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Sky Digest

Friday, 6 February 2026 | Default Location
Showing the sky from Greenwich, London. Log in to use your own location.
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Tonight at a Glance

Waning Gibbous 75%
Dark window: 18:04 – 05:55 (11 h 50 m)

Bright moon tonight — best deep-sky viewing before moonrise (22:51)

Planet Highlights

Jupiter mag -2.6 · 59° alt · Gemini Details
GRS transit tonight:
Io Occultation begins
Io Occultation ends

Comets

PANSTARRS mag 7.5 · 2° alt · Pegasus Details
bright 2.42 AU Perihelion: Apr 19 (in 24d)

For Beginners (naked eye)

NGC 2232
Open Cluster
mag 3.9

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Mon
M42
Great Orion Nebula Nebula
mag 4.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Orion
M31
Andromeda Galaxy Galaxy
mag 3.4

At 21:00 look halfway up in the northwest

Andromeda

Binocular Targets

U Ori
Variable Star
mag 5.4

At 21:00 look high in the south

Ori
M41
Little Beehive Cluster Open Cluster
mag 4.5

At 21:00 look low in the south

Canis Major
M33
Triangulum/Pinwheel Galaxy Galaxy
mag 5.7

At 21:00 look halfway up in the west

Triangulum

Small Scopes (3–6 inch)

Castor
HIP 36850; Alpha Gem; 66 Gem Double Star
mag 2.0

At 21:00 look high in the southeast

Gem
M38
Starfish Cluster Open Cluster
mag 7.4

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Auriga
M43
De Mairan's Nebula Nebula
mag 9.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Orion
M81
Bode's Galaxy Galaxy
mag 6.9

At 21:00 look high in the northeast

Ursa Major
3 Gem
Variable Star
mag 5.8

At 21:00 look high in the south

Gem

Big Scopes (8–12 inch)

Z Cam
Variable Star
mag 10.0

At 21:00 look high in the north

Cam
NGC 2141
Open Cluster
mag 9.4

At 21:00 look high in the south

Ori
M97
Owl Nebula Planetary Nebula
mag 9.9

At 21:00 look high in the northeast

Ursa Major
C7
NGC 2403 Galaxy
mag 8.4

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Camelopardalis
RX And
Variable Star
mag 10.2

At 21:00 look halfway up in the west

And

The Week Ahead

Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
🌖 75% 🌖 66% 🌖 57% 🌗 47% 🌗 38% 🌗 29% 🌘 21%

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A

Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After only a few million years for the most massive stars, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the supernova explosion that created this remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light 11,000 years to reach us. This sharp NIRCam image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the still-hot filaments and knots in the supernova remnant. The whitish, smoke-like outer shell of the expanding blast wave is about 20 light-years across. A series of light echoes from the massive star's cataclysmic explosion are also identified in Webb's detailed images of the surrounding interstellar medium.

APOD is a service of NASA and Michigan Tech. U.

View on NASA APOD

Space News

NASA Sets Coverage for First Artemis Crewed Mission Around Moon

NASA's Artemis II crewed mission around the Moon is targeting launch no earlier than April 1, 2026, marking the first human lunar mission in over 50 years.

NASA — 25 Mar 2026

NASA’s Hubble Detects First-Ever Spin Reversal of Tiny Comet

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope detected the first-ever spin reversal of a small comet, providing new insights into how volatile activity affects the physical evolution of solar system bodies.

NASA — 26 Mar 2026

3 weeks and 3 cargo departures for εpsilon

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot documented multiple cargo vehicle departures from the International Space Station within a three-week period, highlighting active ISS resupply operations.

ESA — 20 Mar 2026

Understand Your Telescope

See the light path through six telescope designs: refractor, Newtonian, SCT, Maksutov, RC, and Gregorian. Adjust aperture, focal length, and eyepiece to calculate magnification and field of view.

Understand Your Telescope Open Optics Simulator

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