February 2027: Jupiter and Mars at opposition and a penumbral lunar eclipse

February at a glance

The full Moon of Feb 20 passes through Earth's faint outer shadow, a penumbral eclipse that the eastern and central US see in part as the Moon rises.

• Feb 1–7: the Winter Star Party in West Summerland Key, Florida, in the darkest week of the month.
• Feb 6: annular solar eclipse, visible from southern South America and West Africa but not from any part of the US.
• Feb 10, evening: Jupiter at opposition (7:21 p.m. EST, 4:21 p.m. PST).
• Feb 19: Mars at opposition, and closest to Earth that evening.
• Feb 20: penumbral lunar eclipse, greatest at 6:13 p.m. EST.
• Clocks: all times here are standard time. Daylight saving time doesn't start until March 14.

Jupiter at its best

At opposition a planet sits opposite the Sun in our sky: it rises around sunset, is up all night and is highest around midnight. Jupiter reaches that point at 00:21 UT on Feb 11, which is the evening of Feb 10 across the US. It shines at magnitude -2.5 in Leo, brighter than any star, and appears 44.2 arcseconds across.

In a 300 to 600 mm lens Jupiter is a small disk with its four largest moons lined up beside it as points of light. A telescope shows far more, but a telephoto on a solid tripod is enough to record the disk and the moons, and the weeks either side of opposition are almost as good.

Mars: bright, but small this time

Mars reaches opposition on Feb 19, also in Leo, at magnitude -1.2. It comes within 0.678 astronomical units of Earth, about 63 million miles. This is an aphelic opposition, with Mars near the far point of its orbit, so its disk is only 13.8 arcseconds across: under a third of Jupiter's, and far smaller than the 25.1 arcseconds of the close 2003 opposition. It stays above 6 arcseconds until about July.

In a telephoto lens Mars is a bright orange dot rather than a disk with markings; surface detail needs a telescope. Its color still makes it a strong element in a wide or medium frame. Because the full Moon sits opposite the Sun just as the two planets do, it passes through Leo near both of them around Feb 20. A planetarium app will show the exact spacing for your site.

The Feb 20 eclipse: who sees what

During a penumbral eclipse the Moon passes only through the outer, partial part of Earth's shadow. This one is deep for its type: the penumbral magnitude is 0.93, so nearly the whole Moon enters the penumbra, but no part reaches the dark central shadow. Expect a soft gray shading on one side of the Moon around greatest eclipse, not a red Moon. The eclipse runs from 21:12 to 01:13 UT, with greatest eclipse at 23:13 UT, about ten minutes before the exact full Moon.

A full Moon rises around sunset, so what you see depends on your time zone and where you are in it. Look up the moonrise time for your exact location.

• Eastern time: the eclipse runs from 4:12 to 8:13 p.m., greatest at 6:13 p.m. The Moon rises around greatest eclipse; the farther east you are, the more of the deeper phase you catch before the eclipse ends at 8:13 p.m.
• Central time: 3:12 to 7:13 p.m., greatest at 5:13 p.m. The Moon rises after greatest eclipse, so you see the later part as the shading fades.
• Mountain time, including Arizona: the eclipse ends at 6:13 p.m., close to moonrise, so there's little or nothing to see.
• Pacific time: it ends at 5:13 p.m., before the Moon rises, so it isn't visible. Alaska and Hawaii miss it as well.

Making a faint shadow show

• Use a telephoto, 200 to 600 mm, on a tripod, in full manual exposure. A sunlit full Moon is bright: start around ISO 100, f/8 and 1/250 second and check the histogram.
• Then leave the settings alone. Auto exposure brightens a dimmed Moon and hides exactly what you want to show.
• Shoot a frame every 5 to 10 minutes from moonrise to the end of the eclipse. Side by side, a fixed-exposure sequence shows the shading slide off the Moon.
• On the evening of Feb 21, shoot a reference frame with identical settings when the Moon is at a similar height. Next to it, your Feb 20 frames show the penumbral shading clearly.
• Near the horizon the air dims and reddens any Moon, eclipsed or not, so compare frames taken at similar heights.
• For a wide view, frame the rising Moon over a landscape, skyline or water to the east, with Mars and Jupiter nearby as the sky darkens.
• Phones: use a tripod, zoom to 3x or 5x, and lock exposure and focus on the Moon (tap and hold on most phones) so the camera doesn't brighten it.

Planet photography with a telephoto

• Use the longest lens you have. On a crop-sensor camera the same lens makes the planet larger in the frame, and a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter helps if it fits.
• Expose for the disk. Planets are sunlit and need short exposures: for Jupiter, start near ISO 400, f/6.3 and 1/200 second; Mars is brighter for its size and needs even less. Check by zooming in on the camera screen.
• For Jupiter's moons, take a second, longer frame that overexposes the disk, then blend the two if you like.
• Shoot when the planets are highest, around midnight near opposition, so you look through less air. Take dozens of frames and keep the sharpest, because the steadiness of the air, which forecasters call seeing, changes from second to second. The Clear Sky Chart forecasts seeing on a 1 to 5 scale.
• Use a remote release or the 2-second timer, and turn off image stabilization when the camera is on a tripod.

Where to watch, and a star party

For the planets you don't need a dark sky; a backyard works. For the eclipse, a clear, low eastern horizon matters most: an Atlantic beach, a lakeshore, a hilltop or an open field.

If you can travel early in the month, the Winter Star Party runs Feb 1 to 7 in West Summerland Key, in the Florida Keys, during the darkest week of the month. The Southern Cross Astronomical Society describes the site as Bortle 3, and registration is open until Feb 5. Its event page still showed some 2026 gate dates when we checked, so confirm the details with the organizers.

February nights are cold across much of the country. Keep spare batteries warm in an inside pocket, and check road conditions before driving to a remote site.

Share your Jupiter, Mars or eclipse sequence in the Astro photography hobby on Garbamons.