SATURN now rises in the south east before midnight, but we'll see it better in a month or so, writes STUART ATKINSON. This is a great time to be looking at Jupiter. It is already quite high in the south as the sky begins to darken, and the darker the sky gets the brighter Jupiter appears. It looks like a very bright blue-white 'star' in the sky, pretty much blazing away in its own with very few stars close to it.

If you have a pair of binoculars you will be able to see up to four of Jupiter's family of 63 moons. The four largest, called the Galilean Satellites, because they were discovered by the great scientist Galileo, look like tiny stars close to Jupiter. But you can't always see all four. As they whirl around Jupiter they drift in and out of view; you might see all four on the same side of Jupiter when you look, or a pair on either side. Astronomy apps and websites tell you which star is which moon.

As you look at Jupiter just think...that's a planet that is so huge it could hold more than a thousand Earths with room to spare, and it has a storm - the famous Great Red Spot - that is so enormous it could swallow the Earth three times over.

Stuart Atkinson

Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal