swan is clearly visible. On a bright
full moon night you may only be
able to see one or two stars in
Cygnus, but as the days pass and
the moon wanes, more and more
stars come into view until you can
see the entire swan and wing tips.
If you are lucky and live in or visit
an area where the skies are really
dark, with no moon, then you will
be able to see millions of stars in
our galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky
Way is a spiral galaxy and our Solar
System resides in one of the spiral
arms. This can be thought of like a
plate, when you look at it from
on top you can see the whole
surface, but when you look at
it from the side you will just see
the edge. Looking at the Milky
Way is like looking at a plate
edge on. As the Milky Way is
not solid like the plate we can
see stars further away in the
galaxy shining through. These
are often quite dim stars, but
the combination of the millions
of stars illuminates the vast area
of sky giving the appearance
of a cloud. The Milky Way is
a band that sweeps across
our Summer and Autumn
night skies cutting through the
constellations of Cassiopeia,
Cygnus, and Sagittarius.
If you can see the Milky
Way well than picking out the
constellations can become a
little tricky as you will be able
to see so much more in the
dark skies. This can sometimes The
make picking out the bright
stars forming the symbolic
structures problematic, one of the
good reasons to start the learning
process in light polluted skies.
Having discovered the way to
learn the layout of the skies you
need help to identify them. This is
where star charts come into play.
Star charts are the maps of the sky,
normally printed in a book, they
show the relative positions of the
constellations. Just like maps they
help you navigate around the stars.
In this modern day we live mainly in
an online society, and astronomy
has also found a place in the
electronic annals of computers
and the Internet. Star charts can be
found online in a number of different
formats, but as with road maps they
are somewhat static images.
The next evolution is planetarium
software which can show you
dynamically the sky at any location
in the world, at any time to help you
learn and discover the wonders to
be seen. You don’t need to wait
until the sun sets to start exploring.
Of course this planetarium software
provides an ideal view of the sky
without factoring in light pollution,
seeing conditions or the weather.
enable you to point th