Virgo is home to a large cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster. This Cluster contains over 2,000 individual galaxies, 11 of which are Messier objects that will be visible to anyone using a reasonable astronomy telescope. All these Messier objects are galaxies and the most notable of these is M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. This edge-on spiral galaxy has a dark dust lane running across its centre, giving it the appearance of a sombrero hat. Other notable galaxies are M49, M58 and M61. M49 is an elliptical galaxy and is the brightest galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, M58 is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy and one of the brighter galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and M61 is a face-on spiral galaxy that is one of the largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster.

Below Virgo is Corvus, the Crow. It is reasonably easy to find as it is a distinct, almost square set of stars right down on the horizon. Above Virgo, you will find Boötes (the Herdsman) and its brightest star, Arcturus. This star is easy to spot as it is the fourth brightest star in the night sky and has a noticeable golden tinge. It is part of the Spring Triangle asterism, which is formed by drawing lines from Arcturus to Spica, Spica to Regulus and Regulus back to Arcturus. Below and to the left of Virgo is Libra (the Scales), a very faint constellation with its main claim to fame being that it is the only constellation in the zodiac which doesn’t represent an animal.

We start the month with a waxing Moon that becomes 100% full Moon at precisely 6:34 pm on 5 May. This means that it will appear full on the nights of 4-5 May, 5-6 May, and 6-7 May. It will rise in the south-east at around 8:00 pm on 4 May, at around 9:30 pm on 5 May and shortly after 11:00 pm on 6 May.

The new Moon (no moon) is on 19 May. This means that a few of days before, on 16 and 17 May, you should see the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the east at sunrise, which will be about 4:30 am. Alternatively, a day later, on 20 May, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the western sky as the Sun sets. On the following evening, 21 May, a slightly thicker crescent Moon will be higher up in the western sky, sitting well below and to the right of Venus. The Moon will be higher still on 22 May, having moved to just below and to the right of Venus. On the following evening it will be between Mars and Venus.
 
We have a first quarter Moon (a half-moon) on 27 May, and you will find it high in the southern western sky, sitting beneath the constellation of Leo. Three nights before, on 24 May, it will be sitting just above and to the left of Mars.

Just like last month, you will see a brilliantly shining Venus in the western sky as darkness falls. Playing its part as the Evening Star, Venus doesn’t set until well after midnight and it will be shining far brighter that anything else in the night sky, except for the Moon. On 22 and 23 May, you will find it close to the Moon, while on the last few days of the month, it will be close to Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of Gemini.
 
You will find Mars high up in the western sky as darkness falls, well above and to the left of Venus, initially in Gemini, but moving to the left of this constellation as the month progresses to eventually find itself in the constellation of Cancer. It will be visible for a good part of the night, before setting at around 1:30 am and on 24 May, it will be very close to the Moon.
 
Once Mars has set, you will need to wait until around 3:30 am to see another planet because that is when Saturn will rise above the horizon. You will find it in the eastern morning sky, sitting in the constellation of Aquarius. The Moon will pass beneath it on 13 and 14 May.
 
Neptune will rise in the east at about 4:00 am, but it will be difficult to see it because this outermost planet is very faint and may be lost in the morning twilight.
 
Jupiter reappears in the morning sky from about the middle of the month. You will find it low down on the eastern horizon at daybreak, shining brightly in-between Pisces and Aries. A crescent Moon will be close to it on the morning of 17 May.
 
Uranus and Mercury are lost in the Sun’s glare this month.

The main meteor shower in May is the eta Aquariids, which is the result of small pieces of Halley’s Comet burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. This year it is active between 19 April and 28 May, with the forecast to peak being between midnight and dawn on the morning of May 6, making this the best time to look for them. However, as there is no sharp peak for this shower, but rather a plateau of good rates that lasts a few days, then same time on May 5 and on May 7 will also be best for watching for them. Unfortunately, there is a full Moon on 5 May, meaning that bright moonlight will drown out all but the brightest meteors on these three nights. Given this, it may not be worth staying up until the wee small hours of the morning to try and look for them.
 
If you do decide to try and do spot some, they will appear to emanate from the constellation of Aquarius (The Water Carrier) at a radiant point near the star Eta Aquarii, although you don’t need to look there to see meteors as they’ll appear across the whole night sky. Start looking for them shortly after 3:00 am because this is when the radiant point is above the horizon. Bear in mind that the higher the radiant point gets in the night sky, the greater the number of meteors you should see. Sunrise is at around 5:30 am, so this gives you an hour or so to spot them. At its peak, on a moonless night, around 10-20 meteors per hour may be spotted. 

As the days lengthen and the nights shorten there is still plenty to see in this month’s night sky. The winter constellations will gradually disappear beyond the western horizon as the spring constellations of Leo and Virgo dominate our southern sky. Also, after a gap of a few months, shooting stars return in the form of the Lyrids meteor shower, which peaks on the night of 22-23 April. 

This month, the sun sets around 8:30 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 10:00 pm onwards. So, once it is getting dark, look directly above your head and you’ll see the Plough, which is an asterism that is familiar to a lot of people. This makes it an excellent starting point from which to navigate your way around the southern night sky. 

Below and to the left of Leo is the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin), with its brightest star Spica sitting down towards the horizon.  In some cultures, Virgo is the "Wheat-Bearing Maiden" or the "Daughter of the Harvest” and is depicted holding several spears of wheat in each hand and Spica is one of the ears of grain hanging from her left hand. If you can’t find Spica, try going back up to the Plough and follow the curve of its handle down through the very bright star, Arcturus and then further on down to Spica, which will be low in the sky.

Below Virgo, you will see the small constellation of Corvus (The Crow), which ranks 70th in size among the 88 constellations in the night sky. The four brightest stars in this constellation form a square asterism known as the Sail, or the Spica’s Spanker, because two of the stars point the way to Spica. It is an ancient constellation that has been known since the time of the Babylonians. They saw it as a raven, and it was sacred to Adad, the god of rain and storm. To the ancient Greeks, it was a crow sent by Apollo to fetch water. The raven wasted his time eating figs. After returning late, Apollo punished him by throwing him into the heavens. He was also condemned to endure eternal thirst. This is why the crow caws instead of singing like other birds.
 
If you are at a location with little or no light pollution, you may be able to pick out Hydra (The Water Snake), which wriggles along the southern horizon and is the largest constellation in the night sky. Most of its stars are faint, but Alphard, its brightest star, is quite easy to find if you look below and to the right of Leo’s brightest star, Regulus. Alphard is from the Arabic for "the solitary one" as there are no other bright stars near it. You might also be able to pick out the head of the Water Snake. It is an almost square set of four stars about halfway between Regulus and Procyon, the brightest star in Canis Minor, which sits below Castor and Pollux.

This month’s full Moon is often called the Pink Moon because of the pink flowers – phlox – that bloom in early spring in North America. In other cultures, it is called the sprouting grass moon, the egg moon, and the fish moon.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 13 April and the new Moon (no moon) is on 20 April. This means that a few of days before, on 16 and 17 April, you should see the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the east around sunrise at about 6:00 am. Alternatively, a few days later, on 21 April, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the western sky as the Sun sets. On the following evening, 22 April, a slightly thicker crescent Moon will be higher up in the western sky, sitting below and to the right of Venus. The Moon will be higher still on 23 April, this time sitting just above and to the left of Venus.
 
We have a first quarter Moon (a half moon) on 27 April, and you will find it high in the southern western sky, sitting about halfway between the constellations of Gemini and Leo. A couple of nights before, on 25 April, it will be sitting just above and to the left of Mars.  

If, during February, you’ve been looking over to the western horizon as darkness falls, you will have spotted a brilliantly shining Venus getting higher in the sky. This month, the Evening Star doesn’t set until midnight, so it appears really bright against the pitch-black night sky. On 11 April, Venus passes to the left of the Pleiades while in the middle of the month, you will find it near Aldebaran and then on 22 and 23 April, you will find it close to the Moon.
 
Mercury will be just above the western horizon as darkness falls, but as it will be quite faint, it would be best looked for using binoculars or a telescope up to around 10:00 pm, which is when it sets. It will become fainter and fainter as the month progresses before finally disappearing in the brightness of the Sun during the third week of the month.
 
Uranus is sitting not that far from Mercury, but as it is much, much fainter, it will be very difficult to spot. It too will disappear into the dusk glow from the Sun during the second half of the month.
 
Mars is visible for a good part of the night, before setting at around 2:30 am. You will find it high up in the western sky, sitting in the constellation of Gemini. The Moon will be close to it on 25 April.
 
After disappearing for a month, Saturn returns, but this time in the morning sky. You’ll find it rising over in the east at around 5:00 am, moving upwards as the month progresses.
 
Jupiter and Neptune are lost in the Sun’s glare this month.

After several months without any major meteor showers, we have the Lyrid meteor shower this month. It starts on 15 April and reaches its peak on the night of 22-23 April, when its dust particles that originate from the comet Thatcher hit our atmosphere are expected to produce around 15-20 meteors per hour. However, a good number of meteors can usually be seen on the night before and the night after the peak. This year, the peak just two days after a new Moon, making it a great year for spotting shooting stars because the sky will remain dark pretty much all night.
 
The meteors will appear to emanate from the constellation of Lyra (The Lyre) at a radiant point near Vega, the constellation’s brightest star and the fifth brightest star in the night sky. You will find Vega over in the north-eastern night sky from 10:00 pm, although you don’t need to look there to see meteors as they’ll appear across the whole night sky. Start looking for them from about 10:00 pm as that is when the radiant point is above the horizon and bear in mind that the higher the radiant point gets in the night sky, the greater the number of meteors you should see.

