Archive:Stargazing

File:Star trails over mountain.jpg

Whats the Appeal?

The clear starry sky (with either no visible moon or the moon in as a thin crescent), properly dark adapted is a beautiful thing. Depending on the time of year, a subtle band of smoky light constitutes the outline of our galaxy and away from bright town and city lights is a showy splendor with bright spots, voids and intricate rivers of light.

Often times, it is simiarlity and contrast that strike our mind with beauty, and engage our imagination. Indeed a most beautiful sight is merely a crescant moon wedged between two bright planets, hovering just above the glow of twilight, or the moon apparently huge in size (this is just an visual trick, see ) dominating a valley near a southern horizon seen from a overlook on the top of the hill in town).

Initial experiences

Seen from the gaze of a beginner, a clear sky can seem almost chaotic and confusing with stars spreadly throughout the sky, often clearly in groups and elusive patterns. The stars in the sky slowly change hour by hour and season by season. The moon mystically moves throughout the sky; slowly growing in size and brightness then shrinking in size. Many prospective observers remain deeply concerned and intimidating in learning how to get around in the sky and how to find interesting things to observe.

Many People are Not aware of the interesting and pleasant observations they might be able to do with little to no equiptment. There awareness of the beauty of the universe comes from the famed and well published images of the mighty hubble telescope; A very powerful telescope however in the boundary of space. To compare any possible astronomical observing experience or sight to the famously powerful images of the hubble is a ridiculous in many different ways.

perhaps it would be like boarding a large commercial airplane and land a few thousand miles away and tell our your friends you have learned, personally, how to fly. All visual observing experiences are so much more limited that the capabilities of one of the most expensive telescopes ever created. yet, like personally flying a small cessna airplane, there is unmistakeable joy in the simple vision, than in the grandiouse picture.

For a photo, however dramatic will always be a photo, yet the actual site is awe-inspiring and boggling to the imagination; with no observing aid at all, looking at the right place under dark conditions you can see the mighty andromeda galaxy, a distant and intricate sight so far away that it has taken the light of its distant starfields '2.2 million years to reach your very eyes.

Thus to begin properly in this hobby, we must explain where things are in the sky, help you develop a plan to learn and use the constellations and to give you interesting sights to begin your observing career

Prepare to observe

The Constellation, Ursa Major and Ursa minor

Every beginner wonders Where do I begin?? The answer seems all too simple. Astronomy is a hobby of looking at distant splendors with a telescope and the unfortunately result for too many people (and worst of all; kids) is the ubiquitous skinny telescope in the closet; never used.

The truth is that for people that neither know what to look for, or how to see, the telescope is a very poor tool for both. So whatever you do, Don't begin with the telescopes, begin with the sky. The sky?

Right, the sky. Your first job is to begin the pychologically hard step of finding the major constellations.

So the first thing you will need is a dark place where you intend to observe, a chart to show you the constellations, and a plan to get your bearings. I would suggest you time your initial observation to coincide with some interesting astronomical sight.

we will discuss each in better detail.

Choose a location

The Basics; no blinding neighborhood lights, a clear sky, and a low horizon

Most people that think about observing celestial objects think of far-away skyscapes in the desert where the man-made lights are eliminated. While this might be useful later on, such a place is a Hard place to get your bearings. More likely (anyway) you live in the town and city and your backyard is a good enough place to learn the constellations. Here's the basics of what you need.

• you need to keep all (local) bright lights out of your eyes. Turn off the porch light, find some kind of shadow to get the neighbors security light out of your eyes. Use a red flashlight (or make a flashlight red with cloth), to read charts and make notes.
• you need a clear sky. Even broken clouds will prevent you from seeing the patterns you need to see to start learning how to recognize constellations.
• you need a good horizon. You need to be able to observe most of the way to the horizon without trees or buildings. The North horizon is particularly important.
• lastly close is a good thing. Close means comfortable, it means you can do it more often (important when your learning new stuff)

Sometimes the backyards isn't the best place. But often a neighborhood park, river, lake shore, or overlook is great. If your nearest place is particularly dark, you will actually work a little harder. Darker skies means more stars, Which will make it tough to see the basic patterns of the bright stars that form the constellations. Take heart, A little difficulty beginning is rewarded later on- When particularly beautiful cosmic sights is in the back yard or around the corner instead of hours away.

A chart (and other equiptment)

A planisphere is a chart that can be turned to the correct time and date to produce a reasonable copy of the stars in the sky

So if you were going on a trip, one of the more indispensable items would be a map, and preferably one showing the major intersections. Similarly in the night sky, you need a map as well. Unfortunately the earths' wobble through the season creates some definite changes in the sky over time. What happens then is that the sky rotates around a star in the north called Polaris (or the North star). You will either need a chart that rotates (called a planisphere) or you will have to use the correct chart for the year.

It is important that the chart is oriented correctly in the sky. Often this holding the chart above you as you view it. You might become disoriented and confused if you sit the chart on a table. Remember, It is also very important to Use a red light to view the chart at night. This allows you to read in the dark without spoiling your night vision for looking at the sky.

Another option is to use webpage that shows the position of the stars from your location at a particular time. One example can be found at http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/