With each passing night as, the crescent slowly widens and it begins to appear against a progressively darker background, its entire globe can be glimpsed; the waxing crescent moon appearing as a thin arc of yellowish-white light enclosing a ghostly bluish-gray ball.

On Saturday 1 February, some of our BBC Weather Watchers reported these sightings of the crescent Moon and Venus close together. With the clearest skies in the south-east of the UK on Saturday, viewing conditions were ideal for planet spotting.

I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere).

February’s night sky gives us the bright trio of Mars, Jupiter and Venus, according to NASA skywatch experts. “Venus blazes at its brightest for the year after sunset, then Mars and Jupiter will rule the night amid the menagerie of bright winter stars,” the U.S. space agency said in its February blog, which gives a summary of sky events.

A remarkable sight will appear in the southwestern sky an hour after sunset Saturday evening when Venus appears very close to a thin crescent moon. This celestial phenomenon is called a conjunction, which means two or more heavenly bodies appear very close to each other.

I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also applies to northern hemisphere mid-northern latitudes).