Getting Started

Astronomy is a vast subject. The beginner can easily be overwhelmed with what he or she thinks that they need to learn to be able to appreciate and enjoy the night sky. Knowing where to start is possibly one of the biggest questions but in fact, with a methodical and focussed approach you can be up and running, identifying objects and navigating your way around the heavens in no time.

This is a great pleasure and achievement in itself but the real buzz comes from understanding just what you are looking at. Stars are no longer merely points of light. That grey fuzzy blob that you can see in your binoculars is no longer, well, a grey fuzzy blob but a vast cloud of gas, hundreds of light years wide, hundreds of light years away and the birthplace of new stars forming right now, or maybe a cluster of stars thousands of light years away containg thousands of stars all held together by gravity or even another galaxy, millions of light years away containing billions of stars.

Yes, these things can be seen, so long as you know when and where to look. So let's get started by learning some fundamental skills that will lay the groundwork to enable us to do this..........

Get your bearings

OK, so, one of the first things you'll need to do when stepping outside under the night sky is to get your bearings. You need to know which direction is which from your observation site to know where to start looking. For example, it's not much use deciding to find an object only to discover that the part of the sky is obscured by a building, trees, or whatever, or even that the object is not visible at this particular time of year.

Of course, if you're going to observe mainly from the same site, such as your backyard, then you'll only need to do this once. One easy way to get yourself a cheap compass or download a compass app onto your smartphone. That will tell you where North and the rest of the cardinal points are from your location.

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Once you have your bearings, take a look around you at your environment. What are the things that are blocking your view of the sky? Buildings, trees, etc. Where are the sources of light that could potentially spoil your dark sky? Security lights, city sky glow, street lamps, etc

All these things will help you decide where to set up and get the best view of the sky. Of course, you may not have much choice about this. For example, if you live in a flat or apartment and are viewing from a balcony, you may only have limited directions that you can look at. But don't worry, other guides on this site will help you to recognise when your particular object is in the optimum position for you to observe.

Find The Pole Star

So, once you have found your directions from your site, you can set about finding what is perhaps the most important starting point in the sky (for the Northern Hemisphere), the pole star, also known as Polaris. Many people mistakenly think that the pole star is the brightest star in the sky, not so. In fact, it's actually a fairly ordinary star in terms of brightness so it doesn't stand out immediately. The great thing about the Pole Star is that it happens to be in line with the northern axis of the Earth, so if you are facing the pole star you are facing North. So, even if you haven't a clue where North is and you haven't got a compass, you can use the following method to find the Pole Star and hence North.

Since the Pole Star is not particularly bright you can use one of the most famous constellations in the Northern Hemisphere, The Great Bear.

From which ever location you observe, one of the first things to get familiar with is which direction is which. Usually you will be observing from the same site, your home perhaps, so once you have established the directions here you won't need to do this again. There are many ways to determine this and these days it's as easy as a compass app on your smart phone if you have one or a novelty compass from the pound shop.

This may sound like a trivial exercise but being aware of directions will enable you to quickly determine what you can see and what you can't from your chosen observing site. This is because, for most of us, there will be immovable and tall objects in the way in some directions; buildings, trees, fences etc as well as light sources that pollute the sky with light in that direction. Dark, unobstructed sky real estate is hard to come by in urban areas.

If you can't get hold of a compass there are a couple of good ways to find out.

Firstly, during the daytime, when the Sun is out around noon, place a stick in the ground or hold one vertically. Face the direction of the sticks shadow and that is roughly North. This is only approximate but it's good enough for us. The second method is, in the night sky, find the Pole Star. This is for all purposes exactly North.

How do you find the pole star? We'll be learning that here.