Sadly, poor weather robbed us of any hope of seeing the unusually close encounter between Venus and Jupiter in last weekend's twilight sky, but don't worry - we'll get another chance in the year 2068!
In the meantime, this is great time of year to look for the Milky Way in the sky. On photos online and in magazines it looks like a mottled band of cloudy light, almost bright enough to cast shadows, but in reality it looks nowhere near that dramatic or obvious to the naked eye. To see it at all you have to be somewhere with a really dark sky, free from light pollution. Then, after 11pm, when the sky is properly dark, look for a faint, misty band of light cutting the sky in half, rising from the south east horizon, arcing overhead, and falling down to the north western horizon. That is the Milky Way. Scan it through binoculars and you'll see it's made of countless millions of stars - a beautiful sight.
If you are one of the thousands of people who came to marvel at the beautiful inflatable Moon featured in the recent Lakes Alive festival, keep an eye out for details of a special MoonWatch evening the Eddington Astronomical Society will hold in Kendal soon, to show you the real thing. Trust me, seeing the Moon's craters, mountains and seas through one of our telescopes will be just as exciting.
Stuart Atkinson
Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal
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