Want to get into stargazing? A professional astronomer explains where to start
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Saturday, December 30, 2023
Through the holidays, many people head away from the bright city lights to go camping.
Key Points:
- Through the holidays, many people head away from the bright city lights to go camping.
- As a child, I loved such trips, and they helped cement my passion for the night sky, and for all things space.
- One of my great joys as an astronomer is sharing the night sky with people.
Learning the night sky
- A good place to start if you’re a budding astronomer is to learn your way around the night sky.
- Today, there are countless good apps to help you find your way around the night sky.
- A great example of such an app is Stellarium – a planetarium program allowing you to view the night sky from the comfort of your room or to plan an evening’s observing ahead of schedule.
- To memorise the night sky, you can try star hopping.
- By star hopping, you’ll slowly but surely learn your way around the night sky until the constellations become familiar friends.
Virtual observing
- Thankfully, software like Stellarium can give you a fantastic virtual observing experience.
- Imagine you want to see Saturn’s rings – a spectacular sight through even a small telescope.
- A virtual observing session is as simple as that – just pan around the sky until you find something you want to see, and zoom in.
A hobby best shared
- I’d recommend using planetarium programs like Stellarium to figure out what you want to see, then heading out to look at it with your own eyes.
- Astronomy is a wonderful hobby, and one that is best shared.
- I joined my local astronomy society, the West Yorkshire Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom, when I was just eight years old.
- At the society, we had weekly talks on astronomy, given by the club members and visiting astronomers from local universities.
- We also had regular night sky viewing nights, using the society’s very own telescope – a behemoth the members had built themselves.
- People who are passionate about their hobby love nothing more than sharing it with others.
Jonti Horner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.