This month, the sun sets around 6:30 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 8:30 pm onwards. If you look south, you will still see the winter constellations of Orion, Taurus, Auriga and Gemini which I described in the night sky guide for last month. When looking for them, do bear in mind that they will have moved a little bit to the west. Also, you will now be able to see some of the spring constellations coming into view, with the most significant of these being Leo, which will be high up in the south-east sky.

Looking North, the thing to bear in mind is that the constellations you see do not change from month to month, it is only their orientation that changes. You can find the seven stars of the Plough up in the north-east and you can use its two right-hand stars to find the Pole Star, Polaris, which is always in the same position in the sky. Just follow the line between them for about five times its length and you’ll arrive at it.

Once you’ve found Polaris, you can use it to get your bearings on any night but bear in mind that all the northern constellations rotate around it in an anticlockwise direction and therefore change their position. It is also worth noting that Polaris is not that bright, with it being about the same brightness as the stars of the Plough. Its significance comes from it being directly above our North Pole. It’s just by chance that this millennium it happens to be very close to the pole of the northern sky, but there is a slow movement of the sky over the centuries that shifts the position of the stars, and 1000 years ago it wasn’t as close as it is now.
 
The constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer) was pretty much overhead last month and is now starting to sink down towards the western horizon but it’s still high up. It’s in the shape of a pentagon, with Capella, one of the brightest stars in the sky, at its northern tip. Next to Capella is a triangle of three stars which, though much fainter, makes the whole constellation very recognisable. Below Auriga is the constellation of Perseus who, in Greek mythology, beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. Also, below Perseus, you may be able to pick out the W-shape of the constellation of Cassiopeia, so named after the vain queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty.

This month’s full Moon is referred to as the Worm Moon because of the earthworms that come out at the end of winter. It is also known as the Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sap Moon, Sugar Moon, and Chaste Moon. The Old English/Anglo-Saxon name is Lenten Moon.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 15 March and the new Moon (no moon) is on 21 March. This means that a few of days before, on 18 and 19 March, you should see the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the southeast around sunrise at about 6:30 am. Alternatively, a few of days later, on 22 March, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the western sky as the Sun sets with Jupiter just above it. On the following evening, 23 March, a slightly thicker crescent Moon will be higher up in the western sky, sitting about halfway between Jupiter and Venus. Jupiter will be below it and Venus will be above it. The Moon will be higher still on 24 March, this time sitting just above and to the left of Venus.
 
We have a first quarter Moon (a half moon) on 29 March, and you will find it high in the southern sky, sitting just below Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of Gemini. The night before, it will be sitting just above Mars.  

If, during February, you’ve been looking over to the western horizon as darkness falls, you will have spotted a brilliantly shining Venus and you may have noticed that it has been getting higher and moving closer to Jupiter as the nights pass. On 1 March, these two brightest planets will be in conjunction, when they will pass within 0.5 degrees (the width of a full Moon) of each other. That's equivalent to the width of your pinkie when held out at arm's length. Venus will dominate the scene because this Evening Star will be shining about 5 times brighter than the gas giant, Jupiter. Be sure to look for them before they drop below the horizon at around 8:30 pm. 
 
As the month progresses, Jupiter will reduce in brightness because it is moving closer to the Sun and by the month end, it will have dropped down into the twilight glow and will be lost from sight. Meanwhile, Venus will rise higher and higher into the darker part of the night-time sky, increasing in brightness as it does so and by the end of the month it will be above the horizon until around 11:00 pm.
 
Uranus is now well below and to the left of the Pleiades, about halfway between Taurus and Aries. It sets at around 1:30 am and you will need a telescope to spot it because it is very faint. By the end of the month, Venus will be sitting very close to it.
 
Mars is visible for a good part of the night, before setting at around 2:30 am. You will find it high up in the southern sky, above Orion and Taurus and, as the month progresses, it will be moving towards Gemini and getting dimmer as it does so. The Moon will be close to it on 27 and 28 March.
 
Mercury, Saturn and Neptune are lost in the Sun’s glare this month.

We in a quiet period for meteor showers and this lasts until 14 April, which is when the Lyrid meteor shower becomes active. It will peak on the night of 22-23 April and the best times to look for meteors will be from late evening on April 21 until dawn on April 22 and late evening on April 22 until dawn on April 23. It should be a good year for spotting them because the new Moon falls on 19 April, meaning that there will be no moonlight to spoil the show.

The Zodiac is an 8° wide band that straddles the ecliptic, the invisible path that the Sun traces as it moves around the sky and is the region of the sky where we can find the Sun, Moon and planets (except for Pluto). It is only 8° wide because most of the planets have orbits that are only slightly inclined to that of the Earth. The exception is Pluto, whose orbital inclination of 17° takes it out of the zodiac during part of its orbit.
 
At this time of year, the Zodiac rises steeply from the horizon at dusk, meaning now is great for looking out for and observing one of the night sky’s most elusive phenomena: zodiacal light. It appears as a triangular ghostly glow and occurs when the Sun is beneath the horizon and light from it is reflected off a fog of tiny interplanetary dust particles that fill our inner Solar System.
 
Fainter than the Milky Way, it’s so difficult to see and many astronomers have never witnessed it. However, if you go somewhere with little or no night pollution on a night when the moon is out of the sky and look west in the hour or two after sunset, you may be lucky enough to spot this faint pyramid of light rising from the horizon.
 
The best time to look for zodiacal light in the coming month will be on the days either side of the equinox (20 March) as this coincides with a New Moon, meaning that there will be no moonlight to drown it out. With Venus and Jupiter being low down in the west after sunset, they’ll be visible close to or in the zodiacal light. Shortly after that, on 23 and 24 March, a thin crescent Moon will also be sitting in the midst of this triangular beam of light.

​The Spring Equinox is when night and day are nearly exactly the same length (12 hours). It also marks the start of astronomical spring and when the days start to become longer than the nights and although it is referred to as a day by many people, it is actually the exact moment in time when the tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the Sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the Sun. For 2023, this will be at 9:24 pm on Monday 20 March.
 
The Spring Equinox also paves the way for increased chances to see aurora borealis displays. According to NASA, the equinoxes are prime time for Northern Lights, because the geomagnetic activity that causes them is more likely to take place in the spring and autumn than in the summer or winter. In addition, we tend to have more clear nights in spring and autumn so this, combined with more geomagnetic activity, may be the reason why I tend to have captured most of my Northern Light images in September/October and March/April. Finally, if you do want to catch a glimpse of the “Merry Dancers”, be sure to keep an eye out for “aurora alerts” on the web and on social media. Good sources for forecast and alerts are AuroraWatch UK, Glendale Skye Auroras and Aurora Research Scotland.

This month, the sun sets around 5:20 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 7:20 pm onwards. In addition, the night sky for this month is very similar to last month’s with Orion (the Hunter) Taurus (the Bull) and Auriga (the Charioteer) filling much of it. The most obvious constellation you’ll see as darkness falls is Orion, which can easily be found by spotting the line of three bright stars (Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka) that make up Orion’s Belt. If you look south not long after dark, you’ll see it appear along with the quadrilateral of other stars that surround it to make up Orion’s torso and legs. His shoulders are formed by Bellatrix to the right and the far brighter, blood-red Betelgeuse to the left. The slightly brighter, blue-white Rigel is Orion’s right foot, while the fainter Saiph is his left foot.
 
If you follow the line from the three stars of Orion’s belt upwards, you will find Taurus (the Bull). It appears to be charging at Orion, staring him down with a bright red eye, which is the giant red star Aldebaran. Continue to follow this line beyond the Bull’s eye and you will come to The Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, which is a cluster of young stars that glow blue. In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione. Merope, the youngest of the seven daughters, was wooed by Orion.
 
You will find Auriga (the Charioteer) directly above Orion. Its brightest star is Capella, which is at the top of a great pentagon of stars that make up the Charioteer’s pointed helmet. At this time of the year, Capella is almost overhead and there is a little group of three fainter stars just to one side of it. There are four other stars in the big pentagon making up the rest of the constellation.

Orion’s other dog, Canis Minor or the Lesser Dog, can be found directly to his left and its main star is Procyon, the 8th brightest star in the sky. Above Procyon are two stars, Castor and Pollux, which mark the heads of the Twins, Gemini. The bodies of the Twins are the two lines of stars which extend towards Orion.
 
Another thing you can see in the southern sky is the Winter Circle, a pattern of stars that is not a constellation. It’s made up of a lot of separate stars, in different constellations, so it’s what is called an asterism. It doesn’t form a perfect circle, but instead a hexagon that you can find if you start at Capella and move clockwise to Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, and Castor. In addition to the Winter Circle, Orion’s bright star Betelgeuse forms an equilateral triangle with the stars Sirius and Procyon. This what is called the Winter Triangle.
 
If you go back to Orion’s belt and look carefully about halfway down between it and the two stars that mark the Hunter’s left and right feet, you should be able to see a bright patch. This is the Orion Nebula, one of the brightest nebulae, or clouds of gas from which stars are born in the sky. One of many in our Milky Way galaxy, it lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth and is some 30 to 40 light-years in diameter. Look at it with binoculars or a telescope and you should see swirls of gas, though the darker and clearer the sky you have, the better. In it, you should also be able to pick out The Trapezium Cluster, which is made up of four bright stars that are only a million or so years old, babies on the scale of star lifetimes.

