The Sky at Night.

I've always loved a star-filled sky, but until moving into the middle of no-where, I'd never really seen just how many stars are up there. From the first evening we were here after dark, the stars have totally captivated me. We have no lights nearby. No streets lights, no other house lights, and more often then not, no car headlights.

If we turn the porch light off, the nights are very, very dark.

When it is a full moon, the brightness of the moon can turn the night back several hours to dusk. Colours can still be seen on the hills, even at 2am. I can still see the distant ruin on the far side of the Rambla.

But when it's a new moon the lack of light from the moon means the stars take over. Tonight is a new moon. There is not a cloud in the night sky and the stars go on forever. It is impossible to take a photo on my camera that shows the continual layer after layer of stars, so I have searched the internet to find a photo that will show just a glimpse of how our sky looks tonight. I say a glimpse because it cannot show how bright the stars are, the sheer magical effect of them. As I stand in awe of the huge number of different twinkling lights, I cannot imagine that there isn't just one of them that holds a secret, of another world inhabited by some being that at the very same moment is looking at the very same stars and imagining the very same thing.

This photo gives some idea of the vast number of stars I can see tonight - Courtesy of: http://www.christiancyberspace.com/cosmic-discovery/htmp/region/region-orion_constellation.htm

I tried really hard to get a decent photo myself, as I think it's so much better more satisfying to take a good photo on my own camera than to lift one from the internet, and I did get the main components - just missed out on the billion other twinkles.

Orion's belt is clear to see and I thought the orangey spot at the top might be a planet - Mars sprang to mind, but a quick Google has actually identified it as Betelgeuse, the 2nd brightest star in the constellation Orion, and a supergiant star which is doomed to become a supernova which will be visible from earth, but unlikely to happen while I'm around with my camera.

Read more about Betelgeuse at http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0927/

The star to the right of Betelgeuse is Bellatrix, another giant which after turning to an orange giant in a few millios years is destined to die quietly as a massive white dwarf, as it is not large enough to explode as a supernova.

And if you want to know anything else - Google is a great place to start.