SkyMatters: A clear April night will show the beauty of the stars

Look up at the sky on a clear April night and take in the beauty of the stars, writes Niall Smith. 

Look again a year later and the same beauty is there for all to see. Save for the changing position of the planets and the Moon, the night sky returns reassuringly each year, an unchanging backdrop to our lives. But if you look more closely or watch a little longer, even with just your own eyes, you will see evidence all around that we live in a dynamic universe that is constantly changing.

Sometimes the evidence comes from events happening now — eruptions on the surface of our sun that give us periods of enhanced aurora activity, or showers of shooting stars that herald the passage of the Earth through a comet’s tail.