ALTHOUGH it will soon belong to Venus, the 'Evening Star', the evening sky is still being dominated by two planets - Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest worlds in our solar system. You don't need a telescope to see them, or even a pair of binoculars; they look just like fairly bright stars to the naked eye, helpfully quite a lot brighter than the stars around them.

To see these two huge worlds, just look towards the south as twilight deepens enough to let the first stars start come out. There you'll see Jupiter, low down in the sky, shining like a vivid yellow-white star. A short distance over to its left, and a little higher in the sky, you'll find Saturn which will be fainter than Jupiter and shining with more of a golden hue.

You can see the planets themselves with just your naked eye, but if you want to see anything more you will need some way of magnifying them. A pair of binoculars will show you up to four of Jupiter's moons, close to the planet, looking like tiny stars, and they will also show you Titan, Saturn's moon, glowing close to Saturn and looking like a star. A telescope will show you the bands of dark cloud that cross Jupiter's disc and, of course, Saturn's beautiful system of rings too.

But don't worry about that. Just find somewhere dark, with a flat southern horizon, and enjoy seeing these two enormous planets shining in the early autumn sky.