Stargazing is a magical and inexpensive way to reconnect with nature. You're guaranteed to be left awe-struck by the sheer size, and beauty, of the universe.
Stargazing is a great way to experience the joys nature has to offer. Hopefully this will help those who want to learn more about the celestial night sky, or just want a reason to escape to the great outdoors.
Best time's to go stargazing are
The best seasons to go stargazing are Autumn, Winter and Spring as the atmosphere is crisper and long-distance visibility is much improved. The sky also gets dark sooner during these months, which makes observing times much more accessible for most.
Pay close attention to the lunar cycle. Your chances of seeing brighter stars will be far greater when there is no bright moon in the sky to wash everything out.
What to look for in the night sky
The Earth is constantly rotating on its axis, but the stars are fixed, so the night sky changes from night to night and season to season.
Start by using your app, The Starwalk app is a good app for finding celestial objects, or star chart to identify Polaris, the Pole Star, which is always due north. Once you’ve found this star, you can slowly work out the other constellations. Constellations are groups of stars that have been named based on the shapes they suggest, most are from Greek mythology.
CONSTELLATIONS AND OTHER INTERESTING THINGS TO SPOT:
Orion (the hunter), with belt and sword, is one of the most famous constellations and one of the few that genuinely bears a resemblance to its namesake.
Leo (the lion), is one of the easiest constellations to spot – although it looks absolutely nothing like a lion!
Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) is visible all year in the northern hemisphere. It looks like a cup with a long handle.
Cassiopeia (the queen of Aethiopia) is named after a vain queen who boasted about her unrivalled beauty. Looks like a giant 'W' shape.
Hydra (the water snake) is the largest and longest constellation in the night sky. It looks like a sea serpent.
Mars. It’s called the red planet for a reason, and it’s so cool to be able to see the color through binoculars. It’s too far away to pick out any major details with binoculars but you can still see the red glow.
The International Space Station. NASA has a website dedicated to tracking the ISS. It shows where the Space Station is right now.
The Milky Way. The galaxy sits low in the sky during winter, and is high in the summertime.
If you’re going to really look at the stars but aren’t at the level of bringing a telescope with you, then a good pair of binoculars is a must! When choosing a pair of astronomy binoculars, there are two essential specs to pay attention to: total magnification power and the lens diameter. Magnification controls how wide or narrow your viewing experience will be—a lower magnification indicates a wider field of view, while a higher magnification offers a more narrow but focused view. The size of the lens diameter determines how much light is gathered by the binoculars, with larger sizes offering crisper views.
Actually, if a pair of binoculars is good for stargazing or not mainly depends on one point. And that is the amount of the light that enters the binoculars from the front lenses. You will see two numbers, for example, 25X70.
The first number denotes the magnification power of the binoculars. The second one stands for the diameter (in millimeters) of the large lenses at the front of binoculars.
All together means that this particular binocular provides 25 times magnification of an object by the naked eyes and the lenses are 70 millimeters in diameter.
Remember, the higher magnifying power you chose the dimmer the object being viewed gets. Both less and more powerful lenses are good for stargazing but they serve different purposes.
Finding the right lighting can be difficult sometimes when it comes to searching the skies. Our choice is the Celestron SkyMaster 25×70 Binoculars, you won’t have an issue. This features 25x magnification Porto prism and a large 70mm objective lens. It is ultra-sharp to focus across the field of view. The multi-coated optics handle sharp and clear views. These are suitable for terrestrial viewing and astronomical viewing. The protective rubber covering gives you an even firmer grip. It also offers long relief for eyeglasses wearers.
OUR PICK FOR BEGINERS
Key Features:
25x magnification
Linear field of view
Terrestrial and astronomical viewing
Unfortunately, compared to a telescope, most objects will be visible, but you won’t be able to get an up-close look or make out any noticeable detail. Saturn is a commonly viewed planet because of it’s beautiful ring system, but sadly the rings are not prominent with most binoculars. You will be able to view a variety of deep sky objects and make out planets and their respective moons.
OUR PICK FOR BEGINERS
Superior optics: The Celestron 70mm Travel Scope features high-quality, fully-coated glass optics, a potent 70mm objective lens, a lightweight frame, and a custom backpack to carry it all. Its quality is unmatched in its class and against competitors.
Powerful eyepieces for up-close viewing: Our telescope for astronomy beginners is equipped with two high-quality eyepieces (20mm and 10mm) that provide low- and high-power views of celestial objects at night and terrestrial objects during the day.
Most of the planets in our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—are already visible to the naked eye from Earth.
Even with a decent pair of 25x binoculars, you can make out the rings of Saturn, albeit only slightly. With a telescope, though, you can easily observe planets and other deep space objects in much better detail!
But what magnifications do you really need for specific planets? Below, we’ve listed some planets and what magnification ranges we recommend for a pleasant viewing experience:
Planet Recommended Magnifications
Saturn 25x – 50x
Saturn’s Rings 150x
Mars 100x – 200x
Jupiter 180x – 300x
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