Skywatchers across the Arab world will have excellent chances this August to see the band of the Milky Way with the naked eye, especially from dark places free of light pollution.

Majed Abu Zahra, head of the Jeddah Astronomy Society, said the faint band stretching across the sky is our own galaxy seen edge-on. Summer nights, he explained, point observers towards its dense centre of stars, gas and cosmic dust.

He added that the lack of moonlight on the coming evenings will make the view even better.