Summer stars

On summer nights, stars shine luminously overhead and bright planets are visible on the east and west skylines.

Venus, bright and silver, sets in the southwest an hour after the sun through January and will be the ‘evening star’ for much of 2015. In the first half of January, Mercury will be nearby, but appears much fainter.

On the opposite skyline is Jupiter. It will rise in the east around 11:30pm, shining bright and golden with steady light. Lined up on either side of the planet are its four big moons; one or two of the moons can be seen with binoculars, if you hold them steady.

Mars can be spotted as a lone orange light of medium brightness, setting around 11pm in the west. Almost directly overhead you’ll see the two brightest stars in the sky: Sirius and Canopus.

Due north is the group of stars commonly known as The Pot. Above it is the bright bluish-white star Rigel, or Puaka in Maori. Below The Pot is a bright orange star, Betelguese, nicknamed the ‘red giant’.

Down and to the left is a bunch of stars. This is the Matariki cluster in Polynesian star lore and is a pretty sight in binoculars. The Milky Way above the Southern Cross contains many compact star clusters and a few glowing gas clouds and these are also good to view with binoculars from dark locations.