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.

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

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.

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.