OPD (1 per Decade)

Naked-eye planets, obviously.

To be honest, I never expected to see Mercury. It's much harder to spot than Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Saturn. And I haven't seen Saturn, confidently, for a while.

When I went out  to shut up the chickens at 21 my eye was captured by the one of the prettiest new moons I've seen. A tiny crescent silver sliver reclining, cradling a huge oval of earthlight in the last purple of the sunset. And there it was -- just off the moon/sun line -- the only star visible between the moon and the horizon.

I'd been tipped off by the night sky column in the LMS's BBC Focus magazine. "Surprisingly bright" it said and bright enough it was. And that's my lot. If I want to see another planet, I'll need binoculars. But the LMS is off too a good start.