#lunar observing

[rupesaltai]

Full moon (July 11th 12th, 2025)

You know the drill.

Moon Jul 11/12 2025

Jintu 250 - 800mm ISO 100

Canon EOS Rebel

[mythbadger]

Summer Learning - Astronomy

One of the great things about astronomy is that you can begin to enjoy the night sky for free. One of the downsides is that observing is very weather and location dependent. You will see less in a city than away from one. Despite this, unless you live in a city with a horrendous amount of pollution, even in the city you can see enough to get started.

Many people who first decide to give astronomy a try want to find all these cool-looking sights from pictures. As a beginner, attempting to find many of those objects may frustrate you without first getting your bearings around the night sky. Until those bearings have been established, look in your surrounding area to see if there are any observatories that hold public viewings. The city’s parks department might be know the answer. Communities that have a a college or university may have astronomy classes, and maybe even an observatory. Some universities will do public viewings too. These are great places to see more some great views found by more experienced astronomers. Plus, you may even get some help in your new journey.

If you want to start from the beginning, learning what you can see with your naked eyes is a start. Two good resources for starting come from Sky & Telescope magazine, though there are a LOT of other sources for this information. I like how Sky & Telescope breaks it down very simply for beginners. The first is something called “Sky at a Glance,” a page that is updated weekly. Each week is broken down into days and gives you a simple information, and they provide easy to understand drawings to help. For example, here is the information for Tuesday, July 24th:

The Moon shines with Saturn tonight, as shown here. Saturn, the most distant bright planet, is 3,420 times farther away and 35 times as wide.

This accompanies an image showing the position of the moon across three nights. Not only will it help you see both of these objects, but the image helps you learn a few stars as well.

The second resource is the ability to print out a basic planisphere for your location. Also referred to as a sky chart, you may have seen on of these before. It is possible to purchase a generic one (that will do well for most of the continental US), that is adjustable for date and time. Sky & Telescope has an Interactive Sky Chart, but it will require setting up a free account with the site to use. It is printed to match what you should see on a given date and time, so you can set it to when you want to go out. Some searching can also find you an iOS or Android sky chart app, some allowing you to aim your phone at the sky and have objects identified.

A really cool alternative to Sky & Telescope’s Interactive Sky Chart is a basic Star Wheel from THIS site. What I like is that they provide a version for city use, only showing the brighter stars that might be seen, helping highlight those stars a beginner is more likely to recognize. They also provide a non-city version as you improve.

Take some time to start learning some stars. Do not worry about learning them all, but try to identify the bright ones and the shapes they help make up. Both the shapes (constellations) and the stars will help you learn to find objects. Explore the moon with the help of a moon map. Start with the labeled image found HERE, then expand with some more advanced maps as your knowledge grows.

One last item to consider if you want to get started with learning your way around the sky. Binoculars and telescopes seem like wonderful tools, but they can also turn away beginners when the views do not match expectation. Learn your way around the sky, mainly named stars and constellations. Then try your hand at using binoculars. Look around a bit and get used to finding brighter stars with them. When you become comfortable, begin challenging yourself by searching for Messier objects. It is one of the more famous lists of objects in amateur astronomy, and a great starting point for looking at more than just the moon and stars. Don’t purchase a telescope until someone with more experience can help guide you, both in how to use one and picking one that best serves your goals.

There is definitely too much to cover in a simple post. The goal was to focus on some strategies to get you started.

1. Begin observing with just your eyes. Learn your way around what you can see using sky charts, learning stars and constellations.

2. Examine the moon and learn some features. This is a good point to introduce binoculars.

3. Gain experience with binoculars by finding the stars you have learned. 

4. Check out the Messier list to practice your binocular skills and begin finding more than just individual stars.

One last item to consider. Meteor showers can be fun to watch, but it is not uncommon to find beginners getting discouraged when observing one seems underwhelming. The Perseid meteor shower commonly hits around August 11th and 12th. It is one of the more reliable events in astronomy and this year has some conditions that make it favorable to watch. Space.com has a useful article to help you plan. With that, enjoy some more summer learning.