Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd February 2026
How about starting with a bit of a challenge on the early evening of Wednesday 18th? If you look towards the west south west just as the Sun is setting at
Please remember that if you have brought your telescope out, you must never accidentally catch a glimpse of the actual Sun in the eyepiece. I talked about magnitudes last week. The Sun has a relative magnitude of around -26, which basically means that it is humongously bright and would instantly blind you, permanently!
Wait until it is properly dark, say
If you repeat the experiment at 7pm the following evening on Thursday 19th, Saturn and Neptune will appear in near-enough the same position towards the west, but they will now be joined by a 5%-lit crescent Moon because the Moon orbits around us and so its movement is completely different to the other planets of the Solar System that, like us, are orbiting around the Sun. You see different phases during the month as sunlight illuminates different parts of the Moon's surface.
www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2026
Yeovil Stroke Unit
Boundary Changes
Flooding
False Fire Alarms
Dog DNA
Mobile Phones in Vehicles
