You’re going to need a blanket, a pillow or two, your binoculars and perhaps a warm coffee while you stargaze.

On a clear night depending on your age and your eyesight, you can see anywhere up to about 1,500 to 2, 000 stars. Introduce city lights and pollution, and you see less and less.

You can enjoy cool May nights comfortably for hours on end if you dress properly and heed a few cold weather tips that everyone should know.

Many thin layers of clothing are often better than a single thick one as the idea is to trap air pockets. Ask any bird! Of course, a mug of hot coffee or tea is good too.

“May nights offer the chance to see a planetary parade with two of the best waiting for you, plus no glaring Moon to wash out your skies,” said Dave Reneke, writer and publicist for Australasian Science Magazine.

“It all starts early evening with the easiest to find, the king of the planets, giant Jupiter nicely placed in the eastern sky just after sunset.”

You can’t miss it because it’s the brightest object in that part of the sky.

In a telescope Jupiter is a bright cream coloured ball with faint red or brown bands. Small telescopes will show Jupiter’s four brightest moons.

Around mid-evening, Saturn, is rising in the south-east. Saturn is a masterpiece in almost any telescope. The rings are easily visible as are a handful of its 62 brightest moons. It’s the planet that hooks more people on astronomy than any other.

By the way, Saturn is the lightest of all the planets. “If you had an ocean big enough, Saturn would actually float,” Dave said.

“Oh, and one word of warning – no matter what age you are, viewing Saturn for the first time through a telescope will be a life changing event. It was for me.”

Imagine sailing to the stars in a spacecraft powered only by sunlight! Sounds hard to believe doesn’t it, but it is possible. In fact, solar sails are fast becoming a reality.

Scientists have begun working with a new type of synthetic polymer material, 100 times thinner than paper, to test their theory that the sun can power interplanetary spacecraft of the future.

They believe that ‘photons’ or energy particles from the Sun could push a giant reflecting sail through space the way wind pushes a sailboat across water.

Hey, here’s a good tip for those wanting to know when the Space Station is passing over your town.

Sign up to NASA’s ‘Spot The Station’ program and receive free email or text message notices hours before the station flies overhead.

To sign up for ‘Spot the Station,’ visit: spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings.