Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You''re Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organised 3 Part I: What''s Up? Getting Familiar with the Night Sky 3 Part II: Joining the Dots: Learning Your Way Around the Night Sky 4 Part III: Star Hopping 4 Part IV: The Part of Tens 4 Appendixes 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 6 Part I: What''s Up? Getting Familiar with the Night Sky 7 Chapter 1: The Changing Sky 9 Night and Day 9 Your spinning planet 10 Here comes the Sun (there goes the Sun) 10 The twilight zone 12 Moonshine 13 The phases of the Moon 13 Your mantra: ''Half the Moon is always lit'' 15 The ''moonth'' 16 The Changing Seasons 17 The Earth on tilt 17 Sunset and sunrise, time and place 19 Position of sunset and sunrise 19 Times of sunset and sunrise 20 The Sun at a standstill 21 Equinox 21 Chapter 2: Look Up! Your First Stargazing Trip 23 Getting Prepared to Catch a Glimpse of the Stars 24 Wrap up! 24 Seeing stars: Night vision 25 The red light district 26 Knowing what to take 26 Identifying Your Local Stargazing Site 27 The trouble with lights 27 What you can expect to see 28 The Bortle Scale of sky brightness 30 How good is your observing site? 30 Knowing When to Head Out 32 Figuring out what you want to see 33 Moon or no Moon? 34 After dark 34 Looking Up for the First Time 35 Don''t get lost! 35 Find your signposts 37 Chapter 3: Binocular Astronomy 39 How Binoculars Work 39 Lenses and prisms 40 Getting focused 41 Figuring Out Which Binoculars to Buy 43 Power matters 43 Field of view 44 Exit pupils 45 Eye relief 46 Lens coatings 47 Using a Steady Hand or a Tripod 47 Tripods: Three legs to stand on 48 Monopods: One leg to stand on 48 Getting comfy using a tripod or monopod 49 A Binocular Bonanza 49 The solar system up close 50 The Moon 50 Mercury 50 Venus 51 Mars 51 Jupiter 51 Saturn 52 Comets 52 The faint fuzzies up close 52 Gas clouds 52 Galaxies 53 Open clusters 53 Globular clusters 54 Double stars 55 Chapter 4: Your First Telescope 57 Deciding on a Telescope 57 Reflectors versus refractors 58 Refractors 58 Reflecting telescopes 59 Mounts 60 Alt-az 61 Equatorial 61 Dobsonian 62 (Aperture) size matters 62 Portability versus power 64 Manual or automatic? 64 The shake test 65 Eyepieces 65 Magnifying power 66 Field of view 66 Features to avoid 67 Storing Your Telescope 68 Setting Up Your Telescope 68 Before you step outside 69 Aligning your finderscope 70 Focusing your telescope 71 Setting up and cooling down 72 Aligning your equatorial scope 73 Moving about the sky 73 Getting Your First Look 74 The faint fuzzies up closer 74 Gas clouds 74 Galaxies 75 Open clusters 75 Globular clusters 76 Planetary nebulae 76 Double stars 77 The planets through a telescope 77 Mercury 77 Venus 78 Mars 78 Jupiter 78 Saturn 79 Uranus and Neptune 79 Dwarf planets and asteroids 79 Comets 80 Chapter 5: Taking It Further: Astrophotography 81 Choosing the Right Camera 81 SLRs 82 Shutter speed 82 Aperture 83 Sensitivity (ISO numbers) 84 Manual focus 84 Point-and-click cameras 84 Webcams and CCDs 85 Figuring Out What Other Hardware You Need 85 Choosing Your Moment 87 Taking Your First Astro-Image 88 Starscape astrophotography 89 Telescope astrophotography 90 Afocal astrophotography 90 Part II: Joining the Dots: Learning Your Way Around the Night Sky 91 Chapter 6: The Fixed Stars 93 Looking at a Night Sky Full of Stars 93 Twinkle, twinkle, little star 94 Connecting the dots 95 The celestial sphere 95 Featuring glorious technicolour 96 The Milky Way, the Sun''s Local Galaxy 98 Getting Familiar with the Faint Fuzzies 99 Galaxies 100 Globular clusters 100 Open clusters 101 Newborn stars 102 Dead stars 103 Messier and Messier: Cataloguing the Faint Fuzzies 104 Chapter 7: The Wanderers 105 