Looking north, the thing to bear in mind is that the constellations you see do not change from month to month, it is only their orientation that changes. Look for the seven stars of the Plough up in the north-east sky and the W-shape of Cassiopeia, which is high up in the north-west at this time of year.  The Plough is known as the Big Dipper in North America. Use its two right-hand stars to point towards the Pole Star, Polaris, which is always in the same position in the sky. Once you’ve found it, you can use it to get your bearings on any night because all the other northern constellations rotate around it in anticlockwise direction.
 
Polaris is a second-magnitude star with about the same brightness as the stars in the Plough or Cassiopeia, so don’t expect it to be particularly prominent. It’s just by chance that this millennium it happens to be very close to the pole of the sky because there is a slow movement of the sky over the centuries that shifts the position of the stars, and 1000 years ago it wasn’t as close to north as it is now.
 
As Capella is pretty much overhead you will also see it when you are looking north. It is the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega. You’ll find Arcturus over in the North-East. It is the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes (the Herdsman), the fourth-brightest in the night sky and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere. You’ll find Vega low down on the northern horizon. It is the brightest star on the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre), the fifth-brightest in the night sky, and the second-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere.

This month’s full Moon is called the Snow Moon after the snowy weather typically found in North America in February. Some North American tribes named it the Hunger Moon due to the scarcity of food sources during mid-winter, while other names are Storm Moon and Chaste Moon, but the last name is more common for the March Full Moon.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 13 February and the new Moon (no moon) is on 20 February. This means that a few of days before, on 16 and 17 February, you should see the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the southeast in the twilight hours just before sunrise. Similarly, a few of days later, on 22 February, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the southwest sky as darkness falls. Venus will be to its right and Jupiter will be to its left. The following day, on 23 February, a slightly thicker crescent Moon will be higher in the southwestern sky, sitting above and to the left of Jupiter and Venus.
 
We have a first quarter Moon (a half moon) on 27 February and you will find it high in the southern sky, above Orion and close to Mars and Aldebaran. The night before, it will be sitting just below the Pleiades.

If you look over to the southwestern horizon as darkness falls, you will spot a brilliantly shining Venus. It has been visible for the past month but is now a lot higher up and therefore easier to spot. This Evening Star is currently brighter than any of the stars and other planets in the night sky, so it will be the first thing you see as darkness falls.

As the days pass, Venus will move towards Jupiter and on 22 February, you will see both planets and a crescent moon all sitting very close together over in the southwest as darkness falls.

Neptune, the faint outermost planet can be found in the same part of the sky and on 15 February will be very close to Venus and visible through a telescope or binoculars.

Jupiter continues to reduce in brightness as the weeks pass but is still shining brighter that any of the stars. You’ll be able to see it quite easily in the southwestern sky before it sets at around 9:00 pm. As always, viewing this gas giant through binoculars or a telescope will allow you to see its famous rings and its biggest moons.

Mars is visible for a good part of the night, before setting at around 3:30 am. You will find it high up in the southern sky, above Orion and in the constellation of Taurus with Aldebaran below it and the Pleiades to its right. The Moon will be very close to it on 27 February.

Uranus is now well below and to the left of the Pleiades, about halfway between Taurus and Aries. It sets at around 1:30 am and you will need a telescope to spot it because it is very faint.

During the first few days of the month, you may be able to see Mercury over in the southeast. It rises at around 6:30 am, so you will have about hour to spot it before the Sun rises.

​Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), or the "Green Comet" was discovered last March by astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California. They calculated that it orbits the Sun every 50,000 years meaning that the last time it was visible from Earth was during the Stone Age.
 
It will pass closest to Earth on 1 and 2 February, when it shoots past our planet at a distance of 2.5 light minutes, or a mere 27 million miles.
 
Images taken of comet so far, show it as a fuzzy green ball in the sky with the green glow being due to UV radiation lighting up the gases streaming off the its surface.
 
Comets are unpredictable, so it's difficult to know exactly what to expect on 1 and 2 February. It isn't expected to form a tail that can be seen with the naked eye, but that may change.
 
If you decide to look for it, the morning hours on these two days will be better because the Moon will have set and no moonlight will be present to drown it out. You will find the comet in the northern sky, below and to the right of Polaris, but do keep in mind that it will only be as bright as the dimmest stars and that the light from it will be a fuzzy, diffuse spot. Also, it will help if you find it first by using binoculars and then look without them.
 
If you have difficulty spotting it, try on February 10 because the comet will be sitting very close to Mars and you can use this as a reference point to start with.

We in a quiet period for meteor showers and this lasts until 14 April, which is when the Lyrid meteor shower becomes active. It will peak on the night of 22-23 April and the best times to look for meteors will be from late evening on April 21 until dawn on April 22 and late evening on April 22 until dawn on April 23. It should be a good year for spotting them because the new Moon falls on 19 April, meaning that there will be no moonlight to spoil the show.

This month, the sun sets around 4:15 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 6:15 pm onwards. As darkness falls, the most obvious constellation you’ll see is Orion (The Hunter), with its three bright stars in a line, surrounded by a quadrilateral of other stars. You see it rising in the east not long after dark and by 10:00 pm it will be up there in the centre of the southern sky. As it is the brightest constellation in the sky, you’ll be able to see it even when there is a bright moon or some light pollution.

You will find Auriga (the Charioteer) directly above Orion. Its brightest star is Capella and it is at the top of a great pentagon of stars that make up the Charioteer’s pointed helmet. At this time of the year, Capella is almost overhead and there is a little group of three fainter stars just to one side of it. The four other stars that complete the pentagon and make up the rest of the constellation can be found by moving in a clockwise direction down from Capella, round to the left and back up again.

If you follow the line of Orion’s belt heading left and slightly down, you will find Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. It is in Canis Major, the Greater Dog, a constellation that and appears very low down at our northern latitude. This can cause it to twinkle quite strongly, especially on a clear frosty night.

Canis Major is just one of Orion’s dogs. The other, Canis Minor or the Lesser Dog, can be found directly to his left and its main star is Procyon, the 8th brightest star in the sky. Above Procyon are two stars, Castor and Pollux, which mark the heads of the Twins, Gemini. The bodies of the Twins are the two lines of stars which extend towards Orion.

Another thing you can see in the southern sky is the Winter Circle, a pattern of stars that is not a constellation. It’s made up of a lot of separate stars, in different constellations, so it’s what is called an asterism. It doesn’t form a perfect circle, but instead a hexagon that you can find if you start at Capella and move clockwise to Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, and Castor. In addition to the Winter Circle, Orion’s bright star Betelgeuse forms an equilateral triangle with the stars Sirius and Procyon. This what is called the Winter Triangle.

If you go back to Orion’s belt and look carefully about halfway down between it and the two stars that mark the Hunter’s left and right feet, you should be able to see a bright patch. This is the Orion Nebula, one of the brightest nebulae, or clouds of gas from which stars are born in the sky. One of many in our Milky Way galaxy, it lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth and is some 30 to 40 light-years in diameter. Look at it with binoculars or a telescope and you should see swirls of gas, though the darker and clearer the sky you have, the better you will see this. In it, you should also be able to pick out The Trapezium Cluster, which is made up of four bright stars that are only a million or so years old, babies on the scale of star lifetimes.
 
Looking North, the thing to bear in mind is that the constellations you see do not change from month to month, it is only their orientation that changes. Look for the seven stars of the Plough, up in the north-east, and the W-shape of Cassiopeia, high up in the north-west at this time of year.  The Plough is known as the Big Dipper in North America. Use its two top stars to draw a line left (west) towards the Pole Star, Polaris, which is always in the same position in the sky. Once you’ve found Polaris, you can use it to get your bearings on any night, as all the other northern constellations wheel around in an anticlockwise direction as the months pass.
 
Polaris is a second-magnitude star, about the same as the stars in the Plough or Cassiopeia, so don’t expect anything particularly bright. It’s just by chance that this millennium it happens to be very close to the north pole of the sky. There is a slow movement of the sky over the centuries, and this shifts the position of the stars, so 1000 years ago it wasn’t as close to the pole as it is now.

This month’s full Moon is called the Wolf Moon, after the howling of hungry wolves lamenting the scarcity of food in midwinter and other names include the Moon After Yule, Old Moon, Ice Moon, and Snow Moon. It becomes 100% full at precisely 11:08 pm on 6 January meaning that it will appear full on the nights of 5-6 January, 6-7 January, and 7-8 January. It will rise in the northeast at around 3:00 pm on 5 January, at around after 3:30 pm on 6 January and at about 4:15 pm on 7 January. 

The last quarter Moon is on 15 January and the new Moon (no moon) is on 21 January so a couple of days before on 18 and 19 January you should see the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting low in the southeast in the twilight hours before sunrise. Similarly, a few of days later, on 23 January, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent Moons sitting close to the southwest horizon as darkness falls, with Venus and Saturn a little to its right. The following day, on 24 January, a slightly thicker crescent Moon will be higher in the southwestern sky with Venus and Saturn down to its right and Jupiter up to its left. It will move closer to Jupiter on 25 January and past Jupiter on 26 January.

We have a first quarter Moon (a half moon) on 28 January and a couple of days later, on 30 January, it will be very close to Mars, Aldebaran, and the Pleiades. 

