By this time in November the Diary's favourite winter constellations are high in the sky around bedtime, so the opportunity of last night's clear sky wasn't to be missed. Orion is the easiest to find, sitting over the glow of Oban's lights away to the southeast at about 11.00pm. In this picture, the lights at bottom right are various lighthouses and beacons along the Sound of Mull, and a ship coming up the Sound.
Orion was a hunter. The three stars in a line are his belt, with his sword hanging from it, and then there are four stars, one each for his shoulders and legs. The best known is Betelguese, B, a red supergiant that glows orange in the sky. By contrast, R is Rigel, a blue supergiant.
The lights low down in this photo, looking east, are those along Pier Road - street lights to the left and the lights of the houses at centre; the red light at right is at the CalMac pier. The bright star in the picture is the planet Jupiter, and the two stars marked with arrows are the twins, Castor (above) and Pollux, in the constellation Gemini.
The chances of seeing an aurora remain good. For the last four hours
AuroraWatch has been indicating minor geomagnetic activity, a yellow alert. Pity it's during the daytime - oh, and it's cloudy.
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