes. The constellation of Boötes is sort of a kite shape, though a lot of the stars in Boötes are pretty faint. Arcturus is nice and bright, so once you find Arcturus, the rest of the constellation isn’t too hard to pick out. With Virgo it’s similar, we can find Spica easily, enough, whereas the other stars in that constellation are pretty faint and can be tricky to join together.

Once we’ve found Virgo and Scorpius, Libra must be in between them. The faint stars, or even empty region, must be Libra because it’s in between Virgo and Scorpius. Libra is right in between them and Sagittarius must come after Scorpius, even if it’s too close to the sunrise to really see. With those constellations in particular, they’re nice and easy to spot because they’re so famous. Also known as the signs of the zodiac, these constellations are the well documented zodiacal constellations. If you are familiar with the zodiacal constellations that can help you at various times of the night. For example, back in the early evening, Cancer the Crab would be up between Gemini and Leo. Even though Cancer the Crab is practically invisible in the city, you can find it using the constellations around it. Some famous or well known constellations, even if they’re very difficult to see from the city, you can figure out where they are, or where they should be, by using the more visible stars.

For another example, turning around here to the north, you might just about see Cor Caroli, the brightest star in Canis Venatici. Even if it was invisible, once you know that Canis Venatici is just under the tail of the Plough, you’ll know where it should be. Even though it’s very difficult to see many of the stars in Draco, I know it’s got to be around the Little Dipper or Ursa Minor, because that’s where Draco is. Over time, with practice, you do gain a familiarity with the constellations and that can help you figure out which ones you’re supposed to be looking at, even if they aren’t visible.

With software like Stellarium, the images of the actual constellations can be brought up. This lets us find less famous faint constellations, like the Rabbit or the Unicorn. They’re practically invisible if you’re looking at them from the city This applies to Cancer the Crab, a very famous constellation that is also practically invisible even from a city like Cork, but it is at least well known. Aries the Ram is visible from the city, but it is just two stars. That’s down to the constellation being quite small more than faint. Triangulum is both a small constellation and the stars can be difficult to see from the city, but it is just under Andromeda. We’ve clearly got the Square of Pegasus, the fin of Perseus with Medusa, we’ve got Taurus the Bull and Orion. We’ve got both our little dog Canis Minor and our big dog Canis Major. All of these are constellations that thanks to the bright stars they contain, they’re very easy to locate from the city, and many of them have clear distinct shapes. Cassiopeia just up a little higher with that recognizable W-shape, and the Plough of course is a very recognizable shape as well.

We’ve also got the Sickle of Leo, even though the actual Sickle of Leo might be difficult to spot from the city, some of the stars in it are quite faint, we know that it’s got that bright star, Regulus, and we know that it’s going to come after Gemini, so these things can help us to find it. Similarly, Boötes has the bright star Arcturus, even if the rest is a little faint. Spica is also nice and bright, and being in the hand of Virgo it can help give you a sense of how big a constellation Virgo is. There is no other constellation between Spica in Virgo and the Tail of Leo with Denebola. Then we have Libra, it’s only got a couple of bright recognizable stars in it, but it must be there because it is in between Virgo and Scorpius. Continuing up to morning time, we’ve got the front of Pegasus coming back into the sky, having set in the west earlier. Scorpius the Scorpion is close to due south at sunrise, meaning that there is room for Sagittarius to be in the sky even if it is tough to see. We’ve also got the Summer Triangle coming back up, it’s there in the morning because it’s missing for most of the night, because we’re still very much in winter. However, we can see those three bright stars, Vega, Deneb and Altair, there in the morning as well if you are up at sunrise.

This is of course just a quick run through of some of the prominent constellations and how to spot them. Particularly, how to see them from the city, because that’s where most of us are going to be. Now of course, we’re missing some things here because of where we are here in Ireland, but we are going to take a look at the sky from other locations soon.

If you enjoyed this piece, please do like it, and if you’d like to catch my future posts or just support this content, then make sure to subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Hopefully, I’ll see you back here next time.