If you look over to the southwestern horizon as darkness falls, you will spot a brilliantly shining Venus. From now on, the Evening Star is brighter than any of the stars and other planets in the night sky and it will be present in the dusk sky until July.
 
As the days pass, Venus will be moving towards a still reasonably bright Saturn. On 22 January, you will see them at their closest grouping if you look over to the southwestern horizon after sunset. A day later, on 23 January, this grouping will be joined by a crescent Moon.
 
Jupiter, although reducing in brightness as the weeks pass, is still shining reasonably brightly and can be seen high up in the southern sky as darkness falls. It sets in the southwest at around 10:00 pm and if you look at it through binoculars or a telescope before then, you be able to see its famous rings and its biggest moons. The largest moon, Titan, is enormous. In fact, it’s 40% more massive than the planet Mercury and 80% more massive than our own moon.
 
Mars is visible for most of the night long, setting at around 5:00 am. You will find it high up in the eastern sky as darkness falls and you can follow it on its journey across to the north-western horizon, with Aldebaran to its lower left and the Pleiades to its lower right.
 
You’ll find Uranus below and to the left of the Pleiades, about halfway between Taurus and Aries. It sets at around 2:30 am and you will need a telescope to spot it as it is quite faint.
 
Neptune is fainter still and sets at about 9:30 pm. Look for it through a telescope about a quarter of the way along the line going from Jupiter to Saturn.
 
Mercury is moving further away from the Sun’s glare, reaching greatest separation on 30 January. This makes now a good time to look for this innermost planet and you’ll find low in the southeast before sunrise from about the middle of the month

The Quadrantid meteor shower, always the year’s first meteor shower, will peak on the night of 3-4 January. Unfortunately, this most prolific of meteor shows will be spoilt by bright moonlight because the full Moon is only 3 nights later, on 6 January. 

If you do decide to try and spot one of its 100 meteors per hour, then the best time is probably in the hour or so of true darkness that occurs after the Moon has set early on the morning of 4 January. You’ll find its radiant point in the north sky, directly below The Plough, but do bear in mind that you don’t have to look north as the meteors will appear across all the sky.

This month the sun sets around 4:00 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 6:00 pm. As with November, there is a great signpost in the form of the Square of Pegasus to help you find your way around the sky. It is a huge square made up of four stars of nearly equal brightness: Scheat, Alpheratz, Markab and Algenib and you should be able to see it high up in the south, above Jupiter in the early evening sky.
 
The top left star of the Square is Alpheratz. It is the brightest star in the constellation of Andromeda, which is marked by a line of three more stars running up and to the left of it. You can use this line to find the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the most famous features of the night sky and the nearest spiral galaxy to our own, the Milky Way. The best way to find it is to start Alpheratz and go a further two stars along the line, turn right and count another two faint stars along, and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) will be close to the second faint star. If you are in a town, you’ll probably need a pair of binoculars to spot it, but if you’re in a dark place out in the country, you should be able to pick it out without using binoculars. 

There will be more about Taurus and Orion next month, but for the moment, draw a line using the three stars in Orion's belt and follow it through Aldebaran and you’ll find the Pleiades star cluster (M45) a bit beyond it. This cluster is the brightest open constellation we can see in the night sky and is a grouping of stars, seven of which are visible to the naked eye, but the entire constellation has more than 1,400 stars. The name comes from the early Greeks who referred to the constellation as the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, who were daughters of Atlas and Pleione. These stars are mentioned three times in the Bible and are linked to origin stories for many American Indian tribes.

If you look north, you’ll see the same stars as you would in any other month, but their orientation varies from month to month. In December the familiar Plough asterism, which many people recognise, is moving from the north to the north-east. If you follow its two right-hand stars upward, veer a little bit to the right and you’ll find Polaris, the Pole Star. If you look high up over to the north-east, you can see Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars in the Constellation of Gemini (the Twins), which represent the heads of The Twins. Meanwhile, low down in the North-West, you will find Vega, the brightest star in the Constellation of Lyra (the Lyre). It is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus.

This month’s full Moon is called the Cold Moon because December is the first month of winter. Its Old English/Anglo-Saxon name is the Moon Before Yule, while another name for it is the Wolf Moon, however, this is more commonly used for January’s Full Moon.

Also, on the nights of 7-8 December and 8-9 December, the Moon will be very close to Mars. In fact, on the first of these two nights the Moon will pass in front of Mars and create a lunar occultation that will be visible from parts of the Americas, Europe and Northern Africa. You will need to be up early on 8 December to see it because it will begin at about 4:55 am when Mars disappears behind the Moon and will end at about 5:55 am when the Red Planet emerges from behind the Moon.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 16 December and the new Moon (no moon) is on 23 December so a couple of days later, on the evenings of 25 and 26 December, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent moons sitting close to the southwest horizon as darkness falls. On 25 December, this crescent Moon will be near Mercury and Venus and on 26 December, it will be below and to the right of Saturn.
 
We have a first quarter Moon (a half moon) on 30 December and the day before, on 29 December, you will find it over in the southeast darkness falls when it will be sitting below and to the left of Jupiter. 

Jupiter, the mighty gas giant, is now dimming as it continues to travel away from Earth. It has now moved from the brightest to the second brightest planet in the night sky, with Venus being the brightest. You will find it over in the southeast as darkness falls and it will stay above the horizon until it sets in the west at around midnight. If you look at it through binoculars or a telescope, you will see some tiny starry objects on either side of it. These are its brightest and largest moons. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and are known as the Galilean moons. If you watch them on different nights, you will notice that they change position as they circle the mighty gas giant planet.
 
Saturn is below and well over to the right of Jupiter, sitting in the southern night sky as darkness falls and shining a lot less brightly. It sets in the southwest at around 8:00 pm but if you look at it through binoculars or a telescope before then, you be able to see its famous rings and its biggest moons. The largest moon, Titan, is enormous. In fact, it’s 40% more massive than the planet Mercury and 80% more massive than our own moon.
 
Not too far below and to the right of Jupiter, lies Neptune. However, this most distant planet will be very faint, so you will need a telescope to see it. It sets at about 11:30 pm.
 
You’ll find Uranus well over to the left of Jupiter and to the right of Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus the Bull. It was at its closest to Earth on 9 November and is now moving away and becoming very dim as it does so. For this reason, it will be difficult to see, even with binoculars or a telescope.
 
Mars is visible all night long, appearing low down in the northeast sky as darkness falls. On 1 December, it will be at its closest to Earth since October 2020, reaching its maximum brightness then to become almost as bright as Jupiter.
 
However, the big event is on the morning of 8 December, when Mars reaches opposition at 4:24 am, just 16 minutes after the full Moon, so the Sun, the Earth, The Moon, and Mars will be almost exactly in line at that point in time. Shortly after, at about 4:55 am, the Moon will move right in front of Mars to create a rare lunar occultation and hide the Moon from view until about 5:55 am when the Red Planet will reappear (these times are approximate as the exact time will vary according to your location). This will be the first lunar occultation of Mars visible from the British Isles since 1952 and the next one won’t occur until 2052. If you decide to watch it, you'll easily spot it above the noticeable constellation of Orion the Hunter.
 
Finally, towards the end of the month, Venus begins another long reign as the Evening Star, appearing low in the southwest not long after sunset, before setting at around 5:30 pm. You’ll find Mercury to the upper left of Venus, but it will be very difficult to see as it will be 20 times fainter and lost in the Sun’s glare.

December is the month for viewing the shooting stars of the Geminids Meteor Shower. Unusually, they are not debris from a comet, but rather debris from an asteroid called Phaethon. The Geminids have become more plentiful in recent years and are considered by many to be the best meteor shower of the year. They are active from 4-17 December and during their peak, which this year is at about 1:00 pm on 14 December, it can be possible to see around 120 meteors per hour.
 
Their radiant point is in the north-east sky, in the Constellation of Gemini (The Twins) and close to Castor, one of its two bright stars. Although this is where they originate from, you’ll be able to see them at any point across the sky as they burn up in the upper atmosphere, some 60 miles (100 km) above Earth’s surface.
 
The best time to look for them is normally when the radiant point is at its highest in the sky, which will be at around 2:30 am. Unfortunately, a fairly bright waning gibbous Moon will rise at about 8:45 pm on December 13 to illuminate the sky and possibly drown out many of the shooting stars. It may be better to wait a day and watch for them on December 14 because the Moon will rise later, at just before 10:00 pm, and give you an additional hour without bright moonlight.

This year, the Winter Solstice will occur on 21 December at 9:47 pm and is the exact moment when the northern hemisphere is tilted furthest away from the Sun. However, many people refer to the Winter Solstice as the Shortest Day of the year, when the number of hours of daylight are at their minimum and the number of hours of night are at their maximum. On 21 December this year, our sunrise will be 8:55 am and our sunset will be 3:47 pm, giving us 6 hours and 52 minutes of daylight.

Following the clock change at end of last month, the sun now sets not long after 4:00 pm, meaning that the stars and constellations start to become visible from about 5:30 pm onwards. During the previous three months we have been watching the Milky Way get lower and lower in the southern night sky and you may have noticed the constellations in the south getting dimmer. This is because the position of the Earth is now such that we are looking out of the plane of our galaxy and into the rest of the universe. 

The Milky Way has not gone altogether, and you can see it over in the west along with the Summer Triangle of the three bright stars of Vega, Altair and Deneb, which we have been using to navigate our way around the night sky in previous months. However, it is now better to use the Great Square of Pegasus, a large square asterism made up of 4 stars of nearly equal brightness which you can find high up in the southern night sky. The four stars are Scheat, Alpheratz, Markab and Algenib and you will need to look carefully to find them as they are all of second magnitude, so they aren’t the brightest. 

