LOOK half-way up in the eastern sky at around 10pm on a clear night at the moment and you will see a lone, cold blue-white star shining brightly there. This is Vega, the fifth brightest star in the heavens.

Bizarrely, because it spins so quickly it is egg-shaped, unlike our round Sun. Telescopes have revealed a dusty disc around squashed Vega - a solar system being formed, so it will have its own planets in the far future.

When looking at 25LY distant Vega you're looking at as it was in 1990, when Vanilla Ice and New Kids On The Block were storming the charts. Because the Earth wobbles on its axis, 12,000 years ago Vega was the 'pole star,' and it will be again in the year 14,000.

Stuart Atkinson

Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal.