February's 'super' new moon leaves the night sky nice and dark tonight

The new moon occurs Feb. 9 , at 17:59 p.m. EST ( 2259 GMT ) in New York , the same day Mars , Venus and Mercury form a line of planets in the predawn hours .

New moons are invisible unless the moon passes directly in front of the sun, producing a solar eclipse.

In a number of cultures notably Hebrew , Muslim and Chinese -- new moons are the beginnings of lunar months.

In mid-northern latitudes (as in New York ) Jupiter is high in the western half of the sky the evening of Feb. 9 , in the constellation Aries .

The Big Dipper will be rising in the northeast, with the "bowl" facing north (to the left) and the "handle" pointing towards the horizon.

By the time the sky gets dark the planet is almost too close to the horizon to readily observe.

There is no equivalent of Polaris in the southern skies; one can use Crux , the Southern Cross , to point in the direction of the Southern Celestial Pole .

Just below Crux is the constellation of Centaurus the Centaur , containing Alpha Centauri , our nearest stellar neighbor.

To find the pole, a good method is to draw an imaginary line through the center of Crux .