If you follow the diagonal down from the top left of the Square to beyond its bottom right star, you’ll come to a faint group of stars known as the Water Jar of Aquarius. It is an asterism formed by four relatively bright stars in the constellation of Aquarius (the Water-Carrier). It is easily recognised by its arrow shape, which looks a bit like a fighter plane with swept wings.  Though it’s not the brightest part of Aquarius, it’s a good pattern that helps you to find its other stars.
 
A line of stars in the constellation of Andromeda stretches from the top left edge of the Square a constellation that is named after the daughter of Cassiopeia who, in the Greek myth, was chained to a rock to be eaten by the sea monster Cetus but was saved from death by Perseus. The constellation is the home of the Andromeda Galaxy which, at approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth, is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It is also the most distant object that you are likely to see without an optical aid. However, if you can’t find it with the naked eye, use binoculars to look for a little oval blur.
 
Below Andromeda and to the left of Pegasus is where you will find the constellation of Pisces (the Fishes). It is very faint and difficult to see, so the best way to find it is to look directly below the Square of Pegasus for the Circlet of Pisces, which is a pentagonal asterism of 5 stars that marks the head of the Western Fish. Once you’ve found it, go on from there to catch the Eastern Fish which is jumping upward to the east of the Square of Pegasus. The entire constellation looks like the letter V.

Below Pisces is the constellation of Cetus, the Sea Monster which in Greek mythology both Perseus and Heracles needed to slay. You’ll find its tail marked by a fairly bright star called Diphda located low down in the sky, which is almost directly below the left-hand edge of the Square of Pegasus, while further over to the left and up a little, you’ll find Menkar, a reasonably bright star that marks its head.
 
You may have noticed that all the constellations in this part of the sky have watery connections. It is said that this is because the Sun travelled through these constellations during the wet season in ancient Mesopotamia, which was from November to March, and flooding was a major problem. The naming of many of our constellations dates from that location and time.
 
Finally, to the east of the Square is Aries, the Ram, whose three main stars form an easily recognised triangle. You’ll find another more regular triangle close to this one which is actually called Tringulum, the Triangle. It contains the nearby galaxy M33, which will be visible with binoculars if you have a reasonably dark sky.
 
If you look north, you’ll see the same stars as you would in any other month, except that their orientation varies. This month the familiar Plough asterism, which many people will recognise, is low down in the north at the moment with its rectangular end almost directly below Polaris, the Pole Star. If you look over to the north-east you can see Capella. It is a yellow giant star, the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer), the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega.

We have a first quarter Moon (a half moon) on 1 November, and you will find it sitting below and to the right of Saturn over in the southeast darkness falls, while three days later, on 4 November, the Moon will be below and to the right of Jupiter.

This month’s full Moon is called the Beaver Moon. There is disagreement over the origin this name with some saying that it comes from Native Americans setting beaver traps during this month, while others say it comes from the heavy activity of beavers building their winter dams. It is also known as the Frosty Moon, and along with December’s Full Moon, some called it the Oak Moon. Traditionally, if the Beaver Moon is the last Full Moon before the winter solstice, it is also called the Mourning Moon.
 
There is a total eclipse of the Moon on 8 November, but this will not be visible from the British Isles as it starts just after the Moon has set. It will, however, be visible from North America and the Pacific.
 
On 10 and 11 November, the Moon will spend the night traversing the sky near Mars and on 13 November, it will be next to Castor and Pollux.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 16 November and the new Moon (no moon) is on 23 November and a couple of days later in the evenings of 26 and 27 November, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent moons sitting close to south to southwest horizon as darkness falls.

Although it is past its closest point to Earth, Jupiter is still the brightest object that you’ll see in the night sky this month (apart from the Moon), so it will be the first thing that you will see as darkness falls. You will find it over in the southeast and it will stay above the horizon until it sets in the west at around 2:00 am. If you look at it through binoculars or a telescope, you will see some tiny starry objects on either side of it. These are its brightest and largest moons. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and are known as the Galilean moons. If you watch them on different nights, you will notice that they change position as they circle the mighty gas giant planet.
 
Saturn is well over to the lower right of Jupiter, sitting in the southern night sky as darkness falls and shining a lot less brightly. It sets in the southwest at around 10:00 pm and if you look at it through binoculars or a telescope that magnify by about 40 or 50 times, you be able to see its famous rings and its biggest moons. The largest moon, Titan, is enormous. In fact, it’s 40% more massive than the planet Mercury and 80% more massive than our own moon.
 
Not too far to the right of Jupiter, lies Neptune. However, this most distant planet will be very faint, so you will need a telescope to see it. It sets at about 1:30 am.
 
You’ll find Uranus well over to the left of Jupiter and to the right of Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus the Bull. It is at its closest to Earth on 9 November, but even then, it will not be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. However, you may be able to see it with binoculars or a telescope.
 
Mars rises in the northeast at about 5:30 pm and will spend the night traversing the sky from east to west. Its brightness will almost double during November and it moves closer to reaching its opposition on 8 December. This when it Earth will fly between Mars and the Sun for the first time in about 2 years, casting a shadow over the Red Planet and causing it to shine at its brightest. You'll easily spot it above the noticeable constellation of Orion the Hunter.
 
At the moment, Mercury and Venus are too close to the Sun to be seen.

During the first part of the month, the South and North Taurid meteor showers are very noticeable. Unlike other meteor showers, they don’t have strong peaks but instead have “staying power” and produce a steady stream of meteors over a number of weeks. The South Taurids are active from about 23 September to 12 November, while the North Taurids are active from about 13 October to 2 December.
 
These showers produce about 5 meteors/hour each and because they overlap up until the 12 November, you can expect to see up to 10 meteors/hour during the first 2 weeks of the month. However, the best nights to look for them will be right at the start of the month, before the ever-increasing light from a waxing Moon drowns them out before it becomes 100% full on 8 November. The showers’ radiant points, the part of the sky from which the meteors originate, rise in early evening and are at their highest in the sky around midnight, so this will be the best time on these nights to look for them.
 
We also have the Leonid meteor shower this month and it is known for periodic storms of historic proportions, when shooting stars fall like rain. While no storm is predicted for the 2022 Leonids, you can still catch plenty of meteors between 3 November and 2 December.
 
This meteor shower peaks the morning of 17 November, a day after the last quarter Moon, so look for them before the Moon rises at around midnight. This is also when the shower’s radiant rises, so there will only be a narrow window of darkness before moonlight will brighten the sky and wash out many of them. 

This month, the sun sets around 6:30 pm and the stars and the constellations start to become visible from about 8:00 pm onwards. Even though we are now into Autumn, the Summer Triangle, which is made up of the three bright stars of Vega, Altair and Deneb, is still visible and can be used to navigate your way around the night sky. Start off by finding Vega, a really bright white star which will be high up in the sky to the South-West. Just face south, look up, then look right and you will find it. Next is Altair, which you will find below Vega, halfway down towards the horizon and slightly to the left. Finally, there is Deneb, which will be almost directly above Altair and above and to the left of Vega.

The Milky Way, which has dominated the night sky over the last couple of months can still be seen during the early part of the night. Just trace a line down from Deneb, through Altair and you should be able to make out its band of stars as it flows down to the horizon, with the last of its cloudy core visible and to the right of Saturn as it sits above the southern horizon.

At the moment there are not many bright stars in the lower part of the southern sky, so if you are in an area with light-pollution, look higher up and you should be able to pick out some constellations. Below Vega, you will see the 4 other main stars that make up the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre). These form a small parallelogram and make up the body of the Lyre – the sky’s only musical instrument. 

Finally, looking at Altair, you will find the constellation of Aquila (the Eagle) because Altair is its brightest star. Altair also has outstretched wings, though they are not as obvious at the wings of Cygnus. In between these two flying birds is the constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow), a dim but distinctive shape which is reasonably easy to pick out. Another small but easily seen constellation called Delphinus (the Dolphin) is nearby and it also looks like what it’s meant to be. 
 
If you look high up and over to the South-East, you’ll find the Square of Pegasus sitting above a very bright shining Jupiter. This asterism is made up of 4 stars of nearly equal brightness in a large square pattern and the stars are Scheat, Alpheratz, Markab and Algenib. The constellation of Pegasus represents the Flying Horse of Greek mythology and the Square marks the horse’s body. You may find it difficult to make out the horse because it is upside down and the constellation represents only the top half of its body and its head. However, you may be able to pick out Enif, the constellation’s brightest star which will be about halfway between the bottom right of the Square and Altair. Enif is an orange supergiant star that is 5,000 times brighter than the Sun and it represents the horse’s nose.

If you look north, you’ll see the same stars as you would in any other month, but their orientation varies from month to month. In October the familiar Plough asterism, which many people will recognise, is moving from the north-west to the north. Follow its two right-hand stars upward, veer a little bit to the right and you’ll find Polaris, the Pole Star. If you look over to the north-east you can see Capella. It is a yellow giant star, the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer), the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, and the third-brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere after Arcturus and Vega.

At the very start of the month the Moon is a crescent in the south-west after sunset because a new Moon was on 25 September. The first quarter Moon (a half moon) follows on 3 October. On 5 October, you will find it sitting just below Saturn over in the southeast darkness falls.

