THERE IS lots of excitement right now about the arrival of a new space probe - called JUNO - at the planet Jupiter, a world so huge it could easily contain a thousand Earths. You can still see Jupiter in the sky at the moment. It looks like a bright blue-white star very low in the west around 11pm, but sets not long after midnight, so you'll need to have a low and uncluttered horizon if you're going to see it.

Cross your fingers for a clear sky after dark on Friday night (July 8) when a beautiful, slim crescent Moon will be shining to the lower right of Jupiter. The following night the Moon will have moved to Jupiter's upper left, and they'll be a striking sight together.

JUNO will spend years studying the giant planet's atmosphere, magnetic field, and its version of the northern lights, which are much brighter and more vivid that Earth's. We can't see the aurora at this time of year because it never gets dark, but summer is the season for noctilucent clouds. Until this week the 2016 season has been disappointing, but we are finally seeing some NLC now, so keep an eye open for veils, swirls and streamers of glowing blue-white cloud low in the north after midnight on any clear nights.

Stuart Atkinson

Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal