Anti Temperance Riots In Basingstoke and some star stuff.

Rather alarmingly this is the 200^th Scilly stars, well obviously not for me, because I’m keeping count and this is sky 200. So at an rough average of 3 mins each that’s 10 hours or around 8 CDs, and I’ve got pretty well all of them still, so if anyone would like a complete set to perhaps give as a late mother’s day gift, please get in touch, but I’m sure most of you don’t maintain a deep and abiding loathing of your mothers and won’t wish to take advantage of this offer.

As for last Tuesday fabulous conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, well it was miserable and overcast from Saturday to Friday and no one saw a thing. Unless you lived in Manchester, I know this because a very earnest young lady from Vodafone called me on Tuesday afternoon to regale me with offers I didn’t want, informed me that in Manchester the sun was cracking the pavements, which was much appreciated. It goes without saying that the star walk was unsuccessful, though. But while we waited to tell people who turned up politely to go away again, and one person did turn up, which showed optimism above and beyond the call of duty, I was asked why Venus and Jupiter were clearly visible early Saturday evening but then bizarrely disappeared, for peculiar reasons of there own. I explained, I hope without being to patronising that they set around 9pm. Up until that point it hadn’t even crossed my mind that everybody didn’t know that stars and planets rise and set like the moon and sun, well they do. So I’ve decided to dumb this down for a few seconds, if you’re up early enough to catch the sunrise, and occasionally glance at the sun during the day all the way through to sunset then you are looking at the same place all the time, the earth is spinning which gives the sun, or the stars at night their apparent motion.

Venus and Jupiter are drifting apart now in the western sky before 10pm but still well worth a look. Mars, very bright at the moment is over in the east by dark, while Venus and Jupiter are in the west, Saturn rises around 10, just before Jupiter and Venus set, so with 4 planets in the sky at once this is good week, particularly this week with no moon.

I’ve put a diagram on the blog which shows why Venus and Jupiter are so close, and also that there is another spectular conjunction this week, two in fact but sadly they are only visible from Saturn or Jupiter. From Jupiter, or perhaps one of its moons which would be a little less deadly, Venus, the earth, mars and Saturn are arranged in line, which works the other way from Saturn.

And this big conjunction will effect you profoundly if you are Aries, with Venus and Saturn just below your sign, your decision to open a sex shop in the Vatican city will start to pay dividends this week, and if you are Virgo then with Saturn loitering nearby, you may find you come to regret standing in the forthcoming bye election because if you get in you will soon discover that being a councillor is less glamorous than you think and that there is no secret stash of Viagra in the town hall.

And lest I forget today is the first day of spring, at 5:14 this morning we went from winter to spring.

And that was your night sky for the week ending on the 121^st anniversary of rioting in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperance by the Salvation Army. It wasn’t an issue here they weren’t even allowed to get of the boat.