Stargazing in 5 easy steps
- Get away from lights. Even a backyard or park with fewer streetlights shows many more stars than a lit street.
- Let your eyes adjust. Give them 15–20 minutes in the dark. One look at a bright phone screen resets the clock, so use a red flashlight.
- Find a landmark. Start with the Moon, a bright planet, or an easy star pattern like the Big Dipper or Orion's Belt.
- Use a sky map. A star chart or planisphere shows which constellations are up tonight from where you live.
- Add binoculars, then a telescope. Ordinary binoculars show Moon craters and Jupiter's moons. A small telescope adds Saturn's rings.
What can you see?
- With your eyes: the Moon, five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), constellations, the Milky Way from dark places, meteors, and the ISS passing over.
- With binoculars: craters on the Moon, Jupiter's four big moons, star clusters like the Pleiades, and the Andromeda Galaxy as a soft smudge.
- With a small telescope: Saturn's rings, Jupiter's cloud bands, the phases of Venus, double stars and bright nebulas like the Orion Nebula.
🛰️ Spot the space station: the ISS looks like a very bright, steady star moving quickly across the sky, with no blinking lights. It's best seen just after sunset or before sunrise.
Constellations by season
For the Northern Hemisphere, in the evening sky.
WINTEROrion, Taurus, Gemini
Look for Orion's Belt and the Pleiades.
SPRINGLeo, Big Dipper, Boötes
"Arc to Arcturus" from the Dipper's handle.
SUMMERSummer Triangle, Scorpius
The Milky Way at its brightest.
FALLPegasus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia
Find the Andromeda Galaxy.