It's one of those evenings when even half-hearted stargazers cannot resist turning their heads towards our universe. A balmy day has turned into a warm evening with no wind or cloud cover, perfect viewing conditions. Even the odd mosquito can't chase me indoors.
Mars has just set in the West, the Curiosity Rover doing its thing on the surface and hopefully taking pictures of our blue planet from a new angle. In the zenith, a waxing gibbous moon casts its shoon earthwards, surprisingly bright and causing shadows to loom across the lawn. Low down in the north you will see the beautiful star, Vega, sparkling red and green before it, too, slips from sight. The bright guiding stars of Achenar, Fomalhaut and Diphda stand out against the dark velvet canopy. Soon they will be joined by the thousands of stars which we mortals can see with our naked eye. Binoculars or a telescope will add millions to that figure, although we will see them as clusters and not individual stars.
To the north, below the four stars that form the great square of Pegasus, look out for the faint smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy and try to comprehend the awesome size of the most distant object which we can see with the naked eye. The light from Andromeda left nearly 2.5 million years ago to alight on the surface of your eye, so take some time to appreciate that!
My favourite constellation, Scorpius, with its giant red star, Antares (rival of Mars) dives into the sea later this evening. Use binoculars to observe the fantastic array of globular clusters in this constellation, and then proceed to those that lie amongst the stars of Sagittarius, between us and the centre of our Milky Way, the galaxy we call 'home'. You will not be disappointed!
If you look long enough, you are sure to see some shooting stars, and definitely many satellites, as our world is virtually encased in a veil of satellites which track our every move, as well as providing us with the means to communicate as easily as we do. Take the time to note how many different types of satellite you can spot!
I'm going back out there now. Keep looking upwards and outwards!
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