THERE have been a couple of minor noctilucent cloud displays in the past week, both missed from Cumbria because of cloud and rain. The 2017 NLC season is now dragging itself to a close, and it's been both disappointing and frustrating. Again. Oh well, better luck next year - as we seem to say every year!

As July drifts into August it's now dark enough after midnight to see quite a few stars, and the Milky Way again too, but only if you're somewhere well away from streetlights and other sources of light pollution. The Milky Way always looks incredibly dramatic in photographs, but to the naked eye it's just a faint, misty trail across the sky, about as wide as your outstretched hand. We'll see it much better in September.

The International Space Station (ISS) is visible in the evening sky again, and we have some really bright passes of it during the coming week. If you're a veteran ISS spotter you can just use the times below. If you're not sure what to do go outside on the following dates, at the time given, and look to the west. When you see a bright 'star' rising up from the horizon, travelling right to left as you look at it, that's the ISS. It doesn't flash, it just looks like a star drifting across the sky.

July 28: 22.52; July 29: 22.00, 23.36; July 30: 22.44 (very bright); July 31: 23.27; August 1: 22.35 (very bright); August 2: 23.17.

Stuart Atkinson