In ascending order above Venus lie Mars (very faint), Saturn and Jupiter. On the 5th of the month Mars and Venus will form an alignment, appearing to us as a single bright point.

Whilst looking at the cluster of planets in the northwestern sky, look out for the bright star Capella which appears just above the planets. It forms part of a roughly circular group of stars which make up the constellation Auriga.

If you have a clear view of the southwestern horizon then you might look out for the constellation Hydra which stretches across much of the sky between southeast and west.

The head of the ‘Water Snake’ lies just to the left of Canis Major which, in turn, can be found just below Gemini.

If you are up and about in the early morning at the start of the month the constellation Sagittarius can be observed in the southsouthwestern sky, lying behind the waning gibbous moon.

The moon reaches its last quarter on the 4th May. The next new moon is at 1145 on the 12th with the full moon on the 26th at 1251.

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower should be visible on the morning of the 5th May. Not one of the most spectacular of meteor showers, the radiant (the point from which meteors appear to originate) never reaches very high in the night sky before morning twilight.

So try facing towards the east and look high above your head. Expect to see no more than 10 meteors per hour.

The International Space Station puts in an appearance later this month, clearly visible for the first time on the morning of the 23rd.

Meanwhile the next Space Shuttle mission is scheduled for the 30th May. The Endeavour and its seven crew will undertake a 12 day mission to rotate the crew aboard the ISS and deliver a multipurpose logistics module.

At about 7am BST on the 4th May a Delta II rocket is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It will be carrying a NASA Earth Science satellite ‘Aqua’ which will be collecting data on the Earth’s water cycle.

The Envisat which already gathers similar data continues to orbit above our skies. Although not as bright as the ISS it is easy to find in the night sky as it can take about nine minutes to pass from south to north.