COLUMBIA, S.C. — We started 2023 with some great images from our WLTX Weather Watchers. Steve Conklin saw this impressive lunar Halo and Sue Lewis caught some planets in our evening sky.
Heading into February, we will start with an opportunity to see the International Space Station as it passes over the Midlands this Friday evening. We will have a couple of other good passes of the ISS over the next 10 days so keep posted for when that happens!
On the 5th we will be able to see the smallest full moon of the year. Known as the "Snow Moon" it will appear around 7% smaller than normal but, will still be worth seeing!
Towards the end of the month, we have a lot to see. On the 22nd, Jupiter and the Moon will be together in the evening sky. If you have a telescope, you can even see some of Jupiter’s moons! Just look west in the evening sky for this.
Sticking with planets, this entire month Venus and Jupiter will be getting closer and closer in the evening sky as they head towards conjunction on March 1st! Just look to the west each evening!
The weather this week does have some good nights for stargazing but, with this active pattern, there will be plenty of nights with cloud cover as well. Nights continue to be relatively warm so, thankfully, any stargazing will be in more comfortable weather.
If you have any photos, videos, or questions about the night sky you can always send that to us on social media!
