Getting to know the night sky

• It is easy: you just have to look up!
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• When your eyes dark-adapted it won’t take you long to notice that the stars can be joined up to form patterns
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• You might recognise one straight away.
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• You may be able to see the giant saucepan-shaped Plough, balanced on the end of its handle.
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• But the Plough isn’t a constellation – it’s an asterism, a small pattern of stars immediately obvious to the naked eye.
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• Astronomy gives us the skills we need to observe these stars, constellations and planets with the naked eye, or to use binoculars and telescopes to observe deep-sky objects like nebulae, galaxies and globular clusters.
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• Deep Sky Objects are celestial objects that exist outside our solar system.
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• A dark sky is always good and sometimes absolutely necessary – but some objects can also be observed under a light-polluted city sky.
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• If you’re lucky you’ll be able to stargaze from your back garden.
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• It might not be the ideal place.
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• Your garden could be surrounded by other houses, tall buildings and trees, which all reduce the amount of sky you can see.
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• And light pollution coming from nearby streetlights, pubs, shops and factories, and neighbours’ security lights, can take even more of your view away.
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• But you could even just walk around the corner to your local park or school playing field – it’ll make a big difference to what you can see.
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• Or enter a postcode or place name to find stargazing destinations or venues hosting forthcoming stargazing events – you can visit the GO Stargazing website for more information at what’s going on in your local.

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