Welcome to the second instalment of my three-part Astronomy blog series with this chapter talking about beginner targets in the night sky that you can find and observe with your unaided eye (without binoculars or a telescope). If you missed the first blog post, that talked about understanding how light travels and the time it’s taken to reach our eyes from distant stars, you can view that here.

The following list will give you an introduction into my personal favourite beginner targets. Because it’s Autumn, I’ll make this as relevant as possible to what you can see in the Autumn skies so you can start to see these yourself right away on the next cloud free night.

I’ll also direct you to some useful books, websites and Apps to help you with your stargazing journey. Any apps and websites I suggest, my advice would be to search up ‘How to’ videos on YouTube to learn how to get the most from them.

• The Moon

The moon is the brightest object in the night sky and because it orbits around the Earth, you will find its location in the sky can change from day to day and it also has different phases lasting 29.5 days per cycle (from new moon to new moon).

Perhaps the first thing you will notice is the contrasting areas of bright and darker regions on its surface. The darker regions are the ‘newer’ parts of the moon’s surface which we call ‘maria’ (the latin word for ‘seas’ which early astronomers incorrectly assumed they were). Shortly after the moon was formed around 4.5 billion years ago, it was very volcanic and asteroids crashing into the moon caused lava (molten rock) to break through its surface and solidify causing the darker contrast we see today.

If you do happen to have a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, looking at the moon will unveil even more detail including the thousands of craters covering the surface left behind from impacts during its long history. If the moon is in its ‘waxing’ or ‘waning’ phases (i.e. partially shadowed), then look at the moon close to the edge of the shadow where the crater details can be seen in even greater detail.

Suggested website/App - to determine the moonrise and moonset times each day, plus the current phase of the moon, use a website called Clear Outside (link to https://clearoutside.com/). An App by the same name is also available. This website/app will also give you an hourly forecast of how clear the sky will be in your area over the next few days – a great App for all stargazing activity!

• Stars & Star Constellations

Learning and finding some of the ‘easier’ constellations and stars in the night sky can be one of the first steps into astronomy as they provide key reference points to help you navigate the night sky should you decide to venture in to buying a telescope. But they’re also fun to learn on their own so you can impress your family and friends on clear nights.

One of the most popular constellations is called ‘the plough’ or ‘the big dipper’ which is formed of 7 stars. You can also use this constellation to find the North Star (called ‘Polaris’), which is the star closest to being directly above the Earth’s northern axis at the North Pole. If you were stood at the North Pole, this star would be directly above you, but if you were stood on the Equator, it would be sitting on the horizon. Use the two end stars of ‘the plough’ to guide you to the North Star as shown in the photo. For context, the Plough is also part of a bigger constellation called ‘Ursa Major’.

Another popular constellation is Orion, which is best seen between January and April but you can start to see this from late Autumn. This constellation also features Orion’s Belt and a bright star called ‘Betelgeuse’ which was featured in my last blog (link back to last blog) where I included a photo of Orion and Betelgeuse.

An excellent book I still use today and one I recommend to beginners for learning about constellations is called StarFinder for Beginners. 

• Star Clusters

Keeping with stars, we can see also see ‘star clusters’ where hundreds and sometimes thousands of new stars have been born in the same region of space over millions of years from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust (called a nebula). In time, these stars drift away from each other, though some clusters of stars can be so tightly bound to each other by gravity that they survive as clusters of stars for billions of years. Our own sun is likely to have been part of a star cluster soon after its birth around 4.6 billion years ago before drifting into its current position away from its early neighbours.

Located over 400 light years away, one of the most famous clusters that we can see with the unaided eye from October is the ‘Pleiades’ cluster. This is also often called ‘the Seven Sisters’ due to seven of its 800 stars being the brightest of the cluster and therefore the easiest to see.

Best viewed in November when it sits higher in the night sky, use the three stars in Orion’s belt to guide your eye to the right and you’ll find the cluster. Strangely, you can sometimes see the cluster better when you don’t look directly at it, but just to the side of the cluster! This is known as ‘averted vision’.

• Planets

Most people are unaware that we can see planets in the sky all throughout the year. The four planets that are most visible to the unaided eye are Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but knowing where and when you can see them is key.

Let’s start with Venus – the second planet from the sun. Depending on Venus’ position, if it’s not behind the sun we can occasionally catch a glimpse of Venus in the hours immediately before sunrise (in the East) or in the hours just following sunset (in the West) low to the horizon. When Venus can be viewed, due to its highly reflective dense atmosphere, it is the second brightest object in the night sky (after the moon).

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and much further away from the Earth than Venus, but due to its size it is the third brightest object in the night sky. Jupiter can be seen most of the year and is currently found looking roughly East – it’s so bright you can’t miss it! If you have a pair of binoculars handy, point them at Jupiter and you will see up to four of its largest moons lining up either side of the planet as shown in the photo!

Finally, a quick introduction to Mars and Saturn. Mars has a red/orange tint and very bright, where Saturn has a subtle golden colour but not as bright at the other planets mentioned above. If you decide to buy a good telescope one day, you can see Saturn’s ring!

The best resource I can recommend for finding and viewing the planets is a website called Stellarium. You can change the time to find out what you can see in the sky (and where) at a particular day/time. You can also download the App version from this website and can be great for helping you find star constellations.

• The International Space Station (ISS)

Look at the night sky long enough and you’ll be sure to see several satellites passing overhead, almost like stars quietly gliding across the sky. Don’t confuse these with planes, which generally have flashing red or green lights.

However, did you also know you can sometimes see the ISS pass overhead? Around the size of an average football pitch, the ISS is mankind’s largest ever object put into space and goes around the Earth every 90 minutes at a low-orbit altitude of around 250 miles (roughly the distance from Sheffield to the South coast). If you want to learn more about the ISS, this page is a good read.

We can see the ISS due to the sun’s rays reflecting off its huge solar panel array but only at night, and more specifically, just after sunset or just before sunrise due to the angle of reflection needed to reflect the light to us. Therefore, we can sometimes see the ISS pass overhead from roughly the Western horizon moving towards the East as a very bright star (you can’t miss it if you have your timing right and looking West). Sometimes we can be lucky enough to see this several times in the week if the ISS passes over the UK during the right time frames (as above), or they can be few and far between. But when you do see it – it’s a great sight knowing what an amazing and significant piece of science and engineering is passing over our heads.

To find out when you can next see the ISS pass overhead (and of course you’ll need a clear sky!), I would recommend downloading a free App called ‘Heavens Above’ that has a dedicated ISS option to let you know if any sightings are due at your location over the next few days and the timings. Search for this on the App Store or Google Play.

Summary & The Next Blog

I hope the above gives you an introduction into stargazing using a few websites and Apps to guide you in your journey. To see the night sky as best as you can, aim to reduce the amount of light around you (e.g. house lights, garden lights, street lights and even looking at your phones). Give your eyes around 10 minutes to get used to the dark as your improved night vision will then help you see more in the night sky.

In my next and final blog, I will introduce you to Astrophotography – a method that can allow you to see and photograph even more things in the night sky you wouldn’t think possible including our nearest galaxy over 2.5 million light years away!

 

About the Author:

Jordan Mawbey is a senior marketing professional day-to-day, but his hobby outside of work is Astronomy, Cosmology and Astrophotography. Jordan enjoys sharing his knowledge on these subjects to others to help them become more enthusiastic about looking at the night sky, understanding what is out there, and how you can photograph these objects in more detail. Follow his Instagram photography page at https://www.instagram.com/jjm_astro/