learn more about the night sky and spend more time stargazing

I hesitated before buying it, even second-hand, as I thought it looked a little childish …. but I’d very much recommend the following to anyone beginning to find their way around the night sky:

The Concise Atlas of the Stars – by Serge Brunier (Author), Akira Fujii (Photographer)
http://www.amazon.com/Concise-Atlas-Stars-Serge-Brunier/dp/1554070759

Only covers maybe 20 constellations, and some of those are southern-hemisphere only (so I can’t see them from the UK) – but the authors enthusiasm, the detail about features you can find around the constellations, and the very well thought-out presentation style make it an excellent book.

Made up of Deneb (in Cygnus), Vega (in Lyra) and Altair (in Aquila, I think) – the triangle of bright stars is visible pretty much overhead at the moment. Managed to find it a couple of nights ago, before it clouded over again.

Not sure how clear it will be tomorrow night, but if it is…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8193769.stm

Thanks to a weekend in the countryside, a starmap and a few pointers from my dad – I’ve learnt to identify Cygnus and Ursa Minor, and I know that the planet I’ve been looking at is Jupiter. Really enjoying this goal… makes me think owning a telescope would be a lot of fun.

Too much thin high cloud tonight for me to identify any but the most familiar constellations, but got a lovely view of the full moon through the binoculars. Also spotted some double stars, maybe near Lyra or Cygnus, and got a good look at a planet… just not sure if it was red or green.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090729.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090501.html

Bought myself a guide to looking at the night sky :)