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Astronomy Books
Steve Owens
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Published:
March 18, 2013

Stargazing For Dummies

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Overview

Reach for the stars

Stargazing is the practice of observing the night sky and its contents - from constellations through to planets and galaxies. Stars and other night sky objects can be seen with the naked eye, or seen in greater numbers and in more detail with binoculars or a telescope.

Stargazing For Dummies offers you the chance to explore the night sky, providing a detailed guide to the main constellations and also offering advice on viewing other night sky objects such as planets and nebulae. It's a

great introduction to a fun new hobby, and even provides a fun way to get the kids outside while doing something educational!

  • Gives you an introduction to looking at the sky with binoculars or a telescope
  • Offers advice on photographing the night sky
  • Without needing to get your head around mind-bending theories, you can take part in some practical physics

If you're looking for easy-to-follow guidance on getting to know the night sky, Stargazing For Dummies has you covered.

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About The Author

Steve Owens is a freelance science writer and presenter with a passion for astronomy. He has been the recipient of the 'Campaign for Dark Skies' Award for Dark Sky Preservation, and he was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for public science engagement.

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stargazing for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Stargazing is a fascinating hobby, but there’s an awful lot to gaze at up there. Eighty-eight constellations and hundreds of other objects both bright and faint mean that wherever you look when you’re stargazing, there’s something to see. If you want to make sense of it all, and make sure that your kit is properly set up, this Cheat Sheet is here to help.
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Articles from
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As an excited newcomer to stargazing, you’ll want to get outside and start straight away. Here’s a quick list of targets that you can tick off on your way to mastering the night sky. If you’re hunting dark-sky targets, you’ll need to wait for a night when the Moon isn’t in the sky.Stargazing target: The MoonEarth’s closest celestial neighbour is a splendid sight in the night sky, even if it does spoil the view of fainter objects.
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Following are ten things to look for the next time you’re lucky enough to be out stargazing under a dark sky. You will have to travel to see everything discussed here: some are only visible from certain parts of the Earth and at certain times of year.Dark-sky stargazing: So many stars!The first thing you’ll notice as you move from city to countryside is the sheer number of stars overhead on a clear night.
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Most stargazers are content with just using their eyes, whether unaided or looking through a pair of binoculars or a telescope. You may be one of them, but every so often, you may see such a beautiful sight in the night sky that you want to photograph it. There are a few different ways you can capture astronomical images using a camera: Starscape astrophotography uses just the camera lens to capture the image, as you would with a daytime landscape shot.
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When you’re moving beyond stargazing and into astrophotography, choosing the right camera for is often difficult. Three basic camera types allow you to do something a little different: Single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras Point-and-click cameras Webcams and CCDs (charge-coupled devices) Astrophotography camera types: SLRs SLR cameras give you full control of the various manual settings, which is really important when you’re doing astrophotography.
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Stargazing telescopes have a lot of different components and moving parts, and you should become familiar with all of them and how best to care for them before you use the telescope for stargazing. Following are a few initial tips on handling your telescope before and after use. Know what’s what before you start Setting up your telescope indoors first is always a good idea so that you can see what you’re doing.
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So long as you know what you’re buying, there’s no such thing as a bad telescope. If you’re on a limited budget, then a cheap, light telescope may be just the thing for you, allowing you to explore the Moon’s surface and a few other bright objects. If you’re planning to spend a bit more on a telescope, then you can start to overcome some of the problems associated with cheaper models.
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Maybe you have two different stargazing sites in mind and want to figure out which one will work best. Or perhaps you want to keep a record of how your sky quality changes over time. You can, of course, buy a light meter and take measurements, but a much simpler way of calculating sky quality is to count stars.
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You will likely need to constantly re-adjust the focus of your telescope when stargazing, because everyone’s eyes are different. You’ll want to know how to focus your telescope before you try it in the dark, so try it during the daylight hours until you are comfortable with how it works. The eyepieces are what magnify and focus the light for your eyes.
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When stargazing with your naked eyes, you can see more than 6,000 stars, 88 constellations, dozens of faint fuzzies, five planets, one Moon and more. A star map helps you become familiar with the constellations and the stars and faint fuzzies in them and means that you’re never at a loss for something to look for in the night sky.
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The first time you take your binoculars out stargazing, you may be disappointed to find that all the stars, planets and faint fuzzies that you’d planned on observing are dancing all over the place when you look through the eyepieces. Don’t worry, the universe isn’t moving; it’s just you. No matter how still you try to hold your binoculars, small wobbles in your arm, hands or head, and even your breathing, will cause the stars to move to such an extent that you may struggle to see much.
