Six Simple Steps to Start

It takes between 40 minutes and an hour for your eyes to become fully adapted to seeing in the dark but even astronomers need a little light sometimes to read a chart or attend to equipment.

Any exposure to bright lights will instantly ruin this dark adaption, the solution is red light which won’t affect your ability to see in the dark. Its best to resist using a rear bicycle light as bright red lights can be just as bad as any other colour. A better idea is to buy a purpose built red torch, just for astronomers.

Along with a red torch, the other item most astronomers have is a planisphere. These are very versatile star charts made of plastic that show you the night sky from your location, any time of year. Some will even show you how you can locate the planets.

An alternative is to download a smartphone app. There are hundreds of these available for many different platforms and these are great for the beginner.

There is no better way to keep up to date with whats going on in the world of Astronomy than subscribing to an astronomy magazine. Most countries have at least one or two good magazines dedicated to the subject.

Inside the covers, you will find news, equipment reviews, classified adverts and even monthly sky charts. Be warned though, the monthly sky charts will be specific to the country of origin of the magazine.

Whether you intend to stick with casual stargazing or want to get more involved, a great and very enjoyable way to enhance your new hobby is to seek out your local astronomical society. These are excellent places to go for advice and help and eventually you will find that observing with your new found friends makes your observing sessions much more enjoyable.

You will more than likely have the opportunity to try out different types of telescopes too so you can make an informed decision before you buy your own.

Now its most exciting bit.. and thats to get outside and start learning your way around the night sky. You will be amazed what you can see; those bright stars which aren’t on your planisphere are probably planets and on your first night under the stars you may have already spotted satellites, meteorites and the odd passing aircraft. Time spent now familiarising yourself with the sky will make you future enjoyment of the Universe much much easier.

After you have got familiar with the sky with the naked eye, you may want to move on to binoculars or a telescope to see things close up and to reveal things you couldn’t see without one. If you do treat yourself to some binoculars or telescope, you will need to invest in a more detailed star map to help you find your way around the thousands of faint stars you can now see.

Eventually you will want to make that all important purchase and buy yourself a pair of binoculars or even a telescope. The only words of advice here are to take your time and make sure you spend wisely. Take a look at my section on Choosing Equpiment for more help.