What’s Up: February 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA - NASA Science

What’s Up: February 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA

A horizontal panoramic night photograph captures a cluster of jagged, porous limestone tufa towers rising dramatically from the dark, glass-like surface of a still lake. The formations are intricately detailed, with their pale, craggy textures reflected perfectly in the water below. Spanning across the deep indigo sky above the towers is the soft, elongated glow of the Andromeda Galaxy, appearing as a hazy, luminous smudge of light. The composition emphasizes the contrast between the ancient, earthbound geological structures in the foreground and the vast, distant beauty of the spiral galaxy in the high desert firmament.

NASA’s Artemis II mission has its first opportunity to launch to the moon, Orion the Hunter takes center stage, and a planetary parade marches across the night sky.