Night sky guide
WildID Night sky guide is a great way to start finding your way around the night sky.
- Seasonal sky maps name the stars of spring, summer, autumn and winter
- Accompanying text describes the moon, planets, comets and the aurora
- Practical for use outdoors: lightweight, rucksack-sized, splash-proof
You don’t need a telescope to study the objects in the sky. Instead ordinary binoculars will show you a great deal. As well as using them to identify the planets, they will show you stars and other objects that are invisible to the naked eye.
The Moon always shows the same face to the Earth. Over time, Earth’s gravity has slowed the Moon’s rotation. Now it spins once in the same time it takes to orbit the Earth. The features on the Moon stay the same, but its shape changes nightly as sunlight hits it from different angles. The Moon’s full cycle of phases takes 29 and a half days. New Moon happens when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun. We first see it as a thin crescent in the evening sky. It rises later each night until it becomes Full Moon, about two weeks after New Moon. After that, it’s best seen in the early morning sky.
The solar system comprises the Sun and its family of eight planets, plus numerous moons of the planets, minor and dwarf planets, and comets. Everything orbits the Sun, taking different times to do so.
Field Studies Council worked with with the Society for Popular Astronomy to produce the Night sky guide.
