some cool happenings in the next coupla weeks - Mars is as close as it's gonna be for the next coupla decades - around Halloween it's gonna look like a distant, very bright, very red/orange disc in the sky - a pumpkin!

have a look this weekend and next weekend - Mars rises around 10.30 pm but will be its best around 2 am - 2.30 (when it's the highest it can be in the sky) - just when we are all leaving gigs! it will be unmistakeable - rising from the north east, Orion to its right, the Pleiades just beside it, and at its best due north.

if you know anyone with a telescope or even binoculars, go visit them, cos Mars is super-showing off - at the moment it has a hu-arge dust storm around the Valles Marineris canyon system - just south of the equator - but Mars turns around a bit - you might be lucky though. even if you can't see a big fuzzy bit on the planet, polar caps are likely and other crusty features too.

if the weather's good 28th/29th/30th, i might gather together some Dunedin homies and go out on the peninsula with my gear, if anyone's interested.

if you're real lucky, look left and bottom of Mars and see the closest spiral galaxy to us, Andromeda - visible to the naked eye (light permitting). incredible though binoculars!