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what's up for February Mars gets closer

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and two comets will delight viewers

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hello and welcome I'm Jane Houston Jones

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at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

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Pasadena California Mars rises even

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earlier and grows larger as it nears the

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closest approach to earth in its orbit

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it rises by 9pm at the beginning of the

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month and just after sunset by month's

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end through a telescope look for changes

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in the north polar cap as the Sun warms

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the ice and the polar cap shrinks March

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the month named for Mars will also offer

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great Mars viewing two comets one

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visible at sunset and another after

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midnight are worth a look through a

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telescope or binoculars comet levy

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returns to our skies in its five-year

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four-month orbit between Earth and

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Jupiter look for this faint comet below

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the constellations Orion and lepus

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towards the end of the month it'll be

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near the tail of Canis Major the Great

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dog you'll have a better chance of

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seeing it through a telescope away from

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the city try around mid month to avoid

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both light pollution and moonlight comic

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garrard reappears at our northern skies

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this month early in the month it glides

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by the globular cluster m92 in hercules

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then moves towards draco it should be

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visible in binoculars and possibly even

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with the unaided eye on the nights of

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February fourteenth and fifteenth the

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comet's tail appears edge on and you may

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be able to see a spike or anti tail

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pointing toward the Sun

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the bright planets Venus and Jupiter

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said earlier now at nine p.m. and 11pm

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respectively luckily Saturn is rising

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earlier through a small telescope you'll

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be able to see Titan Saturn's largest

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moon and possibly Rhea tethers and Ione

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with a good finder chart you can spot

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Saturn's two-tone moon Iapetus when it's

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brighter side faces earth making the

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moon appear a magnitude brighter it's

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quite far from Saturn but look on the

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days on either side of februari 13 ring

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diameters away that's Iapetus you can

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learn about February's year of the solar

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system theme at solar system NASA gov /

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yss per year of the solar system and you

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can learn about all of NASA's missions

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to the solar system and beyond at ww NSA