Night Sky: Navigating Celestial Observations

Night Sky: Navigating Celestial Observations

Introduction to the Night Sky

ASTR 1010L

The goals of this lab are to give you an introduction to what you can see in the nighttime sky, how we label the locations of objects on the sky, and prepare you to make nighttime sky observations.

Before we get started, we need to define some terms. I’m sure you have used the word “constellation” before. However, astronomers term what you probably call a constellation an “asterism”, and mean something a little bit different for the word constellation.

Look up the word “asterism”. What does it mean?

It means a pattern of stars that is not a constellation.

Two asterisms you may be familiar with are the Big Dipper and Orion.…