Amateur Astronomy
Stare into the void. The void is actually pretty spectacular.
Amateur astronomy is looking at space with your own eyes (and maybe some lenses). You can see Saturn's rings, Jupiter's moons, craters on our Moon, and the Andromeda galaxy — a collection of a trillion stars, 2.5 million light-years away — all from your backyard. The scale of what you're seeing is the real rush.
How to start
- 1Download a free stargazing app like Stellarium or Sky Map. Point it at the sky.
- 2Learn to find three things: the North Star, Orion's Belt, and the Moon's craters.
- 3Go outside on a clear night, away from city lights if possible. Just look up for 20 minutes.
- 4Binoculars work surprisingly well — you don't need a telescope to start.
- 5Find out when the next visible ISS pass is over your location at spotthestation.nasa.gov.
What you'll need
- Stargazing app (Stellarium, free)EssentialFree
- Binoculars (7x50 or 10x50)Nice to have~$40
- Red flashlight (preserves night vision)Nice to have~$8
- Beginner telescope (Dobsonian 6")Nice to have~$250
Where to learn more
Plot twists
Ways to spice this up when the basics get boring.
- Sketch what you see through binoculars. Astronomical sketching is its own art form.
- Track a planet across weeks and notice how it moves relative to the stars.
- Attend a star party — astronomy clubs set up telescopes and let you look through them for free.
- Try to spot all the Messier objects (110 deep-sky targets). It's a classic amateur quest.
The sky changes every night, so there's always something new to look at. No two sessions are the same. Plus, the cold night air is weirdly energizing.
Amateur astronomers still discover comets and asteroids today. Comet Hale-Bopp, one of the most observed comets in history, was co-discovered by amateur astronomer Alan Hale in 1995.
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