Standing beneath the Milky Way has always been a beautiful sight, if you were lucky enough to find dark skies on a dark night ... of those vast spiral arms of stars and dust clouds.

Taking pictures of distant stars is no longer just the work of astronomers ... start to show star trails and capture their movement as they travel across the night sky, so experiment with timings.

April skies feature close planet pairings, a bright meteor shower, and stunning views of the ancient star cluster M3.

Some notable meteor showers are coming up as well as a solar eclipse, so there's plenty to look out for in the night sky. Here though, most of the best stargazing apps are available on IOS or ...

with the last week of March ideal for grabbing one last longing look at the bright stars of winter before they sink into the western horizon and disappear from the evening night sky for six months.