Watch for These Amazing February Celestial Events in Montana

The month of February may be the shortest month of the year, but the upcoming 2026 version of it is planning to go all out for all 28 of them.

via GIPHY

Montana skies will be home to some amazing celestial happenings that won't require a lot of equipment or even squinting really, beginning this weekend.  Between a full moon starting it all off to a Grand Planetary Alignment, it's time to start looking upwards to the sky.

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Watch for These Amazing February Celestial Events in Montana

This past week has been great watching the Moon peek through the clouds and get bigger and bigger as I make way to the studios.  It will culminate this weekend in the full moon, known as the "Snow Moon Glow" moon.  And with our mild conditions forecasted, it should be an easy one to grab a few photos easily of it.

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Also scheduled for as early as February 8th, NASA's Artemis II will return with 4 astronauts to orbit the Moon for 10 full days.  According to NASA, "the Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft".  (Learn more about the mission here.)

This Is the Big One According to NASA - The Grand Planetary Alignment

Beginning on February 28, stargazers should be able to view at least 4 planets all aligned together with the naked eye.  But there are actually six that are all together.  NASA recommends that you use binoculars to catch the last two in the lineup:

Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter will appear shortly after sunset. Four of those planets will be visible to the unaided eye, weather permitting, but only those with optical assistance will be able to view Uranus and Neptune (Mercury can sometimes be harder to spot, too).

February skies will also feature the Ring of Fire Eclipse and the Centauroid Meteor Shower.  Unfortunately, those events will be limited to the southern hemisphere of Earth.  However, you can watch many of them through the NASA website in real time.