Star Gazing can be enchanting, exciting, and memorable! An evening where you, seeing the incredible expanse of the heavens stretched across the sky, will place many things into perspective. But, if you go unprepared, you may not find the time to be enjoyable or fun. You may find it to be a cold and disappointing experience. This booklet is designed to give you some useful tips to make the most out of an evening of star gazing so you can experience the awe and wonder of the night sky. Here are some of the best recommendations from astronomers to help you make the most out of your evening!

1. Go during a new moon.

A full moon can be pretty, but it will wash out much of what you can see with its bright light. Therefore, I recommend going when the moon is 50% illuminated or less. If you are unsure when the next new moon is, you can look at a moon calendar.

2. Dress Warm

Astronomy is an activity that requires very little physical movement and takes place at night. Because of this, it will often feel much colder than the actual temperatures you’re expecting. A good rule of thumb to follow is to dress 25º colder than the actual forecast temperature. If the weather forecasts the night to be 55ºF, bring enough clothing to dress for 30ºF.

One of the coldest nights I’ve ever experienced star gazed in was -20ºF (-28ºC)

3. Get out of the city.

Even a 15 minute drive away from the city will make a huge difference between what you can and cannot see. Personally, I recommend driving 2 hours or more away to a darker site. It is worth the trip!

Even if there is not an official dark site (designated park or area of land for star gazing) near you, you can still find pockets of moderate light pollution outside of small towns away from the city. Don’t know where to go?

Look at the light pollution map to find the perfect place. I recommend going somewhere that is green, blue, or grey. Trust me, your life will be changed after witnessing a dark sky with many hidden stars.

I shine a flashlight as Cygnus sets in the background.

4. Mind the light!

It will take half an hour for your eyesight to become “dark adapted”. During this time or any time in the night, your dark adaption will reset with even seconds exposure to any light. This includes cellphone screen lights! Therefore, it is recommended you go somewhere off the road where there are no headlights that can catch you by surprise and for you to leave your phone in your pocket or car. If you need to use a light have a red headlamp or a red flashlight, (put red tape over your flashlight). Red light will help preserve your night vision.

5. Eat carrots.

Snacking on carrots will provide your body with Vitamin A which will help enhance your night vision. This will help you be able to see more hidden treasures in the night sky.

6. Bring binoculars.

A simple pair of binoculars will reveal many of the hidden treasures in the night sky that you wouldn’t be able to distinguish with your naked eyes. Especially during the summer nights, you will want the binoculars to be able to scan the Milky Way galaxy. You will be amazed at the wonders you will see.

Gazing upon the Great Rift of the Milky Way on a breezy summer night.

7. Bring bug spray.

During the summer, especially in rural places, you will want to bring bug spray with you to protect you from being bothered by mosquitos and flies. I’ve forgotten to grab bug spray a few times when I was observing, and that makes the experience not as enjoyable.

I sit on my truck and gaze at the Summer Milky Way near my home.

8. Go when the Milky Way is more visible.

As the Earth orbits around the Sun, there are certain times of year when the Milky Way can be seen better than others. There are two “arches” of the Milky Way—the summer and the winter arch. While the summer “arch” is brighter, I have found the winter Milky Way to be a beautiful branch of the Milky Way with treasures like the Pleiades, Orion Nebula, and the Double Cluster.

Tip 9 will give you plenty of practical advice for timing when you would see the Milky Way, but in summary, the Milky Way is most visible between June through September, and Decemeber through March.

(Please note, this is written from a Northern Hemisphere observer 40º above the equator).

9. Use the Stellarium App

If you venture out to the darkness to look at the stars, you may wonder what constellations or objects you are looking at. There are many apps that will show you what is in the night sky, but my favorite one is Stellairum. This app will depict the sky accurately, allowing you to zoom in to see what objects you are looking at. It will also allow you to scrub through time so you can see what the night sky looks like at different times of year and from different locations on Earth. It also works offline, so you can use it when you’re camping. And, it is free!

