The total skywatcher's manual: 275+ skills and tricks for exploring stars, planets & beyond

Naked-eye astronomy tips. Meet the universe ; Dissect a star ; Learn stellar classification ; Discover star groups ; Spot the closest stars ; Top five: Recognize ideal skywatching conditions ; Go urban or rural ; Pack a beginner skywatching kit ; Optimize your vision ; Improvise a red flashlight ; Notice the brightness and color of stars ; Navigate the northern celestial sphere ; See the sights in the southern hemisphere ; Witness zodiacal light at dawn ; Spot morning and evening planets ; Rediscover sunrise ; Meet the sun ; Understand solstices and equinoxes ; Get the reasons for the seasons ; Explore ancient astronomical markers ; Track the sun with an analemma ; Create your own solargraphs ; Make your own planisphere ; Look south with your planisphere ; Measure the heavens ; Top five: Zone the sky ; Time the sunset with your fingers ; Measure degrees of separation in the sky ; Start at the Big Dipper ; Pinpoint Arcturus ; Locate Regulus ; Suss out Spica ; Test vision with the Big Dipper ; Track time with the Little Dipper ; Assemble a star clock ; Find your way by the wind, stars, and waves ; Use the Big Dipper to locate Polaris ; Orient yourself with a gnomon ; Find south in the southern hemisphere ; Find the southern cross ; Bag the coalsack ; Locate Centaurus ; Sail over to Vela ; Check out Capricornus ; Hunt down Hydrus ; Look for Libra ; Gaze upon Carina ; Top five: Track things that move above ; Locate the celestial equator ; Find 0hr right ascension ; Use Orion to measure spherical coordinates ; Trace Draco the Dragon ; Hunt down Ursa Major ; Follow Ursa Minor ; Get a glimpse of the giraffe ; Begin at Orion ; Get yourself to Gemini ; Track down Taurus the bull ; Find Canis Major and Canis Minor ; Gaze at the majestic Milky Way ; Glimpse spilled grain in the Cherokee Milky Way story ; See more Milky Way myths ; Spot a llama in the Incan Milky Way ; Learn how the aboriginals see the Milky Way ; Luck out with noctilucent clouds ; Feast your eyes on afterglow ; Glimpse the green flash ; Meet the moon ; Decode the phases of the moon ; Understand the moon illusion ; Watch the tides come and go ; Spot some strange moons ; Meet the man on the moon, all over the world ; See the crescent moon around the globe ; Watch the moon turn red in a lunar eclipse ; Read a lunar eclipse map ; Put together a lunar eclipse model ; Meet Mercury ; Begin with Pegasus the flying horse ; Pinpoint 51 Pegasi ; Find Andromeda the princess ; Scout Perseus the hero ; Acquaint yourself with faint Aries ; Chase the Charioteer ; Behold Corona Borealis ; Hail King Cepheus ; Explore the zodiacs of different cultures ; Tell a meteor from a meteroid ; Pick the best time to meteor-watch ; Top five: Go on a meteorite hunt ; Name that meteor shower ; Save the date for meteor showers ; Meet Venus ; Demystify the auroras' colors ; Pick a prime spot to aurora-gaze ; Journey for the auroras ; Time your aurora travel ; Probe Earth's atmosphere ; Catch a glimpse of glories ; Check out sun and moon dogs ; Demystify twinkling stars ; Spot a solar or lunar halo ; Meet Mars ; Catch a conjunction ; Witness planets in transit ; Watch an occulation ; Scope planets at maximum elongation ; Observe planets in retrograde ; Stay up all night for oppposition ; Model the solar system with paper ; Understand planets' relative sizes ; Start at the summer triangle ; Detect Delphinus ; Fly with Aquia the eagle ; Soar with Cygnus the swan ; Find Lyra ; Locate Hercules ; Set your sights on Hydra ; Track the serpent bearer ; Catch the southern fish ; See Sagittarius ; Say hello to the first great skywatchers ; Meet Jupiter

