Libby Riddles Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Champion.

The main event this week is tonight’s conjunction of Venus and Jupiter over in the west, moving NW as the night progresses, after the sun and the moon Venus and Jupiter are the next two brightest objects in the sky. These conjunctions are not that rare, there’s another in May but just before dawn, but this is a good one because Venus is so high. Both planets can be seen at once in binoculars. Mercury is there as well shortly after sunset but to near the horizon to be worth a look.

Shelia Thomas put a post on facebook asking what the two bright lights were, Jackie a visitor one assumes later posted “Can't wait to be there & see them for ourselves.” Well Jackie they’ll both be somewhere else when you get over, but don’t worry just go out into the garden and look west, this isn’t an IOS exclusive.

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.

Which is why myself, Tom and Jacqueline are having another star walk tonight, it’s free, so if you are so inclined turn up at Life Long Learning around 7:15 this evening and if you can bring binoculars. If the weather is ok I’ll set up my telescope in the Carn Thomas car park, I’m not carting it up Buzza it’s too heavy and it needs power, so don’t ask.

Orion, Taurus, Sirius (our brightest star), and the Pleiades are all up in the SW in the early evening all worth a look in binoculars, especially this week with the waning moon rising quite late.

Solar flares have been in the news over the last week with some overly dramatic headlines, though the BBC was a little more considered. The sun has weather system like we do, though snow is on the rare side, and every so often these storms are so violent that billions of tons of ionised gas is thrown out into space. Sometimes it heads toward the earth as it did on the 8^th. We are protected by the earth’s magnetic field, and the interaction of the solar storm and our magneto sphere is what causes the Northern Lights, which can be seen on occasion from the Islands. There are billions of volts of EMF whirling around this can cause disruption to satellites and even cause power cuts.

And now your weekly dose of drivel, your horoscope. Cancer first.

You’re feeling really low this week and could do with the reassurance of supportive friends but you can’t face the effort of actually making some.

And now for Scorpio, which this week is especially tailored for me.

Here I go again on my own, going down the only the only road I’ve ever known”. Whitesnake really captured the helter-skelter life of a rural bus driver, didn’t they?

And that was your night sky for the week ending on the last day of winter and more importantly the 26^th anniversary of Libby Riddles becoming the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.