To learn the constellations you need a star map that accounts for the rotation of the earth and its orbit around the sun: a planisphere. The Night Sky is an improved planisphere specially designed to minimize distortion.

If you want to look at the moon itself, the phase of the moon determines what will be visible. When you want to look at the moon with a telescope or binoculars, the part of the moon along the terminator (the line dividing the dark and light sides) is where the craters show up best because that’s where they cast the longest shadows. Read the article with the first link above for more information and yearly moon calendars you can print out.

Since both the planets and our observing platform are moving, the apparent motions of the planets are quite complex. It’s rather like watching people strolling through the park from the point of view of a merry-go-round.

The planets are visible in some detail in even small telescopes. Even Binoculars will show the moons of Jupiter. Almost any astronomical telescope will show the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, and the polar caps and subtle dark markings on Mars (when Mars is closest to the earth, near opposition).

Most comets are only visible when they are near the sun, so they must be discovered, charted, and followed on an unannounced schedule. If you are interested in comet observation check NASA’s What’s Observable Tonight page. There you can enter your location and observing time and it will provide a list of observable objects in coordinates of Right Ascension and Degrees of Declination. Using The Night Skychart you will be able to use these coordinates to find reference stars or constellations in the sky that will make it easy to find the objects described on the page.

Large meteors are typically fragments of asteroids, but the tiny ones are more commonly associated with comets that leave their litter in orbital streams. When the earth passes through a meteor stream all the particles are moving in parallel. Our perspective as we watch them come toward us, makes them appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. These streams of meteors are called meteor showers. The earth cycles through them at predictable intervals. Some of the larger showers can produce hundreds of meteors per hour. Occasionally a meteor storm can bring in hundreds per minute!

Developing a taste for “eclipse chasing” will make a world traveler out of you.  Many people do it as a way to see parts of the world they would otherwise never travel to.  The Observing Techniques link above takes you to MrEclipse.com, a terrific resource.  Learn to observe eclipses safely, and enjoy. Remember, NEVER look directly at the sun without proper safety filters.

Beginning observers will benefit from a textual description of some of the different Deep Sky objects that can be seen such as Galaxies, Nebula, Globular Clusters, and Supernova for example. After that, a simple atlas will document some of the better known and easier to locate objects. Our own Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars and Sky Atlas for Small Telescopes and Binoculars are good starters that will have you deep sky observing very quickly. The Messier Catalog is another great list of objects to train your attention on.  Once you start observing you should get accustomed to taking notes of what you see in your eyepiece(s). We have included a link to a simple downloadable log sheet above.

You don’t light your living room with bare bulbs, you don’t like people coming at you with high beams on, why should we have mercury vapor lamps everywhere with the light shining directly into our eyes (glare) and with a large percentage of it ending up as wasted energy shining up into the sky? Shielded lighting makes sense for everyone! Learn about light pollution at the International Dark-Sky Association at the link above.

Look for polar orbiters moving north or south. These satellites are looking down. They map out a different strip of the earth on each pass. Those not looking down generally orbit from west to east, since the eastward rotation of the earth gives them a boost in that direction upon launch. Certain satellites have large solar panels that reflect sunlight like mirrors and will appear to flash occasionally. The Heavens Above web site does a wonderful job of keeping you up to date with what we have put into the sky.

Each day APOD brings you a beautiful and interesting tidbit of astronomy, often in the breaking news category, but always something that will amaze you. Together with a short paragraph of explanation and dozens of links to background on various technical levels these images will broaden your knowledge of astronomical objects and principals in just a few minutes a day. The archive for this site is HUGE: a picture/article per day dating from June, 1995. You might consider making it your home page! Above are a few links to other great resources.