Mon Feb 16, 2026 THE PLEIADES
High up in the western sky this evening there is a distinctive, tiny dipper shape of stars known as the Seven Sisters. Bright streetlights keep us from seeing them clearly, so it’s best to find a very dark location in order to find them. In mythology, the Seven Sisters were the Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas, on whose shoulders the world rested. The brightest stars are Alcyone, Merope - who was once romanced by the hero Orion the Hunter - then Electra, Asterope, Maia, Taygeta and Celaeno, plus their parents, Atlas and the sea nymph Pleione – but there are many more fainter ones. Binoculars will reveal over a dozen stars, and astronomers have counted hundreds of stars in this open cluster. The stars of the Pleiades are mostly blue giants, hot, massive, and fairly young – maybe a hundred million or so years old, according to our best estimates.
Tue Feb 17, 2026 AURIGA THE CHARIOTEER
High in the northern sky this evening there is a somewhat obscure constellation called Auriga, the Charioteer, in legend and myth, an early king of Athens, and the inventor of the chariot. Now if you're good at imagining constellation shapes, you'll immediately see Auriga in all his glory - a man, driving a chariot, while holding on to a whip in one hand, and a bunch of small goats in the other. But if you have that kind of imagination, then I probably didn't have to tell you all that. For the rest of us, Auriga looks like a pentagon shape - a five-sided figure of stars, marked by a bright yellow star - Capella, the head of the charioteer. Look for the goat kids also, a few tiny bright stars just to the south of Capella.
Wed Feb 18, 2026 THE DISCOVERY OF PLANET X
Ninety-five years ago today, on February 18, 1930, Planet X was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Tombaugh was a talented amateur astronomer who was hired to make and search photographic plates of the sky, looking for anything that might shift its position from one night to the next, as seen when comparing one photo to another picture of the same part of the sky taken a few nights later. It was painstaking work but rewarding; Planet X was discovered out in the direction of the constellation Gemini, which is well up in the eastern sky after sunset tonight. But Planet X isn’t there anymore. This distant world is now seven constellations over to the east, in Capricornus. Oh, and it’s not called Planet X anymore; shortly after its discovery it was renamed Pluto.
Thu Feb 19, 2026 NICOLAUS COPERNICUS
The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, born on February 19th, 1473, advocated the heliocentric theory, which placed the sun in the center of the solar system, with the earth and other planets revolving about it. Copernicus received praise and encouragement from the Bishop of Kulm and the Archbishop of Capua and some scholars, but his ideas were also ridiculed by others including Martin Luther, who once said, “This fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside down!”. Until the mid 1600’s, the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle were considered the final word on science, and Copernicus’ predictions weren’t any more accurate than the old earth-centered model. But this Copernican model was a simpler way to explain the motions of the planets.
Fri Feb 20, 2026 NAME THAT CONSTELLATION – FEBRUARY
Can you identify the 14th largest constellation? It is bordered on the north by Pegasus, Andromeda, Triangulum and Aries the Ram; on the south by Aquarius the Water Carrier and Cetus the Whale; on the west by Pegasus and Aquarius again; and on the east by Triangulum, Aries and Cetus again.There are no bright stars in it, but tonight the waxing crescent moon can be found within its borders, while the planet Saturn appears nearby. This mythological figure is said to represent the goddess Venus and her son Cupid, who transformed themselves in order to swim away from a dangerous dragon. Can you name this star figure, the twelfth constellation of the zodiac? And of course the answer is Pisces, the Fish, well-placed in the southwestern sky after sunset.