Identifying the Wanderers 105 The wandering Moon 106 The wandering Sun 108 Don''t twinkle, don''t twinkle, little planet 108 Following the Zodiac 109 Shining Brightly: The Sun 111 Observing the Sun safely 111 Looking at sunspots 112 Watching aurorae displays 113 Catching a glimpse of a solar eclipse 114 Observing the Moon 115 Phases of the Moon 115 The terminator 118 Craters, craters, everywhere 118 A lunar eclipse 119 Viewing Planets with Your Naked Eye 120 Quicksilver Mercury 121 Venus, the beauty 122 Blood-red Mars 122 Jupiter, king planet 123 Ringed Saturn 124 Rolling, rolling, rolling: Uranus 124 Out on the edge: Neptune 125 Keeping Track of Small Wanderers 125 Plutoids 125 Dodging asteroids 126 Comets: Dirty snowballs 126 The Sky Is Falling In: Meteor Showers 127 Ones to watch 128 Great balls of fire 128 Viewing Manmade Lights 129 The International Space Station 129 Iridium flares 130 Chapter 8: The Constellations 131 Joining the Dots 131 The ancient Greek skies 132 Constellations around the world 133 When is a constellation not a constellation? 134 Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta 136 Defining constellations'' boundaries 136 Bayer letters 136 Proper names 137 The not-so-bright stars 138 Variable stars 139 Faint fuzzies 139 Star Hopping 139 The Big Dipper as a signpost 140 Orion as a signpost 141 The Southern Cross as a signpost 143 Cassiopeia as a signpost 145 Chapter 9: Mapping the Skies 149 Reading a Star Map 149 In black and white 150 Big dots, small dots 150 Naming stars 151 Constellation lines 152 Doubles and variables 153 Faint fuzzies on the map 155 The Milky Way 155 Coordinate lines 155 Other items 156 Buying Your First Star Chart 157 Planispheres 157 Monthly star maps 159 Guide books 161 Star atlases 161 Computer software and smartphone apps 162 Part III: Star Hopping 165 Chapter 10: Northern Polar Constellations 167 Northern Polar Constellation Map 167 Ursa Major 169 Cassiopeia 171 Ursa Minor 173 Draco 175 Cepheus 177 Camelopardalis 179 Chapter 11: Stars of December, January and February 183 Constellations of December, January and February 183 Orion 185 Orion throughout the year 187 Orion in myth and legend 187 Canis Major 188 Canis Minor 190 Auriga 191 Gemini 193 Taurus 194 Lepus 196 Monoceros 198 Puppis 199 Caelum 201 Columba 203 Eridanus 204 Fornax 205 Horologium 207 Pictor 208 Reticulum 209 Chapter 12: Stars of March, April and May 211 Constellations of March, April and May 211 Boötes 213 Centaurus 215 Carina 217 Vela 219 Cancer 221 Corvus 222 Crater 223 Leo 224 Virgo 226 Antlia 228 Canes Venatici 228 Coma Berenices 230 Hydra 232 Leo Minor 234 Lupus 235 Lynx 236 Pyxis 237 Sextans 238 Chapter 13: Stars of June, July and August 241 Constellations of June, July and August 242 Cygnus 243 Scorpius 245 Sagittarius 248 Aquila 250 Hercules 252 Ara 254 Corona Australis 255 Corona Borealis 256 Delphinus 257 Equuleus 258 Indus 259 Libra 260 Lyra 261 Ophiuchus 262 Scutum 264 Serpens 266 Serpens Caput 266 Serpens Cauda 267 Sagitta 268 Telescopium 269 Vulpecula 270 Chapter 14: Stars of September, October and November 271 Constellations of September, October and November 271 Andromeda 272 Pegasus 274 Perseus 276 Aquarius 278 Aries 280 Capricornus 281 Cetus 282 Grus 283 Lacerta 284 Microscopium 285 Phoenix 286 Pisces 287 Piscis Austrinus 289 Sculptor 290 Triangulum 291 Chapter 15: Southern Polar Constellations 293 Southern Polar Constellations 293 Crux 294 Apus 296 Chamaeleon 297 Circinus 297 Dorado 298 Hydrus 300 Mensa 301 Musca 302 Norma 303 Octans 303 Pavo 304 Triangulum Australe 305 Tucana 306 Volans 308 Part IV: The Part of Tens 309 Chapter 16: Ten Targets for New Stargazers 311 The Moon 311 The International Space Station 311 Saturn''s Rings 312 Jupiter''s Moons 312 ''Canals'' on Mars 31.