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If you are reading this, then most likely you are interested in becoming an amateur astronomer, maybe you don't want to learn about how Galileo first pointed a telescope into the sky, or what exactly the general theory of relativity is.

Maybe you would just like to know what is up there, maybe you saw pictures of planets and nebulae in books and wondered just what is up there, and what can i see myself?

First thing that you need are your eyes, and a sense of wonder.

Go outside at night, and look around, many people look at what is around them, few look at what is above them.

Do you know any constellations? Maybe just the big dipper? Orion? anything?

If you're in a city then the streets run north and south, the avenues east and west (usually). So look to the north (if all else fails just ask someone if you don't know). you should be able to find the big dipper. it looks like a pot with a bent handle made up of relatively bright stars. if you go to the front of the pot (away from the handle) there are two stars the make up the front edge of the dipper, follow these two stars straight up out of the dipper's bowl and they will point you towards Polaris, the north star. (which incidentally is not the brightest star, in fact there are 47 brighter stars than it).

Congratulations you now know how to navigate using the stars.

Polaris is at the tail end of the little dipper. The little dipper isn't as big and bright as the big dipper but it is still fairly noticeable. and if you look in between the two you should see a snaky kind of constellation, named Draco.

Now it would take me an awful long time to explain where everything in the sky is like this, but this should be enough to let you get started, combine it with a star chart from a magazine or website and before long you'll be pointing out the constellations no problem.

You can do many things with your bare eyes.

After finding a star chart see if Andromeda is up yet, if it is see if you can see the andromeda galaxy. it will only be a smudge in the sky, but if you can see it then you are looking at an object that is two million light years away from us. The light you are looking at was released by the stars in that galaxy before humans were even humans.

Find Orion, it is a very large and easy to pick out constellation. the three stars in his belt should be easy enough to pick out form the southern sky. Then the bright red star in his shoulder (Betelgeuse, and yes it is pronounced beetlejuice), is quite easy to see. this is a very large star, if it was to sit in our solar system where our sun now sits all of the planets up to Mars would be inside of it.

to go kitty corner across the constellation you will see an even brighter blue star, this is Rigel, a very young hot star, burning far hotter than our sun.

If you follow the stars of his belt to your left you will see a bright star, this is Sirius, the dog star, the brightest star in the sky. It has a tiny companion whose diameter is comparable to the Earth's but whose mass is comparable to that of the sun's.

Now look around, is there anything brighter than Sirius in the sky? If so it is likely a planet, notice if it twinkles or not, usually planets will not twinkle.

So now you are well on your way to becoming an amateur astronomer, and you never even looked through a telescope. Many hours of amazement may follow if you continue on, wait until your first glimpse of Saturn in a telescope, or of Jupiter's moons, or the many many craters on our own moon.

I hope that your journey into astronomy is as fantastic as it can be, there is a lot out there that few actually see, so take the time to enjoy it all, that can be the best reward of all.

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