Spotting the Moon, the Planets, and Orion

In winter, it can be hard to stay active outside. After all, it’s cold and it gets dark early, but for stargazers, winter is one of the best seasons around. There aren’t any bugs, you don’t have to stay up late for it to get dark, and some of the best constellations are visible during the winter. So if you dress up warmly, grab a lawn chair, and bust out a small telescope or binoculars, you can see the planets, the moon, even the Orion nebula and the Pleiades.

What You’ll Need

• Warm clothes
• A lawn chair
• A small telescope or binoculars
• A field guide and/or virtual planetarium software like Stellarium (free for PC/Mac) is helpful

What to Do

First, figure out what you want to see before you head out. That’s where a good field guide comes in, and virtual planetarium software, as those can show you exactly what the sky will look like wherever you are (and whenever you want).

Starting with the moon is always a good idea, as it’s bright and impossible to miss. The best time to observe the moon is in the “first quarter” when only one half of the moon is lit up. It reveals a lot more detail than a full moon, when all that reflected sunlight washes out the view. If you have a small telescope, try holding a smart phone over the eyepiece and see if you can snap some pictures. This can be tricky, but if you take a bunch of pictures and fiddle with the settings, you can get some wonderful shots. (There are also phone mounts for sale online, though you have to get the right model for your phone.)

After you take a look at the moon, make sure you get a chance to see Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Venus. You’ll need to refer to your field guide/planetarium software for when/where to look for each, as they appear to move through the sky over time. Still, it’s worth the effort, as seeing Saturn’s rings for the first time will make you gasp.

One note: Don’t expect to see the rings like you would in a picture from NASA. Instead, the planets will look pretty small, but if you’re patient and you focus just right, you’ll see the planets for real. It’s an amazing experience. Even if you only have binoculars you can often spot Jupiter’s largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Finally, even if you only have a small telescope or binoculars, make sure to take a look at Orion. Easy to spot throughout much of the late fall and winter, it’s famous for “Orion’s Belt” a line of three evenly spaced stars at the center of the constellation. Just below the belt, you’ll see a star that looks a bit smudged; it’s actually not a star at all. It’s a nebula, an area where stars are forming. Through binoculars or a small telescope, it’s a wonderful sight. The same is true for the Pleiades, a bright star cluster. To find it, simply follow from Orion’s belt up and to the right. If you’re just looking with your eyes, it looks like a little smudge, but through binoculars or a telescope, it looks a bit like a miniature version of the Big Dipper.