Brian Ventrudo

Tour of the Planet Jupiter

You begin your exploration of the solar system this first month with a look at the planet Jupiter. In January through April of 2024, the planet lies low in the southwestern sky after sunset in the constellation Aries. Jupiter appears to move westward each day until it's lost in the Sun's glare and reaches conjunction on May 18. The planet reappears...

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Stargazing Tools – Visual Observing Basics

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

In this first section on Stargazing Tools, you discover how to use the most important tools of all for observing the night sky… your eyes. Once you know a little about how your eyes operate and how to use them to see faint astronomical objects, you will be able to detect an amazing amount of fine detail in any size of telescope.
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Science of Stargazing – Layout of the Night Sky

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

In this lesson you learn the basic layout of the celestial sphere, the vast dome of sky which appears to surround the Earth. This knowledge will help you find and follow stars, planets, and constellations in the night sky and help you understand how the sky appears to change from month to month. You also learn an easy way to measure angles in the n...

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Introduction to Nightscape Imaging

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

Do you want to take an image like this one? This spectacular vista, take with a modern DSLR camera and processed with off-the-shelf software, is an example of nightscape imaging, a form of photography that uses elements of landscape photography and astrophotgraphy. In this video interview with David Kingham, you learn the basics of this challengin...

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Urban Astronomer’s Survival Guide

Filed Under: Fundamentals of Stargazing

So what can you see in light-polluted urban and suburban skies? Enough for a lifetime of viewing. With a small telescope, you can see hundreds of star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, and double stars. Not to mention the Moon and planets. There is no shortage of things to see. It’s just a matter of getting out there and seeing it.
This bonus lesson con...

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