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When you’re ready to invest in a stargazing telescope, start by looking at the different models of telescope tube – the bits with the optics in. You can find quite a few different designs. Reflecting telescopes use mirrors to gather the light. Refracting telescopes use lenses. There are different kinds of reflectors, but in general the refractors all follow the same basic design.
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Stargazing is a fascinating hobby, but there’s an awful lot to gaze at up there. Eighty-eight constellations and hundreds of other objects both bright and faint mean that wherever you look when you’re stargazing, there’s something to see. If you want to make sense of it all, and make sure that your kit is properly set up, this Cheat Sheet is here to help.
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Both northern and southern hemisphere stargazers are treated to many striking constellations that are visible any night of the year – the northern and southern polar constellations. These constellations are what’s called circumpolar, meaning they never rise or set. That’s very handy, since it means they are above the horizon all year, and are visible all night, so you’ll soon get used to finding them and using them as signposts to other constellations.
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Stargazing can keep you busy all year long, with more than 88 constellations visible in the sky, from the big bright obvious ones like Orion the Hunter, to the tiny faint hard-to-spot ones like Mensa the Table. Many are best seen during specific seasons of the year. Stargazing: Constellations of December, January and February The constellations in the following map are best seen in the months of December, January and February.
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Astronomers measure a star’s brightness using something called the magnitude scale, where each star – or planet or faint fuzzy – has a magnitude brightness value. When looking up at stars from the Earth – which you’ll do – astronomers measure how bright the star appears to them. This is the star’s apparent magnitude.
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The Moon is the Earth’s nearest neighbour in space, and it can be the brightest thing in the night sky. It’s also one of the most amazing sights seen through even a small telescope. If you look at only one thing through a telescope, it should be the Moon. But you need to observe it in just the right conditions.
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Stargazers identify stars and other objects in relation to which constellation they’re in. No matter what you’re looking for in the night sky, you can find it in one of the 88 official constellations. Star maps or astronomy guidebooks often list the names of stars in a seemingly baffling array of numbers, letters and abbreviations.
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Just as you can mark the Moon’s position each night against the fixed stars and constellation patterns, you can mark the planets, too. The planets also make paths against the fixed stars. Over the course of a year, these paths join into one line that circles the entire sky. This line is known as the zodiac, and its more scientific name is the ecliptic.
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Constellations have a lot more stars than the Greek alphabet has letters, so once all the brighter ones have been given a Bayer letter, astronomers have to use a different system for naming stars. As a result, all stars within a constellation are given a number too. Stars within a constellation are numbered from west to east (right to left in the northern hemisphere, and left to right in the southern).
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Stargazing at the Sun is incredibly dangerous. You should never look at the Sun directly, even with your naked eyes, and especially not with a telescope or binoculars. If you do, you can easily blind yourself. So how can you observe the Sun safely? The best way is to join a local astronomical society or club and get the members to show you the Sun through their telescopes.
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The Moon is the Earth’s nearest neighbour in space, and when you’re stargazing, it can be the brightest thing in the night sky. It’s also one of the most amazing sights seen through even a small telescope. If you look at only one thing through a telescope, it should be the Moon. You need to observe the Moon in just the right conditions.
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The Sun is Earth’s local star. It looks much bigger, brighter and hotter than the stars you see at night, but that’s only because you’re much closer to the Sun than you are to the other stars. For example, say that you got into a spaceship – the fastest ever built – and flew towards the next-closest star, α Centauri.
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Stargazing through binoculars or a telescope is hugely rewarding, but imagine if you could capture stunning images of what you see to share with the world. Astrophotography awaits, and with recent developments in equipment, amateur stargazers are beginning to obtain images that rival those that were possible with professional telescopes only decades ago.
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Even if you’re not into stargazing, you’ve heard of the Twilight Zone. Is it real? Yes, but not in a spooky way. Just after the Sun sets in the evening or just before it rises in the morning, the sky is still lit up – a time known as twilight. This illumination is because the Sun can still shine its light on the atmosphere above you, even if it can’t shine its light directly on you.
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Every culture in the world has its own myths and legends and had different ways of joining up the stars into patterns. The ancient Greek constellation names were passed on only by historical accident, and it’s these names that are the formally recognised astronomical constellations. Chinese astronomy has 31 constellations (called enclosures), while the Native Americans also drew patterns in the stars, as did Australian Aborigines, the ancient Egyptians and cultures the world over.
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You can find a lot of great stargazing signposts in the southern skies — and none more so than the Southern Cross, Crux. The constellations that you can find by using the Southern Cross as a signpost are shown the figure. Picture Crux as a traditional Christian cross, with the long axis running up and down and the short axis running across this, higher up than the centre line of the long axis.
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