SKYWATCH

You can't have failed to see Venus blazing in the twilight this past few weeks, and it's still there, shining like a lantern. But as you were looking at it, did you also notice a small knot of tiny stars to its upper right?

If you didn't, look again this week, and you will see Venus is close to a very famous star cluster called The Pleiades. It is also known as The Seven Sisters, because people with good eyesight can see its seven brightest stars with just their naked eye. Binoculars show more than a dozen stars, and a telescope many, many more.

All these stars are flying through space together, like a flock of birds. In a few hundred million years they will have drifted apart, so see them while you can.

Stuart Atkinson

Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal