In the movies, you often see a small telescope whenever a living room is depicted. This tells you that it’s a common, cool thing to possess. Yet ask any of your friends to point out anything in the night sky, and very few can do it. Obviously there’s a big separation between our theoretical interest in astronomy and any sort of actual sky-knowledge.
Since you’re here, away from obscuring city lights, you could change all that in five minutes. Interested? Just bring out this page and a flashlight the next clear night at 7 p.m., and I’ll take you around the sky as your personal astronomer.
This is a good time because the moon is absent this weekend. And there’s a bunch of cool stuff to see and it’s all very easy to find. I’ll prove it.
Go to a place where the sky isn’t blocked by tall trees. First look at the final lingering glow of dusk, where the sun set. The west. A bright orange star is rather low in that direction at 7 p.m. This is the famous Arcturus, the second-brightest we can ever see from New York State. The light from Arcturus was deliberately focused through a telescope onto a photocell to open the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933. They chose this star because it was believed to be 40 light years away, so the light now arriving had left Arcturus just as the previous world’s fair was closing. Then we found it’s actually only 36 light years away. Hmm, maybe this information is too arcane for our short astronomy session, so let’s move on.
Now look left of where the sun set and you’ll immediately see an even brighter star, which is the planet Jupiter. Confirm your sighting by noting there’s a less-bright star just to its left. This is Saturn. If you have a small telescope, these are the two best places to point it. If you don’t, watch Jupiter and Saturn slowly slide closer together night by night until they essentially merge into one super-star on December 21, the best conjunction of our lives.
Now again turn left until you’re facing opposite to where the Sun set. In other words, you’re now looking east. And wow, a super brilliant orange star is low in this direction. This is Mars, now closer and brighter than it will again appear until 2035. If trees or hills block the east, look again in an hour or two, and Mars will have climbed much higher.
Next step: crane your neck at 7 p.m. and look straight overhead. There are three worthy targets here. The bright star closest to the zenith is Deneb. This star marks the direction toward which our entire solar system is moving. It’s where we are heading!
Next, look at the very brightest star that’s high up at that 7 p.m. hour. This is Vega, pronounced VEE-ga. It’s just 25 light-years away, so its brightness comes mostly from its nearness. Finally, there’s a third bright but not super bright star high up, and this is Altair. Joined with Deneb and Vega, Altair completes the famous Great Summer Triangle.
We’ve only invested a few minutes, and already we can identify seven stars and planets. If you’d like to finish on a familiar note, face the final direction, north, and you’ll see the Big Dipper low down, looking larger than you remember. That’s because constellations always seem bigger when they’re low.
On this dark moonless weekend, cool stuff parades above us. Does it intrigue you, as it fascinated people through the ages and around the world? Or, instead, shall our living room telescope stand for mere decoration?
Okay, maybe that was a bit snarky. Sorry.
Join the family! 
