My astronomy evenings at school are now reduced to observing: 1) the Moon 2)Jupiter 3)Venus 4)Aldebaran 5)Saturn. Anything else visible requires me to use my laptop planetarium program, switch off all but the very brightest stars and then identify the two remaining spots. On Tuesday we couldn't see the Plough, or any of the other circumpolar stars, Orion's Belt or anything else which children could remember or be interested in. Only, possibly, the two stars of Canis Minor. Local houses have brilliant security lights. The local high type school, a mile away, has two security lights which illuminate the sky in an arc about a third of the way to the zenith. (Our school has lights too, but movement sensitive, so that was all right until the footballers came off the field, which has good down-lighters). People are complaining about not being able to see the Milky Way, but here, I am reminded about that science fiction story about the world where the stars were only visible once every so many hundred years, and everyone went mad at the sight. We have no sky.

Penny