Hasn't it turned nippy? We've had some beautifully clear and cold nights recently, with Jupiter blazing away in the east after sunset. If you haven't seen it already, look on the next clear night, you can't miss it.

At this time of year there's often something beautiful to see in the sky before the Sun has set, too. On icy, chilly days, make sure you look for patches of colour around and above the Sun, especially at sunrise or sunset. Most common are ‘Sundogs’ - twin mini-rainbows seen to the left and right of a low Sun. Sometimes they can be strikingly bright and colourful.

Also look for a column of red or gold stretching up away from the Sun, like a sword, when it's low in the sky. Like Sundogs, these ‘Sun pillars’ are caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals in the air.

Stuart Atkinson Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal