I HOPE some of you managed to see Venus shining close to the crescent Moon late last week? writes STUART ATKINSON. They looked absolutely stunning together. If you missed them don't worry, they'll be shining close together again in mid-June.

Although Venus continues to dominate the evening sky, shining like a lantern high in the north west after sunset, there are other planets visible at the moment too. Jupiter can be seen low in the south east at dusk, almost exactly opposite Venus in the sky, looking like a bright yellow-white star. It's not as bright as Venus, but it is still pretty impressive. Late on Sunday evening you'll be able to see the almost-Full Moon shining very close to Jupiter, making a very striking pair. If you have a pair of binoculars use them to look at the Moon and Jupiter shining close together. You'll see two tiny stars on each side of Jupiter. These are its four largest moons - and each is roughly the same size as our own moon, but because they're 665 million lkm away they look just like tiny dots.

In late July the planet Mars will be at its closest to us for many years. It will be a very bright object then, but it's already brightening steadily and is easily visible to the naked eye as a bright orange 'star' low in the south east at around 3am. Another planet, Saturn, can be seen to the right of Mars, but it is quite a lot fainter.

Now May is drawing to a close we might have our first display of noctilucent clouds soon. More on those next week.