This full Moon is called the Hunter’s Moon because traditionally, people in the Northern Hemisphere spent the month of October preparing for the coming winter by hunting, slaughtering and preserving meats for use as food. Like the last month’s Harvest Moon, the Hunter's Moon is also particularly bright and long in the sky, giving hunters the opportunity to stalk prey at night. Other names include the travel moon and the dying grass moon.

​On 12 October the Moon will be near the Pleiades while on 13 October it will be near Aldebaran. On 14 October you will find it sitting above Mars from around 9:00 pm as this is when they both will have risen above the north-eastern horizon.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 17 October, when you will see it traversing the night sky just below and to the left of Castor and Pollux, the two bright stars in Gemini.
 
There is a new Moon (no moon) on 25 October and a few days later in the evenings of 28 and 29 October, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent moons sitting close to south to southwest horizon as darkness falls.

This month, the first planet you will see as darkness falls will be Jupiter. It was at its opposition and closest point to Earth for this year on 26 September. This means that it is shining very brightly at the moment and will be the first thing you see in the night sky as darkness falls. You will find it over in the east to southeast and, if you look at it through binoculars or a telescope, you will see some tiny starry objects on either side of it. These are its brightest and largest moons. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and are known as the Galilean moons. If you watch them on different nights, you will notice that they change position as they circle the mighty gas giant planet.
 
Saturn is well over to the right of Jupiter, sitting in the southern night sky and shining a lot less brightly. However, if you look at it with binoculars or a telescope that magnify by about 40 or 50 times, you be able to see its famous rings and its biggest moons. The largest moon, Titan, is enormous. In fact, it’s 40% more massive than the planet Mercury and 80% more massive than our own moon.
 
Not too far to the right of Jupiter, lies Neptune. However, this most distant planet will be very faint, so you will need a telescope to see it.
 
Uranus rises at about 7:00 pm in the northeast and you may be able to see it with the naked eye. However, you will stand a much better chance of seeing it with binoculars or a telescope.
 
Mars rises in the northeast at about 9:00 pm and will spend the night traversing the sky between the horns of Taurus (the Bull), which are to the left of Aldebaran, the red eye of the Bull. Given their proximity, you could look at them both through a telescope and see how their red hues compare.
 
At the moment, Mercury and Venus are too close to the Sun to be seen.

The Orionid meteors fly each year between about October 2 to November 7 and are caused by debris from Halley’s Comet smashing into the Earth’s atmosphere. You can spot them from the start of the month, but you can see the greatest number at meteor shower’s peak on the night of 21-22 October.
 
In a good year, with little or no Moon, you can expect to see about 10-20 meteors/hour at the peak. This will be the case this year because there will be a new Moon, i.e. no Moon on 25 October, meaning that there will be little or no moonlight on the night of the Orionids peak to spoil the show. If you decide to look for meteors then, wait until after 10:00 pm because that’s when their radiant point (the area of the sky where the meteors seem to originate) is above the horizon. You will find it to the top left of Orion as it rises in the east.
 
When watching for the meteors, give yourself at least an hour of observing time, because they will come in spurts, interspersed with lulls. Also remember that your eyes can take as long as 20 minutes to adapt to the darkness of night, so don’t rush the process. Patience is the key to maximising your chances of spotting some.
 
Instead of the Orionids, you could watch for the Draconid meteors at nightfall and early evening on October 8, but this year the Moon will be almost full then, meaning that the moonlight will drown out all but the brightest of the shooting stars. If you do decide to look, you’ll find the radiant point for the Draconid meteor shower a little bit to the right of Vega and right next to the head of the constellation Draco the Dragon.
 
The Draconid shower is a real oddity, in that the radiant point stands highest in the sky as darkness falls. That means that unlike many meteor showers, more Draconids are likely to fly in the evening hours than in the morning hours after midnight. Also, this shower is known as “a Sleeper” because in most years it produces only a handful of meteors per hour. However, do look out for them because the Draconids’ unpredictable nature, as seen in both 1933 and 1946, means that you could enjoy thousands of meteors in only one hour.

​On the morning of the 25th of October 2022, a partial solar eclipse will be visible from the United Kingdom and across most of Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and western Asia.
 
A partial solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun when viewed from Earth. Your location depends on how much of the Moon will visibly block the Sun. For example, in North-East Scotland, approximately 35% of the Sun will be covered, dropping to less than 20% in Southern England.
 
It will be visible in the UK from approximately 10:00 am to 11:50 am and the time of the maximum eclipse, where the Moon covers most of the Sun, will be approximately 10:57 am, with the times varying by a minute or so, depending on how far north or south you are.
 
As the Moon will not fully cover the Sun (in which case it would be a total solar eclipse), the Sun will be incredibly bright and could cause damage to eyesight if viewed without precaution. Therefore, you will require visual aid to see this event safely, for example, a pair of eclipse glasses or a telescope fitted with a white light filter.

​This month the sun sets around 8:00 pm and the stars and the constellations become visible from about 9:00 pm onwards. As with July and August, the best way to navigate your way around the night sky is to use the Summer Triangle, which is made up of the three bright stars of Vega, Altair and Deneb. Start off by finding Vega, a really bright white star, which will be directly overhead. Next is Altair, which you will find halfway between Vega and the southern horizon. Finally, there is Deneb, which will be almost directly above Altair and across from Vega.

Next, look at Deneb, which marks the top of the Northern Cross, or the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), which flies down the Milky Way with its wings outstretched. Deneb marks the tail of the Swan and Albireo, a fairly faint star at the bottom of the constellation, marks its head. If you have a telescope, or even powerful binoculars, take a look at Albireo and you’ll see that it’s a double star of contrasting colours. Typically, people see them as yellow and blue, or more accurately yellowish and bluish.
 
Finally, looking at Altair, which you will find the constellation of Aquila (the Eagle) because Altair is its brightest star. Altair also has outstretched wings, though they are not as obvious at the wings of Cygnus, and in Greek mythology, Aquila is identified as the eagle that carried Zeus’ thunderbolts and was once dispatched by the god to carry Ganymede, the young Trojan boy Zeus desired, to Olympus to be the cup bearer of the gods. In between these two flying birds is the constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow), a dim but distinctive shape which is reasonably easy to pick out. Another small but easily seen constellation called Delphinus (the Dolphin) is nearby and it also looks like what it’s meant to be.

The two better-known constellations of Capricornus and Aquarius are below Delphinus in the lower part of the sky. They are well known because they are in the Zodiac, the path of the planets but, as they have no very bright stars, you might not be able to pick them out.  Capricornus is the Water-Goat and Aquarius is a human, the Water-Carrier.
 
As with August, September is a good month to view the Milky Way. If you trace a line down from Deneb and through Altair, you should be able to make out the Milky Way’s cloudy core well to the right of Saturn, which you’ll find shining bright low down in the southern sky. The cloudy core will be visible up until about 10:00 pm. When you look at the Milky Way, you’ll notice a black band running down it’s middle, between the stars. William Herschel, the first astronomer to map our Galaxy, thought that this was a hole in space, but it is actually a dark swathe of sooty dust, known as the Great Rift in Cygnus which runs along the disc of our Galaxy. ​

​If you look north, you’ll see the same stars as you would in any other month, but their orientation varies from month to month. By September the familiar Plough asterism, which many people recognise, is down over to the north-west. Follow its two right-hand stars upward, veer a little bit to the right and you’ll find Polaris, the Pole Star. If you look over to the north-east you can see Capella. Contrast its colour with that of Vega which is virtually overhead at this time of year. Capella is a yellow giant star, while Vega is a slightly bluer star than the Sun. The contrast is obvious if you look from one to the other.

The first quarter Moon (a half moon) will be on 3 September. You will find it above the southern horizon as darkness falls and it will dip below the southwestern horizon at around 11:00 pm.

This month’s full Moon is on 10 September, becoming 100% full at 10:59 am. This means that it will appear full on the nights of 9-10 September and 10-11 September. It will rise in the south-east just before about 8:30 pm on 9 September and just after 8:30 pm on 10 September. On 7 September and 8 September, you will see an almost full Moon sitting close to Saturn and on 11 September, you will find it close to Jupiter, over in the east.

​On 16 September you will find the Moon sitting above Mars, at around 10:15 pm, once they have both risen above the north-eastern horizon. The last quarter Moon is on 17 September, when you will see it traversing the night sky just to the left of Mars, rising in the northeast at around 10:00 pm.
 
There is a new Moon (no moon) on 25 September and a few days later in the evenings of 27 and 28 September, you should be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent moons sitting close to western horizon as darkness falls.

This month, the first planet you will see is Saturn, which will be sitting above the south-eastern horizon as darkness falls. If your binoculars or telescope magnify by about 40 or 50 times, you be able to see its famous rings and its biggest moons when you look at it. The largest, Titan, is enormous. In fact, it’s 40% more massive than the planet Mercury and 80% more massive than our own moon.
 
Next to see is Jupiter, rising over in the east at around 8:00 pm. It reaches its closest point to Earth on 26 September, meaning it will be at its brightest this year, making it much easier to see that Saturn, which will be 20 times fainter. If you take a look at Jupiter through binoculars, you will see some tiny starry objects on either side of it. These are its brightest and largest moons. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and are known as the Galilean moons and will change position each night as they circle the might gas giant planet.
 
Between these two gas giants of Saturn and Jupiter and in Aquarius, is Neptune. Like Jupiter, this most distant planet is at its closest to us this month, reaching opposition on 16 September. Although it will be above the horizon all night, it will be very faint, so you will need binoculars or a telescope to see it.
 
