THIS is a good time to be a sky watcher if you like looking at planets. Before dawn we can see no fewer than three planets low in the east, strung out like beads in a diagonal line. To the right, Venus is the highest and brightest, Jupiter the lowest of the three, is on the other end of the line. Between them, Mars, faintest of the trio, looks just like an orange star.
There are some very bright International Space Station passes before dawn this week too. If you spot a bright 'star' crossing the sky from west to east, that's the ISS.
On Friday evening (18th) look to the south west after dark and you'll see a beautiful crescent Moon shining to the right of Saturn, which will look like a yellow-hued star just above the treetops.
Stuart Atkinson
Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal
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