IF YOU'VE turned your eyes away from the latest episode of Strictly Come Dancing/Ice Skating/Dog Training/Song Murdering C List Celebrity reality programmes on our TV screens and looked up at the evening sky recently, you might have noticed a strange, bright object blazing above our Auld Grey Town.

No, not the Sun, that's actually there all the time, believe it or not. I mean the star-like object that's been blazing in the western sky after dark, looking like a lantern.

That's not actually a star (and no, it's not the space station either, as many people think; the space station moves slowly across the sky, curving from west to east. You might have spotted it doing just that on a clear night recently).

It's the planet Venus, aka The Evening Star.

I'm sure many of you are now thinking "Aaaah, that's what it is!" because by the time this edition of The Westmorland Gazette hits the shelves, you'll have seen Venus many times, even if you didn't know what it was.

I've been looking at Venus since the end of February, watching it steadily climb higher and grow brighter, but now is the best time to see it, because in a month or so it will start to sink towards the sunset and vanish into the marmalade-golden twilight sky before vanishing from view altogether.

You can see Venus from anywhere during the next month or so, as long as you can see the western sky from there.

Abbot Hall Park is a good place to see Venus, but to get your best view you should trek up to the castle on the next clear evening and drink in the view from there.

For full story see the Leisure section of this week's Westmorland Gazette.