Learn the night sky
Start with the lessons in order, or jump to what you need. Everything here works with the naked eye or binoculars; no telescope required.
Lessons
01
How to start stargazing: your first night
Everything you need for a first night under the stars: when to go, where, what to bring and what to look for first.
02
Dark adaptation: let your eyes do the work
Why your eyes need 20 minutes in the dark, how red light helps and the trick astronomers use to see faint things.
03
Finding your way around the sky
Directions, altitude and the hand ruler: how to describe where anything is in the night sky.
04
Why the Moon has phases
The Moon is always half lit by the Sun. What changes is how much of that half we see, and that explains every phase and moonrise.
05
How to tell a planet from a star
Planets shine steadily, sit along one line in the sky and wander from week to week. Here is how to spot them.
06
Constellations and asterisms: the map of the sky
The 88 official constellations, the familiar shapes inside them and a simple route through the seasonal sky.
07
What causes the aurora
From the Sun to your sky in four steps: solar wind, magnetic field, falling particles and glowing oxygen.
08
How to photograph the northern lights
Phone night mode or a camera on a tripod: the settings that work, and why the camera sees more colour than you do.
09
How to watch a meteor shower
When to go out, where to look and how many meteors to expect from the Perseids, Geminids and the rest.
10
Satellites and the ISS: spotting moving lights
How to tell satellites from planes and meteors, when the ISS is visible and why satellites vanish mid-sky.
11
Binoculars or telescope? Your first instrument
Why binoculars are the best first instrument, what the numbers mean and what you can see with them.
12
Star brightness and colour
Why stars differ in brightness and colour, what magnitude means and how a star’s colour reveals its temperature.