Finding Saturn.

In a rare quiet moment at work I was explaining to Graham how you can spot Saturn at the moment. He was amazed I knew- I told me I watched The Sky at Night last night and they explained it. If used wisely TV can be educational. This is how you do it (spot Saturn, not watch educational telly) -

Find the Plough (or the saucepan). If you follow north 45 degrees from the bottom right hand corner you will see the north star. The north star is what the sailors used to use to navigate before they discover longitude. This is nothing to do with Saturn, but is interesting.
Now if you go south 45 degrees from the bottom right hand corner you will come to an oblong cluster of stars - Saturn is the brightest star. Of course you can only see this if you are in the Northern Hemisphere. When I was south of the equator I found it miraculous that I was seeing different stars from the ones at home.
Another tip that they gave last night was if you have a telescope - leave it outside for a few hours so that the telescope is acclimatised to the temperature. You will get a better view.

BTW did anyone see the moon eclipse on Saturday night? Seeing that you can understand why people have always been intrigued by the stars.

On a personal note - Hannah if you are reading this I haven't been able to see your blog -I just get a black page.