Getting Started: Learning The Night Sky

Getting Started: Learning The Night Sky

  September 10, 2013    Unknown

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Astronomy is a fascinating hobby for the beginner and doesn't necessarily require complicated or expensive equipment to get started. Equipped with nothing more than the naked eye, a map of the stars and an inquisitive mind it is possible to observe many fascinating features of the night sky. Once you are ready to take the next step, a good pair of binoculars is often a much better investment than a similarly priced telescope. Binoculars are simple to use and readily available and will provide you with an excellent view of the moon and planets; constellations; meteor showers and even the odd deep space object. In fact, this is probably the best way to start - it allows you to learn the night sky and navigate easily to points of interest.

A view of Orion from my suburban, light-polluted, garden

There are plenty of books and magazines that you can use to help you find your way around; 'Philip's Stargazing 2013' or a 'Philip's Planisphere' are both popular choices, however, I would particularly recommend 'Turn Left At Orion' by Guy Consolmagno and Dan M. Davis. Written specifically for beginners, it is the perfect reference book for the amateur astronomer, providing easy to follow instructions on how to find the most common celestial objects as well as illustrating how they will appear through low and high powered scopes.

For the more technically minded, there are some excellent interactive planetarium applications available for the home computer, providing a 3D view of the night sky based on the date, time and location. Stellarium is a free application for Windows, Mac and Linux and is extremely popular due to its ease of use and the number of advanced features it boasts, including telescope control, large object databases and detailed information about the objects you may wish to view.

A screenshot from Stellarium

As most people probably don't want to be setting up their home computer out in the garden, there are a number of excellent mobile planetarium Apps available for smartphone and tablet devices, that provide a highly portable interactive sky map. The more advanced of these Apps provide a similar level of features to the free desktop applications, making them a useful tool when trying to find a particular object in the night sky.

Remember, learning your way around the constellations is a fascinating way to start observing the night sky and does not require anything more complicated than a map of the stars and a pair of binoculars. If you do decide to take things further, learning to navigate the stars from the beginning will help you out immensely when you eventually decide to take the plunge and buy your first scope.