7 things nobody tells you about stargazing

Well DUH!  During full moon, you can't see Milky Way!

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https://www.space.com/stargazing/7-things-nobody-tells-you-about-stargazing-that-make-a-huge-difference

7 things nobody tells you about stargazing (that make a huge difference)
News
By Jamie Carter published 15 hours ago
 From chasing the Milky Way to using your eyes as nature intended, here 
are some often-overlooked truths that make all the difference under the 
night sky.

a bridge silhouetted again the milky way
Owachomo Bridge and the Milky Way. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)

A few years ago, a friend came back from Jordan in September and told me 
I'd got it wrong.

"I went to that desert you told me about but I didn't see many stars," 
he said.

This was awkward. I'd been very specific. Wadi Rum is one of the best 
places on Earth for stargazing and to see the Milky Way — vast, dry, 
high and almost completely free of light pollution. I'd painted a 
picture of it: a river of starlight arching over the desert.

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"I mean, there were stars," he added. "But no Milky Way. Just a really 
bright moon."

And there it was.

He hadn't gone to the wrong place. He hadn't gone in the wrong season — 
September is an ideal time to see the Milky Way. He'd gone during the 
"wrong" moon phase.

Humans adore the full moon, but few appreciate how it changes the rest 
of the night sky. It's nature's biggest light polluter. There's really 
no point poring over light pollution maps or carefully choosing a Dark 
Sky Place if you ignore the phases of the moon, because if it's bright, 
it will overwhelm all but the brightest stars.

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Work and family schedules often dictate when travel has to take place, 
of course, but if I have the choice, I never travel to dark skies in the 
week before a full moon because it dominates the sky all evening.

A week after our conversation, I was in the Four Corners region of the 
U.S., standing in Natural Bridges National Monument Dark Sky Park, a few 
nights before a new moon. Just after dark, the Milky Way appeared behind 
Owachomo Bridge in a perfectly dark sky. I didn't show my friend the 
photos, nor tell him how carefully I had planned my trip.

Stargazing isn't just about where you go. It's about when you go. The 
importance of the moon phase is just one of many lessons that only 
emerge after time spent outside, looking up.

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1. Always check with the moon
infographic detailing the phase of the moon as seen from Earth

The phase of the moon is critical if you want to stargaze under a truly 
dark sky. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
 From last quarter moon to just beyond new moon, there's a 10-night 
stretch when evening skies are free from bright moonlight. Outside that 
window, moonlight will gradually erase fainter stars and deep-sky 
objects. Once you understand this rhythm, you stop wasting time fighting 
bright skies and start planning around them. Find yourself a moon phase 
calendar and plan any deep-sky observing and trips to dark skies or 
observatories around it — it will make a huge difference to what you can 
see.

2. You can stargaze from a city
A truly dark sky is breathtaking — but it can also be overwhelming for 
beginners. In a city, the faintest stars disappear, leaving only the 
brightest patterns. That actually makes the major constellations easier 
to learn. Find shadow, not necessarily darkness, and think of urban 
skies as a simplified map, as a quick and easy way to brush up on the 
basics. Light pollution is a scourge, and you definitely should join the 
fight for dark skies, but don't persuade yourself that there's "no 
point" in stargazing from a city. That's like saying there's no point 
learning the alphabet because you can't yet read a novel — it's exactly 
where you should begin.

Read more: Want to know my secret for learning the night sky? Welcome to 
sidewalk stargazing

3. The sky is always changing
lots of streaks of light stretch through the sky

Star trails over a mountain in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. (Image credit: 
MaFelipe via Getty Images)
As Earth orbits the sun, stars appear to rise about four minutes earlier 
each night. Did you know that? Almost nobody does, but those nuggets of 
knowledge instantly unlock why the stars change with the seasons. How? 
Over a month, those four minutes each day add up to a two-hour shift. 
Constellations that were low in the east suddenly dominate the sky 
earlier in the evening. Stargazing has an annual rhythm that, with time 
and patience, you can internalize. Ask yourself: what constellations 
will I see tonight? If you can't think of at least three, you're a beginner.

4. Stargazing is best done bite-size
It's tempting to think you need a long session under perfect skies to 
get ahead as a stargazer. In reality, short, regular sessions teach you 
far more. Go outside for 20 minutes at the same time each night, and the 
sky will start to make sense. Find a constellation. Come back tomorrow 
and find it again. Every time you learn something new, revise something 
old. The learning comes through repetition, not intensity.

5. Let your eyes adapt
the Pleiades star cluster glistens as a patch of blue light above 
snow-capped mountains and water in the foreground below.

The Pleiades (left) is the ideal example of how peripheral vision 
increases what you see. (Image credit: Stanley Chen Xi, landscape and 
architecture photographer via Getty Images)
If you do have the time and patience to stand under the stars for over 
20 minutes, be so careful with white light. So many stargazers, 
including, in my experience, plenty of professional astronomers, think 
nothing of using stargazing apps on their smartphones pushed to full 
brightness. It's a rookie error. Give your eyes at least 20 minutes away 
from bright light, and the sky transforms. More stars appear. Faint star 
clusters become visible. If you want to use a stargazing app, put it in 
red light mode — white light resets everything.

6. Peripheral vision is your secret weapon
There's more biology in stargazing than you might think. As well as 
dark-adapting your eyes, it pays to use a part of your vision you 
probably never think about. Whether you're stargazing with the naked 
eye, binoculars or a telescope, looking slightly to the side of 
something faint — an open cluster, a nebula or a galaxy — makes it 
easier to see. That's because the edges of your vision are more 
sensitive to light. Once you try it, you realize how much you were 
missing by staring directly at things. The simplest example is the 
Pleiades (M45); look straight at it, and you'll see six or seven points 
of light in the shape of a baby Big Dipper, but glance to the side, and 
its brightness is suddenly obvious.

7. Meteor showers rarely look like the photos
streaks of meteor shower bright sparks over mountains and a starry sky.

Geminid meteor shower. (Image credit: Haitong Yu via Getty Images)
Oh, the headlines about meteor showers "lighting up the sky." They are 
so misleading, as are the composite stacked images created by 
astrophotographers after many hours of work. Meteor showers are an 
extreme form of stargazing. Seeing a bright "fireball" streak across the 
sky can be thrilling, but know this: you will likely have to spend a lot 
of time and work very hard to get much from any meteor shower. What do I 
do? In years when August's Perseid meteor shower occurs in a dark sky, I 
go camping far from light pollution and hope for clear skies. Even then, 
it can be underwhelming. Treat meteor showers as a bonus to a night 
under the stars, not a guaranteed jaw-dropping spectacle.

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Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter
Contributing Writer
Jamie is an experienced science and travel journalist, stargazer and 
eclipse chaser who writes about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar 
eclipses, the Northern Lights, moon-gazing, astro-travel, astronomy and 
space exploration. He is the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, author 
of A Stargazing Program For Beginners, co-author of The Eclipse Effect, 
and a senior contributor at Forbes.