From what planets and stars to look for to what telescope to use, Jacqueline McCleary has the answers for those looking to the sky.
Jacqueline McCleary has literally made a career out of looking to the stars.
An assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University, McCleary studies galaxy clusters in order to learn more about the mysterious nature of dark matter. In the cosmos, she sees answers to some of the biggest questions we have, and she’s not alone.
Eclipses, mini moons and asteroids have recently captured the attention of the stargazing public. But if you’re interested in diving more into the world of amateur astronomy, McCleary has some tips and tricks — from where and what to look for to whether you need a telescope — to make navigating the night sky less like rocket science.
Start with the basics
Before you even start thinking about what planets and stars to look out for or even what equipment to use, McCleary says there are some basic things to consider when stargazing.
The first: Where to go stargazing. With light pollution becoming more and more of a problem, it’s important to find a site that is as dark as possible to maximize the amount of objects you can spot, McCleary says. She recommends using tools like Dark Sky Map and Dark Site Finder to find the best location in your area.
Understanding the weather is vital — “the most powerful telescope in the world can’t see through clouds,” McCleary says — but the current moon phase is just as important.
“A full moon … can be as bright as a streetlamp and drown out fainter sources,” McCleary says. “Your weather app has a moon phase, so try to go when the moon is down or when the moon is at a quarter phase of crescent phase or new moon.”
Locating your place in space
When you finally arrive at your dark site and give your eyes enough time to fully adjust to the dark — around 45 minutes, according to McCleary — you’ll then need to figure out where you are in the night sky.
“Trying to figure out which constellation is which takes practice,” McCleary says. “Especially for those of us who live in the city and may only see a few bright stars at a time, we have no idea what a full constellation looks like.”
In order to orient themselves, astronomers will often use something called a planisphere, a disc that can be adjusted to determine the position of the stars at a given time and latitude. Now, free apps like Stellarium can help even the most wayward stargazer find their way.
“It shows you the stars in real time in your location based on where you point your phone,” McCleary says. “That is a really user-friendly way to figure out what you’re looking at, and that’s the first step to finding targets in the night sky.”
Finding the right target
Knowing where to look is part of the equation, but understanding what to look for — and what tool you need to see it — will make stargazing that much easier.
Not every stargazer is ready to invest in a high-end telescope, which is why McCleary encourages starting with using the naked eye. Without any gear, you can still pick out Orion and his belt, the Big Dipper and even planets in our solar system like Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, she says.
“One of my favorites is the Pleiades, which is actually an open star cluster sometimes called the Seven Sisters,” McCleary says. “In a dark enough site, even with the naked eye, you can see a little bit of fuzziness from the interstellar dust and gas.”
For those who want to get a little more serious, binoculars are a great way to “open up a whole new vista,” she says. A 7×50 or 10×50 prism pair of binoculars can provide even more detailed glimpses of nearby planets as well as incredible glimpses of the moon.
“You can really see all of the details of the craters,” McCleary says. “It’s really dramatic. It’s a totally different view.”
Anyone looking to dive fully into astronomy will need a telescope, like a Celestron, which essentially will allow you to “see just about every deep sky target,” she says. Seeing details in the shape of the Andromeda Galaxy and even nearby comets that are invisible to the naked eye becomes possible with a telescope. Local observatories will also often open up their doors during “star parties,” giving the public access to ultra-powerful, historic telescopes.
“So, if you don’t want to buy a telescope but you want to take advantage of a really powerful one, observatories like Werner Schmidt [on Cape Cod] or the Ladd in Providence are a great way to see some deep sky objects through a telescope,” McCleary says.