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Sky Digest

Friday, 20 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

Waxing Crescent 13%
Dark window: 18:30 – 05:29 (10 h 59 m)

Aurora Forecast — Very unlikely

Kp 3.7 / need 7 Bz 4.9 nT

Geomagnetic activity far below the Kp 7 needed at your latitude.

View full forecast

Planet Highlights

Jupiter mag -2.5 · 61° alt · Gemini Details
Next GRS transit:
Callisto Transit begins
Callisto Transit ends
Io Occultation begins
Io Occultation ends

For Beginners (naked eye)

M47
NGC 2422 Open Cluster
mag 4.4

At 21:00 look low in the south

Puppis
M42
Great Orion Nebula Nebula
mag 4.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the southwest

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 southwest

Ori
M48
NGC 2548 Open Cluster
mag 5.5

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Hydra
M81
Bode's Galaxy Galaxy
mag 6.9

At 21:00 look high in the northeast

Ursa Major

Small Scopes (3–6 inch)

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

At 21:00 look high in the south

Gem
NGC 2374
Open Cluster
mag 8.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

CMa
Eskimo Nebula
NGC 2392 Planetary Nebula
mag 9.2

At 21:00 look high in the south

Gemini
C7
NGC 2403 Galaxy
mag 8.4

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Camelopardalis
HIP 35210
Double Star
mag 4.8

At 21:00 look low in the south

CMa

Big Scopes (8–12 inch)

NGC 2259
Open Cluster
mag 11.0

At 21:00 look high in the south

Mon
NGC 2440
Planetary Nebula
mag 11.0

At 21:00 look low in the south

Pup
NGC 2336
Galaxy
mag 10.5

At 21:00 look high in the north

Cam
NGC 2146
Galaxy
mag 10.5

At 21:00 look high in the north

Cam
NGC 2683
Galaxy
mag 9.7

At 21:00 look high in the southeast

Lyn

The Week Ahead

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🌒 13% 🌒 21% 🌓 31% 🌓 42% 🌔 54% 🌔 65% 🌔 75%

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

B93: A Dark Interstellar Ghost

"A ghost in the Milky Way…” says Christian Bertincourt, the astrophotographer behind this striking image of Barnard 93 (B93). The 93rd entry in Barnard’s Catalogue of Dark Nebulae, B93 lies within the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (Messier 24), where its darkness stands in stark contrast to bright stars and gas in the background. In some ways, B93 is really like a ghost, because it contains gas and dust that was dispersed by the deaths of stars, like supernovas. B93 appears as a dark void not because it is empty, but because its dust blocks the light emitted by more distant stars and glowing gas. Like other dark nebulas, some gas from B93, if dense and massive enough, will eventually gravitationally condense to form new stars. If so, then once these stars ignite, B93 will transform from a dark ghost into a brilliant cradle of newborn stars.

Image credit: Christian Bertincourt; Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II) — APOD is a service of NASA and Michigan Tech. U.

View on NASA APOD

Space News

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NASA — 20 Mar 2026

Artemis II rolls again

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ESA — 20 Mar 2026

Meet the Platypi: NASA’s Newest Astronaut Candidate Class

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NASA — 19 Mar 2026

How Open NASA Data on Comet 3I/ATLAS Will Power Tomorrow’s Discoveries

NASA's observations of the rare interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS from over a dozen science missions will be preserved in public data archives for future research.

NASA — 20 Mar 2026

Explore the Three-Body Problem

Simulate chaotic gravitational dynamics with preset scenarios: circumbinary planets, Lagrange points, and the famous Figure-8 choreography. Switch between inertial and co-rotating frames.

Explore the Three-Body Problem Open Three-Body

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