The new moon in the nether hours between Friday and Saturday leaves this weekend’s night skies clear for the annual Lyrid meteor shower, which peaks Saturday-Sunday.

This next week marks the last of this year’s Globe At Night citizen-science sessions, where ordinary folks like you and me lend an eye observing the night sky. This month’s target is the constellation Leo. Armed with a star chart downloaded from the group’s website, backyard astronomers count how many stars they can spot. You can submit results — from one or more locations — thru the 20th.

Friday’s full moon is commonly called the Grass Moon and the Egg Moon. As the first full moon following vernal equinox, this is also the Paschal Moon, used to pinpoint the dates of Passover and Easter.

As darkness settles, Venus and Jupiter blaze in the west, and with the moon absent there is no brighter objects visible. After drawing together for weeks, Venus has pulled ahead. At week’s end they are four degrees apart, and the distance grows by about a half-degree each night. Both planets are climbing higher into view, heading from Aries toward Taurus and the Pleiades star cluster.

As the sun dips toward the horizon, Venus and Jupiter appear high in the west. Venus, the brighter of the two, shines roughly five degrees below Jupiter at week’s end, but that gap is closing fast. They reach their nearest on Tuesday, shining side by side a mere three degrees apart. Visible for almost four hours after sunset, this is the best conjunction of Venus and Jupiter for years to come. After Tuesday, Venus pulls above Jupiter, appearing a little higher each night. Even so, the two remain close together through March.

This is a week for watching the planets. Mercury is emerging from the glow of twilight in its best appearance of the year. Higher above, Venus and Jupiter are drawing together on their way to an incredible conjunction. Mars reaches opposition and is at its largest and brightest for the year. Saturn’s there, too, a golden sentinel visible from 10pm until dawn.

The waxing crescent moon and Mercury appear low in the west-southwest after sunset Thursday. While the moon is easy to spot, Mercury is 10 degrees lower, buried amid twilight’s glow. Your chance to catch the innermost planet hinges between its own setting, around 6:45, and the sun’s glare, which doesn’t give way to full darkness until 7pm. Scanning the horizon with a pair of binoculars will help.

The waning crescent moon rises a few hours before dawn at week’s end, edging closer to the sun before reaching a new phase Tuesday. This week’s dark winter skies coincide with the Great Worldwide Star Count, going on this month through February 21. Sponsored by the GLOBE at Night Foundation, the goal is to enlist 15,000 “citizen scientists” to report their sightings from three constellations, Orion, Leo and Crux. Additional counts go on March 13-22 and April 11-20.

Sunset reveals the two brightest planets, Jupiter, almost overhead, and Venus, high in the southwest. Equipped with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you may be able to spot a third planet, distant Uranus, which appears near Venus.     The moon rises around 8pm Thursday, with ruddy Mars less than 10 degrees away. By 2am, now Wednesday morning, moon and Mars are high in the south, and with sunrise they are above the west horizon. Nearing its closest point to Earth in two years, Mars grows brighter night by night.

The first week of February marks a seasonal milestone, as the sun hovers midway between its southernmost point above the Tropic of Capricorn on winter solstice and its position above the equator on vernal equinox. If you think of the year as a compass with the equinoxes and solstices the four cardinal points, then this cross-quarter day — one of four — represent the ordinal points, dissecting our seasons.