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10 Steps to Rewarding Stargazing
By Joe Rao
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 07:00 am ET
04 October 2002
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Step 3
Get to Your Observing Site Early
If possible, try to get to your site before it gets dark.
"I especially enjoy being all set up well before the Sun disappears,"
says Harvey Miller of East Meadow, New York. "It's like coming to the theatre,
before a play or movie begins, taking your seat and controlling the rush in
great anticipation for the expected script."
Just about any clear night provides an invitation to go outside and see what's up. Some nights, however, will offer up a special attraction: a meteor shower; a beautiful conjunction between the Moon and a bright star or planet; or even an eclipse of the Moon. [Our Spacewatch section provides weekly features on these and other events, plus a monthly Calendar]
Prepare a checklist of the objects you might want to look at. And to this end, how I wish personal computers existed when I was getting started in astronomy over 35 years ago!
A planetarium program such as Starry
Night can
prove invaluable, displaying on monitors any number of sky objects that you
might want to look at for any hour of the night, as well as providing you the
ability to generate and print your own custom sky chart.
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