Uranus rises at about 9:00 pm in the northeast. You may be able to see it with the naked eye, but you will stand a much better chance of seeing it with binoculars or a telescope. On 14 September, the Moon occults Uranus. So, if you look for Uranus at around 10:30 pm on that night you will see it disappear as it passes behind the Moon and then reappear about 50 minutes later.
 
Mars rises in the northeast at about 10:30 pm and will sit reasonably close to Aldebaran, the reddish giant star in the Constellation of Taurus. Given their proximity, you could look at them both through a telescope and see how their red hues compare.
 
Finally, rising in the eastern twilight from at around 5:00 to 5:30 am, Venus continues to spend this time of the year as the glorious “Morning Star”, shining much brighter than anything else in the sky. However, it is gradually dropping down towards the horizon and will disappear from view by the end of the month.
 
Mercury is too close to the Sun the be visible this month.

The annual Perseid Meteor Shower peaked last month and those of you who were lucky enough to have clear skies around its peak on the night of 12-13 August may have seen some of the brighter meteors shooting across the sky. However, September is not a good month for meteor showers, so we will have to wait until October for the chance to see some more. The Draconids are expected to peak at nightfall on 8 October and the Orionids are expected to peak between midnight and dawn on the night of 21-22 October.

​The Autumnal Equinox is when night and day are nearly exactly the same length (12 hours). It also marks the start of astronomical autumn and when the nights start to become longer than the days. Although the autumnal equinox referred to as a day by many people, it is actually the exact moment in time when the tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the sun. For 2022, this will be at 2:04 am Friday 23 September.
 
The Autumnal Equinox also paves the way for increased chances to see aurora borealis displays. According to NASA, the equinoxes are prime time for Northern Lights, because the geomagnetic activity that causes them is more likely to take place in the spring and autumn than in the summer or winter. In addition, we tend to have more clear nights in spring and autumn so this, combined with more geomagnetic activity, may be the reason why I tend to have captured most of my Northern Light images in September/October and March/April. Finally, if you do want to catch a glimpse of the “Merry Dancers”, be sure to keep an eye out for “aurora alerts” on the web and on social media. Good sources for forecast and alerts are AuroraWatch UK, Glendale Skye Auroras and Aurora Research Scotland.

​With sunset now at around 9:00 pm, the stars and the constellations will become visible from about 10:00 pm onwards. As with July, the best way to navigate your way around the night sky is to still use the Summer Triangle. The Triangle is made up of the three bright stars of Vega, Altair and Deneb. Start off by finding Vega, a bright white star which will be directly overhead. Next is Altair, which you will find halfway between Vega and the southern horizon. Finally, there is Deneb, which will be almost directly above Altair and across from Vega.

​Sagittarius makes a teapot shape low down on the southern horizon. It is rich in star clusters and nebulae, some of which you can see with binoculars on a night when the southern horizon is really clear. Above the spout is the Lagoon Nebula, a giant interstellar cloud that’s visible to the naked eye. Near to it and visible with a telescope is the three-lobed Trifid Nebula, while above Sagittarius and in the Milky Way, you will find a bright patch of stars called the Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). Above this, is the Omega Nebula, which is one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy.
 
Off to the right of Vega, you can still see the spring constellations of Hercules, Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown) and Boötes (the Herdsman) and you can also pick out the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre), of which Vega is its brightest star. Below Vega, you will see Lyra’s 4 other main stars, which all form a small parallelogram. 

​Although most of what to see is in the southern night sky, there are a few notable things to see if you look north. In the north-west, you will find the familiar shape of The Plough and you can use its two right hand stars to point towards Polaris (the Pole Star or North Star), which is always in the same position in the sky.
 
To the right of Polaris, you’ll see the W-shape of Cassiopeia, the constellation that represents the fabled vain queen of the same name. At this time of year her husband, king Cepheus, is high in the sky, though his stars are nothing like as bright as those of his beautiful wife. Below Cassiopeia are the stars of Perseus, after which the Perseid meteors are named. These meteors will peak on the night of 12-13 August, and you can find out more about them below. Finally, low down and below Perseus is Capella, the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga (the Charioteer) and the sixth-brightest star in the night sky. 

We start the month with little or no Moon as the new Moon was on 28 July. On 1 August and 2 August, looking through binoculars towards the west at nightfall will reveal a narrow crescent moon sitting close to the horizon. 

This month’s full Moon is on 12 August, becoming 100% full at 2:36 am. This means that it will appear full on the nights of 10-11 August, 11-12 August, and 12-13 August. It will rise in the south-east at about 9:30 pm on 10 August, just before 10:00 pm on 11 August and just after 10:00 pm on 12 August. The Moon will be close to Saturn on these evenings and a couple of days later, on the nights of 14 August and 15 August, you will find it close to Jupiter, over in the east.
 
August’s full moon was called the Sturgeon Moon by North American fishing tribes because this species of fish appeared in large numbers during this month. It has also been called the green corn moon, the grain moon, and the red moon for the reddish hue it often takes on in the summer haze. It will pass Earth at a distance of 224,569 miles, making it a supermoon, or a Sturgeon Supermoon. This is the third closest approach of the year and it is the last of the four supermoons we have had this year.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 19 August, when you will see it traversing the night sky just to the left of Mars, rising in the northeast just after 11:30 pm.
 
There is a new Moon (no moon) on 27 August and in the early hours of 25 and 26 August, you may be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent moons sitting close to Venus when they both rise in the northeast in twilight hours before sunrise.

This month, the first planet you will see is Saturn, which will be sitting just above the south-eastern horizon as darkness falls. It reaches its brightest this year when it is opposite the Sun and nearest to Earth on 14 August and, if you look at it through a small telescope or binoculars, you should be able to make out its rings.
 
Neptune will rise in the east at around 9:30 pm, sitting between the constellations of Aquarius and Pisces. However, it will be very faint and difficult to see, even with a telescope. Next up is Jupiter, rising at around 10:00 pm. It will be easier to see as it will be shining very brightly. Look out for it pairing up with the moon on the nights of 14 August and 15 August.
 
Mars follows an hour and a half later, at about 11:30 pm. It will start the month rising over in the east-north-east directly below Uranus which itself, will have risen at about 11:00 pm. Mars will gradually move left, towards the north-east as the days progress, passing below the Pleiades star cluster on 20 and 21 August, before ending the month just above the star, Aldebaran, over in the constellation of Taurus.
 
Finally, rising in the north-east at around 4:00 am, Venus continues to spend this time of the year as the glorious “Morning Star”, shining much brighter than anything else in the sky. However, it is gradually dropping down towards the horizon and into the morning twilight glow as the days pass.
 
Mercury is too close to the Sun the be visible this month.

​After a few months’ absence, you’ll be able to see some shooting stars because the number of meteor showers is now on the increase. In fact, August can be a great month for spotting shooting stars because the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower is on the 12-13 August. It is called the Perseid Meteor Shower because the radiant (the area of the sky where the meteors seem to originate) is located near the constellation of Perseus and although you can see them throughout the night, you will see more if you wait until this radiant is high in the night sky. This is usually about midnight until dawn, so watch for them then to maximise your chances of spotting some.
 
Unfortunately, the Perseids peak coincides with a full Moon this year, meaning that all but a few of the brightest shooting stars will be washed out by moonlight. However, because this meteor shower will rise to a peak gradually from the start of the month and then fall off rapidly at the peak, you can watch for some between the start and the middle of the month, up until the waxing moon (brighter each night, and up for more hours) begins to drown out the show.
 
Finally, when watching for shooting stars, give yourself at least an hour of observing time, because they will come in spurts, interspersed with lulls. Also remember that your eyes can take as long as 20 minutes to adapt to the darkness of night, so don’t rush the process. If you are patient, you may see up to 60 meteors per hour as the shower’s peak approaches. 

It’s now after the Summer Solstice so it will begin to get dark at night again and with sunset at around 10:00 pm, you should see the constellations emerging from about 11:00 pm onwards. Also, at this time of year, we begin to see the Milky Way again and at the end of the month, this home to 200 billion stars will be visible from around 11:00 pm because it’s cloudy core will be above the southern horizon then.

​Above Ophiuchus look for a quadrilateral of stars known as the Keystone because of its shape. This is the most recognisable part of the Constellation of Hercules, named after the Roman mythological figure who was known for his strength and numerous far-ranging adventures. The constellation is best known for its great globular cluster of stars, M13, and has a lesser globular cluster, M92, nearby.
 
At one time, the globular cluster M13 was known as ‘The Great Hercules Cluster’. It is the brightest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere and is visible to both the naked eye and binoculars. It contains more than 300,000 stars and is 25,200 light-years from Earth and to find it, look about two thirds of the way up the right-hand side of the Keystone. It will look like a circular misty patch through a small telescope, but larger telescopes will start to show the individual stars.

​To the east of Scorpius, and just above the horizon, you will find the constellation Sagittarius (the Archer). This is not a particularly bright constellation, so you’ll need a clear night and be far away from any light pollution to see it. If you do spot the stars of Sagittarius, you will see that they form a sort of teapot shape. The handle of the teapot represents the upper body of the Archer, while the curve of three stars to the right are his bent elbow. The spout of the teapot is the point of an arrow which is aimed at Scorpius, the fearsome celestial scorpion.
 
