Learn how to spot stars and constellations from your backyard or balcony with these tips.
Can you navigate the night sky?
Learning how to stargaze is easier than you think.
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What about light pollution?
Do I need a telescope?
You just need your eyes and 20 minutes.
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Choose somewhere that doesnt have any lights, like street lights or billboards, in your field of view.
How does the night sky work?
Chances are, you know roughly where the sun sets in relation to your home.
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In fact, the sun, our star, never really sets.
The stars follow the same path.
Thats why constellations change with the seasons.
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Where is the Big Dipper?
If theres one shape in the night sky almost everyone knows, its the Big Dipper.
The Big Dipper is circumpolar since it appears to go around theNorth Pole.
Where is the North Star?
This is the star that the entire Northern Hemisphere night sky appears to revolve around.
Thats Polaris, which is known as the North Star because Earths axis points directly at it.
Consequently, it never moves.
Try finding it using the Big Dipper next time youre outside in the dark.
Wherever the Big Dipper is, this technique never fails.
