The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of February 21, 2026

Saturday: 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 held upright and at arm’s length 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 in what is now central Mexico between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico about 500 years ago, 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 was forever forced to dance around the North Star, sometimes on his head, sometimes below the horizon.

Sunday: Are you going to skip a winter vacation because flights are too expensive? Then take a virtual vacation to a black hole. NASA scientists have just developed a visualization to show how light moves in the vicinity of a black hole. Book your ticket at https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasa-visualization-shows-a-black-holes-warped-world/.

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., Saturn is just under a fist above the western horizon. Mercury is just above the western horizon.

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: Jupiter is less than a half a fist below the Moon at 9:00 p.m., about six and a half fists above the southern horizon.

Friday: More celestial evidence that spring is around the corner. The wintertime constellation Orion is moving towards the western horizon. Orion’s belt is about three fists above the southwestern horizon at 10:00 p.m.

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.