THE beautiful gathering - or conjunction - of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon in the morning sky may be over, with the Moon having slid out of view far to the east now, but Venus and Jupiter are still visible in the morning sky, writes STUART ATKINSON. However, now sunrise is happening a lot earlier the planets' window of visibility is short and shortening more by the day. If you want to see Venus and Jupiter you'll have less than an hour to spot them in the south eastern sky, low down, before dawn breaks and they are lost from view.

There are other planets on view though. After dark we can still see the Red Planet, Mars, shining low in the south west. After dark on the evening of February 10 look for a beautiful crescent Moon shining to the lower left of Mars. The two will be so close they'll both fit into the field of view of a pair of binoculars. Mars will look like an orange-red 'star' to the upper right of the silvery-blue crescent Moon.

Having found Mars, slide your gaze over to its left and find the familiar shape of Orion standing above the southern horizon. With his unique 'belt' of three blue-white stars, Orion is one of the most impressive and striking constellations in the whole of the sky.