10. Learn the Night Sky!

One of the best gifts I have ever received from my hobby of astrophotography (photographing the night sky) is studying to become more knowledgeable about what I am looking at. It is so much fun for me to stop, look at the stars at any time of the year, and know which stars and constellations I am looking at. This allows me to show my friends the hidden treasures in the night sky, and it gives me a new appreciation for the changing of the seasons and the place we call home. Get out there, observe, and learn the night sky!

The Most Important Thing

I cannot recommend highly enough for you to go out and see the glorious heavens. The experience is incredible, and the stars will help give you a new perspective on your life, your circumstances, and your purpose in life.

When God created the heavens and the Earth, He made everything perfect. A world without pain, suffering, or death. Tragically, Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and sin against Him by eating the fruit they were told not to eat. Sin is disobedience to God’s commands, and this disobedient act plunged them, and all of humanity, into sin. Because of sin, we now live with sickness, death, suffering, and evil in our now-fallen world. Life will not be perfect for any of us because of sin.

This presents us with a problem. All of us are like Adam; we have chosen to disobey God many times to fulfill our own desires. As it is written, “All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Sin is a big deal. It is very serious. In fact, the ultimate consequence for sinning against a holy God is death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) This is not just a physical kind of death, but a spiritual one too—where we would be separated from God for all of eternity in a place called hell.

I show my wife the wonders of the night sky.

Despite our disobedience, God loves us and wants us to be reconciled to Him. “…in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them…” (2 Corinthians 5:19). We cannot save ourselves from our sin, so God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for sin. It is written “…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 55:6b) Jesus Christ came as a man, lived a perfect sinless life, and died on the cross for all our sin. In fact, “for our sake He [God] made Him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [Jesus] we could become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Did you catch that? God loved us so much that He sent His Son, who was made to be sin even though He knew no sin, so we could be made into the righteousness of God!

On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead! This confirms that Jesus has indeed paid for all our sin. It is because of this that we can confidently boast “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).

One day, God will re-create a new heaven and a new Earth without the consequences of sin. We will no longer live in a fallen world with sickness, pain, suffering, or death! This world will be perfect. But in order for you to be a part of this new world, you need to be perfect. None of us are perfect. You need to be made perfect. This is why we need a Savior.

Because of Jesus Christ, we can have our sins forgiven and be perfected so we can spend all of eternity with our God who created us. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1-2)

But, for us to receive this free gift of grace, we have to choose to accept it. It is written “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10). The belief part happens in our heart and the confessing part is a physical demonstration of the belief happening inside. The physical demonstration should result in repentance. 

We have to believe in Jesus’ sinless birth, perfect life, death, burial and resurrection to be saved. Believing these things mean more than just mentally acknowledging them, but believing in a way that produces action on our part. For example, if I truly believed there was a bomb 100 feet away from me about to blow up in 5 minutes, I would scramble and flee the scene as quickly as possible!

Genuine belief will produce something called repentance. Repentance means to “turn away”. Repentance occurs when I acknowledge my sin for what it is, and I turn away from it. For example, I know to murder is a sinful thing (Exodus 20:13), and Jesus defines murder to include when I am angry against someone and I call them a fool (Matthew 5:21-26), so I will choose to turn away from these actions and stop doing these things. The action of repentance will make me choose to go and make peace with the person who I was angry with, because I hate the sins God hates and love the righteous acts He loves.

Some Definitions:

• To believe means I need to put my trust in Christ, only. For we are saved by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone.

• Faith means to believe with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) in Jesus Christ.

• Grace means to receive a gift that we do not deserve. In this case, we received the gift of Jesus dying for our sins even while we were enemies with God.

• And we are saved only by Jesus Christ. There is no other way. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6)

So what are you going to do? You have a choice to make. Choose Jesus Christ. It is worth everything to be reconciled to your Creator and made perfect in His love. Repent, and believe!  

The choice is yours.

“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

—Isaiah 55:6-7

The Summer Milky Way rising above Spooner’s Cove in California.