Go out at around 9pm on the next clear night, look to the east and you'll see what looks like a bright, orange-red star shining just above the horizon in that direction.In fact it's not a star, it's a planet - the famous planet Mars.

Mars has been visible in the sky for quite a while but it was quite faint and you had to know just where to look for it.

It is very bright at the moment, brighter than anything else in its part of the sky, and you can't miss it.

And it is going to get even brighter next month!

This is because Mars' eccentric orbit means it is sometimes close to us and sometimes very far away.

Right now it is approaching "Opposition", the point in its orbit where it is close to us, so it is very prominent in the sky, clearly visible to the naked eye as a strikingly-bright orange point of light.

After rising, Mars moves across the sky through the rest of the night. It's at its highest around 4am, when the sky is still dark, and it looks very impressive indeed. But in a month's time it will look quite spectacular.

When you're looking at Mars make sure you don't ignore Jupiter and Saturn, which are shining close together low in the south as soon as the sky gets dark after sunset.

And if you're an early riser, Venus is a beautiful, bright Morning Star blazing in the east before dawn too.