IF YOU were out and about on any of those stunningly clear nights last weekend you'll know that Venus is now looking absolutely beautiful in the western sky, writes STUART ATKINSON. As soon as the sky begins to darken after sunset, the planet often called the Evening Star pops into view, appearing at first as a silvery spark of light around a third of the way up from the horizon. As the twilight deepens and the sky changes colour from orange to purple, Venus just gets brighter and brighter, until eventually it looks like a silvery lantern. Venus draws your eye like nothing else in the sky, and as it sinks lower it starts to look redder and flicker and flash more. It truly is one of the most gorgeous sights in the whole of the sky.

Other planets are on view now, too. Look to the east around 10pm and you'll see Jupiter low in that part of the sky, looking like a bright blue-white star. And of you're still up - or awake for some reason - at 2am you'll also see gold-hued Saturn and orange-coloured Mars low in the east looking like a pair of stars, quite close to each other.

At this time of the year it doesn't really get dark until late in the evening, and it's often murky and misty too. But the sky has often calmed down by the wee small hours, and if you're up and about then you'll see the sky strewn with bright stars, and you'll be able to see the Milky Way too.