Sagittarius is rich in star clusters and nebulae, some of which you can see with binoculars on a night when the southern horizon is really clear. Above the spout is the Lagoon Nebula, a giant interstellar cloud that’s visible to the naked eye. Near to it and visible with a telescope is the three-lobed Trifid Nebula, while above Sagittarius and in the Milky Way, you will find a bright patch of stars called the Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). Above this, is the Omega Nebula, which is considered to be one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy.
 
Going back up to Vega, you’ll see the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre), of which Vega is its brightest star. Below Vega, you will see the constellation’s 4 other main stars, which form a small parallelogram. To its upper left is an interesting double star, Epsilon Lyrae. Some people can see this as a double star with the naked eye, but binoculars will show it well. If you use a telescope with an aperture larger than about 75 mm, you will be able to see that each of the two stars are themselves double stars. For this reason, some people refer to Epsilon Lyrae as the “Double Double”.

We start the month with little or no Moon as the new Moon was on 29 June. On 2 July and 3 July, looking through binoculars towards the western horizon at nightfall will reveal a narrow crescent moon sitting close to Regulus brightest star in the constellation Leo. 

​The first quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 7 July. You will find it over in the south-western sky as darkness falls, sitting above and slightly to the left of Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo.

​This full Moon is called by some, the Buck Moon to signify the new antlers that emerge on deer buck's foreheads around this time. It is also known as the Thunder Moon, Wort Moon, and Hay Moon. It will be the third of 4 Supermoons this year, making it at Buck Supermoon. As it will be only 222,089 miles from Earth, its closest approach of the year, it will appear as the largest and brightest full moon of the year.

The last quarter Moon is on 20 July, when you will see it traversing the night sky about halfway between Jupiter and Mars. It will be closer to Jupiter on 19 July and closer to Mars on 21 July.
 
There is a new Moon (no moon) on 28 July and in the early hours of 26 and 27 July, you may be able to pick out the thinnest of crescent moons sitting close to Venus when they both rise in the northeast in twilight before sunrise.

This month the planets begin to appear in the night sky a little before midnight, with Saturn leading the parade. Just look over in the southeast to see it rise above the horizon with Jupiter following about an hour later. If you look about halfway between the two with a telescope, you may be able to pick out a very faint Neptune in the space between the constellations of Aquarius and Pisces.
 
Mars follows Jupiter about half an hour later, shining a little bit brighter than it did last month. It will be followed about 2 hours later by Venus, which will rise in the northeast at a little after 3:00 am. Venus spends the whole month as a glorious “Morning Star”, shining much brighter than anything else in the sky. In contrast, a dim Uranus will only be visible using a telescope and can be found about halfway between Mars and Venus.
 
Mercury is too close to the Sun the be visible this month.

​July sees the number of meteors increasing and it may be possible to spot some shooting stars from the alpha Capricornid and the delta Aquarid meteor showers. They peak around 30 July, two days after a new Moon, when there will be next to no moonlight to drown them out. The best time to watch for them will be from about 2:00 am and looking in the sky at a point about 45 degrees away from the radiant will maximise your chances of spotting them.
 
However, both of these July meteor showers are not terribly strong, so it might be best to wait until the Perseid Meteor Shower in August for the next good show. It will peak on the night of 12-13 August and there will be little or no moon to mar the show because the thin crescent Moon then will have set by early-to-mid evening. This will guarantee a dark sky for this year’s show, so fingers crossed for a clear night.

​In the 8 or so weeks either side of the Summer Solstice, which was on 21 June, the Sun gets to no more than 10-15 degrees below the horizon and full darkness does not occur at any point during the night. During this time you may be lucky enough to spot noctilucent, or “night-shining” clouds.
 
These clouds become visible in the north to north-west sky as darkness falls and just as the brightest stars become visible. They have the appearance of ghostly whispers of light shimmering in the all-night twilight and are usually set against a pearly-blue sky.
 
Forming in the middle atmosphere, or mesosphere, roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) above Earth's surface, they are thought to be made of ice crystals that form on fine dust particles from meteors and volcanic activity. These ice coated dust particles then reflect the light that the sun projects high up into the sky, when it is between 6 to 16 degrees below the horizon, to create an illuminated cloudy veil in the northern sky at latitudes between ±50° and ±70°.
 
They are first known to have been observed in 1885, two years after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, but it remains unclear as to whether their appearance had anything to do with the volcanic eruption or whether their discovery was due to more people observing the spectacular sunsets caused by the volcanic debris in the atmosphere. 

​This month, the sun sets around 10:00 pm, so the stars and the constellations start won’t become visible until about 11:30 pm and with sunrise at about 4:30 am, it means that you only have about 2-3 hours to spot them. In fact, it never really gets dark, but it is possible to spot the Summer Constellations that are up in our southern sky just now. Unlike the few big and bright Winter Constellations, these Summer Constellations are more numerous, smaller and fainter, but you can use four bright stars that are easy to find to navigate your way around them. These stars are Arcturus, Antares, Vega and Spica.

​Above Scorpius, you will find Ophiuchus (the Serpent-Bearer). It is a large constellation, which straddles the celestial equator, and it is commonly depicted as a man grasping a snake. This snake is represented by the constellation of Serpens (the Serpent), which is immediately to the west of Ophiuchus. Above Serpens, you’ll find the semi-circular constellation of Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown), which is made up of 4 bright stars that represent the crown of Ariadne, daughter of King Minos in Greek mythology, who helped the hero Theseus kill the Minotaur and find his way out of the labyrinth in which the creature lived.

​High up in the south-eastern sky, you will find Vega, the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre) and the fifth brightest star in our night sky. Vega acts as the guide star to the Keystone, a rectangle of four stars in the constellation Hercules, the fifth largest constellations in our night sky. To find the Keystone, trace a straight line from Vega and towards Arcturus. You will find it about one third of the way along this line. The Keystone represents the body of Hercules and is home to M13, the Great Global Cluster, a bee-like swarm of a third of a million red giant stars. It is one of the brightest globular clusters and although it is visible to the naked eye, it will be easier to see when using binoculars or a small telescope.

​The first quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 7 June and you will find it over in the south-western sky as darkness falls, while a few days later on 9 June and 10 June you will find it close to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo.
 
This month’s full Moon is on 14 June, becoming 100% full at 12:52 pm. This means that it will appear full on the nights of 13-14 June and 14-15 June. It will rise in the south-east at about 10:00 pm on 13 June and at about 11:30 pm on 14 June.  In Colonial America, this full Moon was referred to as the Strawberry Moon because this was when these the red strawberries ripen there. Europeans have dubbed it the rose moon, while other cultures named it the hot moon because it occurred at the beginning of the summer heat.
 
This month’s full Moon will be the second of 4 supermoons this year, making it at Strawberry Supermoon. As it will be 222,238 miles from Earth, its second closest approach of the year, it will appear as second-largest and second-brightest full moon of the year. However, the best supermoon will be on 13 July, when it will be closer to the Earth at some 222,089 miles away.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 21 June, the day of the Summer Solstice, when it will rise close to Jupiter in the eastern morning sky. On the following morning of 22 June, it will rise between Mars and Jupiter and on 23 June, it will rise beneath Mars. Three days later, on 26 June, it will be a crescent moon and it will rise slightly above and to the right of Venus, out a little bit further to the north-east.
 
There is new Moon (no moon) on 29 June.

There are no planets in the evening sky this month, so if you do want to see some you will need to stay up late or get up early to watch them as they rise over in the east.
 
Saturn is the first to appear, rising in the south-east at about 1:00 am to traverse the night sky in the constellation of Capricornus. Next to rise is a very faint Neptune, clearing the eastern horizon at around 1:30 am between Aquarius and Pisces, to then be followed about half an hour later by the mighty gas giant, Jupiter which will be shining brightly in the near dark sky.
 
After another half an hour, at 2:30 am, you will see a less bright Mars rise a little below and to the left of Jupiter, followed by a magnificently bright Venus, rising at 3:30 am further round towards the north-east. If you use a telescope, you may be able to pick out a very faint Uranus, close to Venus, however, as it will be almost 10,000 times fainter, it will be very difficult to see.
 
Finally, you will find Mercury to the lower left of Venus during the last week of the month because it clears the horizon at around 4:00 am. This is when the innermost planet will be most easily visible this month but because it rises so close to sunrise, it may be lost in the dawn twilight.

June is a quiet month meteor showers because most of them occur when it is daylight. In reality, we need to wait until the Perseid Meteor Shower in August for our next good show. Radiating from the constellation of Perseus, it will peak on the night of 12-13 August. Unfortunately for this year though, a full Moon occurs on 12 August, so all but the brightest meteors will be drowned out by strong moonlight at the peak. So, if you do want to look for the Perseids, then it would be best to take advantage of the moon free mornings in late July and early August.

​This year, the summer solstice occurs on 21 June at 09:13 GMT (10:13 BST) and is the exact moment when the North Pole is at its maximum tilt towards the Sun. However, many people refer to it as the “Longest Day” because it is the day when the number of hours of daylight are at their maximum and the number of hours of night are at their minimum. This is because it is the day when the Sun rises at its closest to north-east, reaches its highest position in the sky at noon and then sets at its closest to north-west. For instance, on 21 June this year, our sunrise here on the Peninsula will be at 4:27:36 am and our sunset will be at 10:22:23 pm, giving us 17 hours, 54 minutes and 47 seconds of daylight. On June 20, our hours of daylight will be 3 seconds less and on June 22 they will be 5 seconds less.