The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 22, 2025

Saturday: Mercury and Saturn are neighbors in the sky, about a half a fist held upright and at arm’s length above the west-southwestern horizon at 6:00 p.m. Mercury is the lower of the two. Mercury is moving upward with respect to the background stars over the next few weeks. By Tuesday, it will be above Saturn in the sky.

Sunday: You’ve likely heard of the Big Dipper, the measuring cup-shaped set of stars that are part of the constellation Ursa Major. At 8:00 p.m., the end of the handle is two fists above the northeastern horizon with the rest of the dipper straight above it. But not all people saw these stars as a dipper. The Aztec, who lived 500 years ago in what is now central Mexico between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, saw this part of the sky as the god Tezcatlipoca (Tez-kuht-luh-po’-kuh). Tezcatlipoca was typically an evil god who clashed with his brother, the kinder god Quetzalcoatl (Ket-suhl--kuh-wah’-tl). One day Tezcatlipoca tried to ruin Quetzalcoatl’s handiwork. Out of anger, Quetzalcoatl tossed Tezcatlipoca into the northern sky where he is forced to dance around the North Star, sometimes on his head, sometimes below the horizon.

Monday: The weather has been chilly. It will feel good to think ahead about spring. The spring triangle, the nearly equilateral triangle of Spica, Arcturus, and Denebola, is called the spring triangle because the three stars are rising as the Sun is setting near the start of spring. Since spring is currently a month away, the three stars rise a few hours after sunset. By 11:00 p.m., the bright star Arcturus is two and a half fists above due east. Spica is one fist above the southeastern horizon. Denebola, the dimmest of the three but still the 60th brightest star in the night sky, is four and a half fists above the southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: At 7:00 p.m., Venus is two fists above the western horizon, Jupiter is about six fists above the south-southwestern horizon, and Mars is six fists above the east-southeastern horizon. Mars makes a little triangle with the bright stars Pollux and Castor.

Wednesday: On these late winter mornings, it is still difficult to get going. You just want to plop into a chair and sit still. But are you really sitting still? You’re moving at about 700 miles per hour due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis and 66,000 miles per hour due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. If that’s not enough, the entire solar system is orbiting the center of the galaxy at a whopping 480,000 miles per hour! So, while you may be sitting still with respect to your living room (and all the overachievers in your house), you are NOT sitting still with respect to the center of the galaxy. For more information about this concept, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/HowFast.pdf.

Thursday: More celestial evidence that spring is around the corner. The wintertime constellation Orion is moving towards the western horizon. Orion’s belt is two and a half fists above the southwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

Friday: A group of crows is called a murder of crows. A group of porcupines is (appropriately) called a prickle of porcupines. A group of planets is called… a group of planets? Whatever it is called, there is one in the sky tonight and for the next few weeks. At 6:15 p.m., starting from near the western horizon there is Saturn, the waxing crescent moon, and Mercury. Neptune is to the upper left of Mercury but too dim to be seen in the twilight, even with binoculars. Very bright Venus is about two fists above the western horizon. Next comes Uranus, five and a half fists above the southwestern horizon. You’ll need binoculars to see it. Near Uranus in the sky, Jupiter is six and a half fists above due south. Finally, Mars is five and a half fists above the east-southeastern horizon.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up-to-date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.