If you’ve been enjoying seeing Venus blazing in the twilight over the past few months, make the most of the next couple of weeks because it will soon be dropping out of the evening sky and moving into the morning sky, visible before dawn in the east, writes Stuart Atkinson.

But before it leaves us, this week Venus will be joined in the sky by another planet - Mercury.

On Thursday evening Mercury will be very close to Venus, looking like a star just to its lower right. It will be a lot fainter than Venus but will still be visible to the naked eye. By Friday evening the two worlds will be shining side by side, and Mercury will have moved up to shine on Venus’ left. On Monday evening Mercury will be to Venus’ upper left and by Tuesday evening will be further away to the upper left, but on that evening the pair will also be joined in the evening sky by a beautiful crescent Moon.

All of these events will be visible to the naked eye, but if you have a pair of binoculars they will really give you a fantastic view, especially if you live - or can get to - somewhere away from light pollution to observe from.

Meanwhile, Jupiter and Saturn are now close together in the south-east before dawn, with ruddy Mars over to their left. Well worth getting up early for.

Finally for this week, it won’t be long until we see our first display of Noctilucent Clouds for this year. Keep an eye on the northern sky after midnight on any clear evenings from now on and you might see some streamers, bands and whirls of these lovely electric blue clouds.