This week offers early risers a chance to see the silver moon next to the deep-red star Antares. The chart shows the view looking south from London at 0500 GMT on the morning of 24 February.
The moon will be low in the sky with an altitude of just 12 degrees; Antares will be even lower, so find the clearest southern horizon that you can. With 46.8% of its visible surface illuminated, the moon will be more or less at its last quarter phase, about to become a waning crescent.
Viewing Antares is usually associated with summer months in the northern hemisphere, when it appears to twinkle in the evening sky. However, in the stiller winter air, the twinkling decreases and Antares can take on a strikingly beautiful appearance.
Its name derives from its colour and is Greek for “rival of Mars”, known in Greek as Ares. It is a huge red supergiant star. If it were magically to replace the sun, it would engulf everything to out beyond Mars.
The conjunction occurs much higher in the eastern sky from the southern hemisphere. In addition, from Sydney, Australia, on 27 February, the moon will appear close to Venus and Mars in the early hours of the morning.
