It was a just another mad summers evening.  The day after midsummers night. Two brave amateur astronomers decide to drive a 50 mile round trip to climb up to the 850 foot high summit of  Beacon Hill. The challenge...if climbing up the hill in 27 degrees Celsius was not enough, was to carry 2 pairs of binoculars, 1 seat, 1 rucksack stuffed full of water bottles, a hand-held GPS, eyepieces and other goodies, a 5" reflector and its base along with the heavy counterbalance weights. Oh and to get up the hill before 3 of the 4 planets set at 10:15pm and the Moon at it's largest since 1987 rises!

We arrive late due to a talkative builder holding me up at my house. It is 10pm. The Sun has set. The light is slowly fading. We load up like 2 mules for the trek up. As we ascend Jupiter sits like the star of Bethlehem at the top of the hill. We race off with a fast walking pace hoping to get to the top to catch the planets.

After the 370 foot trek to the top we arrive to be confronted by a gorgeous red sunset and Venus shining bright quiet high above the horizon. I shove the scopes tripod into the ground as Brendan collapses into a chair to catch his breath. We both realise that we had calculated the planets setting time based on typical horizons. What we have from this height is the best horizons possible for almost a 360 degrees panoramic view. It's 10:15pm and the planets did not set for at least another 30 minutes so we catch our breaths.

We unpack our bins and easily capture Venus in the lenses. Sweeping down to the West and into the red glow of the atmosphere we see Mercury twinkling like a star. Moving up towards the South we see a tiny spec...this is Saturn. No longer discernible as the ringed planet, it now resides at some 1.5 billion km from the Earth and moving away fast. The last time I looked at Saturn in the spring it was much bigger being some 300 million miles closer.

As we setup the scope (which is buffeted by a slight cool wind) and view these wondrous jewels in the sky, 4 teenagers arrive and with interest to share the views through the scope of these planets. Amongst sounds of 'wow' and 'cool' we move from Mercury setting fast now to Venus then to Saturn which we can barely make out the rings on, even at 180x magnification. We show them Jupiter, 3 of its moons easily visible,  Io and Ganymede off to the left as seen in my scope and Europa to the right. My young keen eyes spot Callisto just at the bottom so close that I am not sure it is really there. The two distinct cloud bands stretch across Jupiter's massive girth.

We look up and Venus is gone, disappeared into the mirky red atmosphere on the Western horizon. A shout from behind me and Brendan "The Moon Man" spots the large red Moon slowly creeping up from the East, it looks bloated, it looks like the Sun setting.......
Through the bins you notice the eerie clouds that wrap around it's waist, the red moon crystal clear due to lack of heat from the ground. We are looking across miles of fields with no sign of towns in the way. This makes the air extremely still and the viewing fantastic!

We point the scope with the 40mm eyepiece at the Moon and everyone quietly soaks up the view. The only disturbance...mobile phones ringing, friends asking what the teenagers are up to, in reply "were up on Beacon with a couple of guys and their cool telescope and binoculars looking at planets and the Moon......". To me the Moon has never looked so good, a painting on the sky.

As the Moon rises so it's apparent size shrinks, less atmosphere to distort it and no frame of reference as we had near the horizon. The teenagers say their goodbyes, one of them says  "I'm going to tell my parents how good this was and that I want to get my telescope back out of the loft". Brendan and I are left on top of this now dark hill. In the quiet darkness, we enjoy the views of the stars through the unpolluted skies.

Just before we pack up I am sitting looking West. I shout across to Brendan to look at the sky, after realising where I am pointing he turns around and as if to place the 'icing on the cake' of this great evening there hanging in the upper atmosphere the wispy filaments of Noctilucent clouds. Forming some 50 miles above the Earths surface and some ten times higher than cirrus clouds in an area of the atmosphere called the mesopause, these clouds are tiny ice crystals and they shine like illuminated cotton wool and are truly remarkable!

So after much gazing we decide to pack up. The temperature is now 20 degrees Celsius and I am cold in shorts and a vest. Dreaming of the hedge back at Cliddesden to keep us out of the wind, we head off back down the hill dropping the 370 feet back to the car. On the way Brendan comments "this would be a great place for a star party....." and I have to agree!