Telescopes & other tools. Pick a pair of binoculars ; Go with Porro or roof-prism binoculars ; Learn all about eye relief ; Adjust binoculars for vision ; Clean your binoculars ; Top five: Treat binoculars with respect ; Peep Cassiopeia's Pacman Nebula ; Nab the Double Cluster with binoclars ; Align your sights with Algol ; See star clusters with binoculars ; Feast your eyes on distant galaxies with binoculars ; Use binoculars to track Jupiter's moons ; Tour the Milky Way with binoculars ; Catch Canes Venatici ; View Vulpecula ; Lool for Leo Minor ; Pinpoint Pisces ; Dissect a basic telescope ; Discover the classic refractor scope ; Consider a reflector telescope ; Learn about other telescope types ; Top five: Select a telescope ; Go computerized or stick with manual ; Buy a starter scope for a kid ; Set up your telescope ; View the skies with a computerized scope ; Collimate your telescope to fine-tune your view ; Aim your scope with a piggyback finder ; Focus and point your telescope ; View the moon with a scope ; Aim for Antlia ; Draw the southern triangle ; Catch the Bird of Paradise ; Notice Norma ; Scan skies with an altazimuth mount ; Set up a dobsonian ; Track stars with an equatorial mount ; Pick a proper eyepiece ; Understand eyepiece magnification ; Find the right field of view ; Boost resolution with the right eyepiece ; Pick the right finder scope ; Find a red line sight ; Light the way with lasers ; Mount a webcam to your telescope ; Top five: Pick a solid tripod ; Set up your gear for safety ; Take a (comfortable) seat for skygazing ; Cool your telescope tube ; Light up your tripod ; Piggyback your camera ; Top five: Treat your scope to a trip ; Camp under the stars ; Behave at star parties ; Transport gear safely ; Cover up, rain or shine ; Shield your scope from dew ; Cap your optics ; Peep the sun safely through solar filters ; Enjoy lunar and planetary filters ; Probe deep space with nebula filters ; Meet Saturn ; Fire up the furnace ; Get up close with Grus ; Nab the Fly ; Find the Phoenix ; Zoom in and out of the Orion nebula ; Gaze upon Albireo ; Find the Great Cluster in Hercules ; View Virgo with a telescope ; Scope out the Sombrero Galaxy ; Check out M87 ; See M84 and M86 in Markarian's Chain ; Spot the shadows of Jupiter's moons ; Split double stars into three ; Spy Saturn's rings ; Peek into Orion's stellar nursery ; Witness the death of Betelgeuse in Orion ; Watch the young Pleiades in Taurus ; Spot Scorpius ; Find globular cluster M4 ; Peep the Butterfly and Ptolemy clusters ; Make out M80 ; Meet Uranus ; Gaze back in time with a telescope ; Run the famous Messier marathon ; Begin at the Leo Triplet ; Bag the Coma Galaxy Cluster ; Catch the Coma open cluster through a telescope ; Take a peek at the M96 group ; Watch the Water Bearer ; Nab the crab ; Look for Lepus ; Discover the unicorn ; Look at the sun safely ; Project the sun with a telescope ; See sunspots in transit ; Bounce the sun onto a wall with a mirror ; Watch a solar eclipse with a pinhole viewer ; Sport eclipse shades ; See Eclipses through leaves, a colander, or your fingers ; Travel for solar eclipses ; Identify solar-eclipse types ; Top five: Catch a total solar eclipse's highlights ; Witness the eclipse's effects on Earth ; Meet Neptune ; Study up on asteroids ; Top five: Get acquainted with the neatest asteroids ; Sail through the solar system with comets ; Name that comet ; Top five: Get to know some major comets ; Root out Reticulum ; Set your eyes on Sagitta ; Glimpse the Sculptor ; Scope out Scutum ; Pack a basic astrophotography kit ; Snap a mobile shot through a telescope ; Freeze stars with the 500 rule ; Shoot star trails ; Create rings in the sky ; Capture three-way trails at the equator ; Craft a time lapse of a lunar eclipse ; Stack images in software ; Correct your scope's coma ; Merge your telescope with a DSLR ; Focus your camera through a scope ; Speed up filter swaps ; Lock on with autoguiders ; Capture the beauty of the auroras ; Meet the inventors of skywatching gadgetry ; Stock up on sky-drawing supplies ; Draw space objects like a pro ; Top five: Sketch our universe's highlights ; Search for Serpens ; Recover the sextant ; Snag the Southern Crown ; Trace the triangle

Advanced techniques. Travel to the world's greatest observatories ; Peek at deep space via the Hubble Space Telescope ; See star birth in infrared with SOFIA ; Planet-hunt with Kepler ; Observe in infrared via the James Webb Space Telescope ; Look at X-rays of space with Chandra ; Touch the Hand of God nebula ; Stop and smell the nebula roses ; Peep Pillars of Creation ; Sightsee from space through satellites ; Track junk in orbit ; Dissect space trash ; Celebrate our missions among the stars ; Journey to the solar system's outer edges ; Check out exoplanets ; See the skies from other planets ; Search for intelligent life with Drake's Equation ; Delve into space's mysteries ; Help count the stars as a citizen scientist ; Explore the Zooniverse ; Monitor variable stars ; Identify light pollution ; Study up on light pollution's effects ; Combat over illumination in your community ; Top five: Seek out the darkest skies ; Throw a star party ; Listen to a meteor shower over the radio ; Witness the Big Bang on your TV ; Construct a DIY scope mount ; Get a bigger light bucket ; Splurge on a high-end refractor ; Go all out with fancy eyepieces ; Send a camera into space ; Mod your Dobsonian with a custom tracker ; Boost your light with a superbright diagonal ; Make it permanent with piers ; Swap out collimation knobs ; Build an awesome observing chair.