Guides

Short walks through the real night sky from where you stand, 4 to 10 minutes each: a guide moves the sky for you and says what to look for.

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Bright Stars of the Season Start here, 1 of 8: short guides that get you round tonight’s sky. 6 min Begin

Start here 8 guides · about 47 min

New to the sky? Take these in order.

1. 1 Bright Stars of the Season ~6 min
2. 2 Which Way Is East? ~6 min
3. 3 Measure the Sky with Your Hand ~5 min
4. 4 Finding the North Star ~6 min
5. 5 Orion: The Hunter ~6 min
6. 6 The Moon's Month ~6 min
7. 7 Spotting the Planets ~6 min
8. 8 Dark Skies, Dark Eyes ~6 min

Paths

Each path ends in something you can do under the real sky.

• Observing Skills

  Go out on a night you planned, give your eyes the dark they need, and read the sky’s brightest stars. 11 guides · about 70 min Starts with Bright Stars of the Season

• How the Sky Turns

  Say why the sky turns, and find your way round it from the pole stars. 8 guides · about 55 min Starts with Which Way Is East?

• Sun and Calendar

  Follow the Sun’s road through the year, and say what it does to your days and your calendar. 9 guides · about 60 min Starts with Why We Have Seasons

• Constellations

  Name the great figures of every season. 5 guides · about 35 min Starts with Orion: The Hunter

• Deep Sky

  Find the clusters, nebulae and galaxies within reach of your eyes. 5 guides · about 35 min Starts with The Pleiades Start anywhere

• Moon

  Say what the Moon will look like, how high it will ride, and when it will be eclipsed. 8 guides · about 50 min Starts with The Moon's Month

• Planets

  Tell a planet from a star, name it, and say where it will be next month. 6 guides · about 30 min Starts with Spotting the Planets

• Visitors

  Be outside on the right night for a meteor shower, a comet, the ISS or the aurora. 7 guides · about 40 min Starts with Comets

• Sky Cultures

  Read the same stars the way other peoples have read them. 7 guides · about 50 min Starts with Before the Greeks Start anywhere

All 66 guides by path, with search and filters for tonight, for beginners and for short ones

A word you do not know — magnitude, asterism, globular cluster — is explained in the field guide, with a real example that opens the map on it.