All-night summer twilight begins during May, although this natural phenomenon is less noticeable now than it would have been to our ancestors, due to the modern spread of light pollution.

The sun climbs higher in the sky through the month and by mid-May sunrise is at 5am BST and sunset is at 8.45pm BST.

Most of the bright planets remain elusive as they are close to the sun in the sky.

Saturn might be spotted later in the month in the pre-dawn sky, low in the east.

The waning moon will be close by Saturn on the morning of the 31st.

Saturn’s famous ring system is now “closing” from our vantage point such that in 2025 the rings will become edge-on to us and more difficult to see, before opening out again in the years that follow as planetary alignments change.

The rings are made of a vast number of particles and chunks of ice as well as rocks and dust.

Full moon this month is on the 23rd.

The short nights of late spring and the expanding twilight restrict the hours available for stargazing but the brighter stars are easier to find in late evening skies.

Looking to the east, the constellations associated with summer are becoming more prominent, with the three bright stars that pick out the ‘Summer Triangle’ asterism.

The most prominent of the three is Vega, which can be found about half way up the Eastern sky between 11pm and midnight (see map).

Through binoculars or a small telescope, Vega is dazzling, and has a bluish tint. That colour indicates that Vega is a hot star – bluer stars are hotter, redder stars are cooler.

Vega lies about 25 light years from our Solar System and is the lead star of the rather small constellation of Lyra.

It was the first star in the night sky to be photographed, in 1850.