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Welcome to Eyes on the Sky!

Your 'astronomy-made-simple' resource.

I set up this site because I own several telescopes, and almost inevitably, I'm asked a familiar question after setting one up and sharing the night sky with others:

"How do you know where that is?"

Frankly, "knowing where that is" is about as difficult as consulting a map to know how to drive, well, anywhere! It's just that instead of "roads" on the map (star chart), there's only the dots for the "cities" and "towns" (stars and deep sky objects).

But if you've ever looked up at cumulus clouds during that day and said to yourself or someone else, "Hey, doesn't that cloud look like a dragon / airplane / Uncle Fred?" If so, you've certainly got the minimum imagination required to see the "lines" between stars, and find constellations. After all, that's all the ancient astronomers did. You can too - honest! I'll do my best to help you.

So after thinking about this "how to help others know where to find it" idea, I thought that the local newspaper folks might be open to the idea of me writing a monthly astronomy column. And fortunately, Russell Publications kindly agreed, and I've written my first column for November 2008.

And the great thing is: No telescope required! Just your eyes, and perhaps a pair of binoculars. All with the intent that anyone with a few minutes and a dark sky can "find that" too. Who knows? With enough learning about the simple things (consellations, bright stars and deep sky objects), you might want to invest in a telescope and take up some casual - or even more serious - observing.

It's a relaxing hobby, and one that can be enjoyed by yourself or shared with others. And it need not cost anything to get started - memorizing constellations, viewing brighter variable stars, watching planetary motions & lunar phases, seeing the International Space Station and watching for meteors - is all free! If you already own glass-lens binoculars, you can see MUCH more than you think. And if you have the means and so choose, it can be enjoyed with a financial investment ranging from a couple hundred dollars for a small telescope or quite good binoculars, up to thousands of dollars for a very large "light bucket" type telescope with fancy, expensive eyepieces.

But all you really need to get started are a few good star charts so you know where to look. And the Mag 7 star charts available here are FREE! I've tried to provide a few reputable places to purchase astronomy gear, and also some other helpful resources to help you know what the seeing conditions are like, the phase the moon is in, and what you might expect to see for sunspots provided you have an appropriate solar filter to look through!!!

A quick aside here: Please do not - I repeat - DO NOT look at the sun without a filter that is approved for solar viewing. A welder's mask is NOT DARK ENOUGH. And never, EVER point a telescope or binoculars at the sun, unless the solar filter is on the FRONT of the objective lens. IMMEDIATE BLINDNESS will occur if this advice is not followed. Solar filters and viewing glasses are available from Thousand Oaks Optical and other solar observing aids websites.

Having said all that, please feel free to peruse this site, offer suggestions, or share what you've seen in the sky! Keep your eyes on the sky - you never know what you might see!

David Fuller
Peotone, IL

Please be sure to turn off your outdoor lights, or if you must have an outdoor light on, be certain it is a full cut off fixture, and the minimum wattage required. No sense in lighting the underside of planes at night - it just ruins the night sky for everyone else! For more information about light pollution, please visit the International Dark Sky Association.

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