It was a great day today when it comes to astronomy. Early in the morning (7:30 am), as I drove to work, I saw the Moon and Venus close to each other in southern sky. They were up there alone, shining bright just before the dawn. They really look awesome together. It is a pity that I had no camera with me. A friend of mine has carried a camera almost every day with him, and the result is that he has a great number of photos of stars and atmospheric phenomena, such as storms. Later in the evening, as I was driving back home, I stopped to watch Orion and Sirius rising. Right now (11 pm) I see those two great objects from my window in Eastern sky. Those I watched today are my favorite objects to observe with plain eyes. That’s why this day was a great day.

Based on today’s observations, I decided to start a new article series, called Skywatching with Plain Eyes. The purpose of this article series is to provide beginners basic knowledge of skywatching without a telescope or binoculars. The best way to start astronomy as a hobby is to read and watch the sky without technical equipment. In this very first article of this series we will start skywatching from constellations that are easy to locate. Those are Big Dipper, Orion and Cassiopeia.

Most people have recognized and are able to locate Big Dipper in nightsky, even though they would not be interested in astronomy. The Big Dipper is probably the best known constellation. It has bright stars and it is very easy to locate because it looks like a plough. The Big Dipper, formed by seven stars, is probably the best constellation to start observing the nightsky.

Start by locating Big Dipper as I have described in my earlier article. As soon as you have discovered the Big Dipper, you can easily find also the polar star, Polaris, which is almost in the center of the sky in northern hemisphere. Now that you have located Big Dipper and Polaris, you are able to locate Cassiopeia, which is a bit more difficult to find. Use the first star of Big Dipper, Alkaid, and Polaris to position Cassiopeia. “Draw a line” from Big Dipper’s first star, Alkaid, to polar star, and then continue that same line until you reach Cassiopeia’s star called Ruchbah. See the figure for details.

Cassiopeia is almost in the middle of the sky, and therefore it might be difficult to locate. Depending on the time you are watching, it can be positioned in different ways. You can keep in mind that Cassiopeia’s W-shape opens towards Polaris.

Our last object to locate is Orion, which is located in southern sky. Turn towards South and look above the horizon. You should easily recognize the shape of Orion, as shown in the figure on left side. By using Orion, you can later on locate other interesting constellations and objects, such as Taurus and Auriga, as well as M42 Orion Nebula. We will come back to these later, but first read more about finding Orion from my earlier article.

If you are new to astronomy and you have done as I wrote above, you have now recognized your first three constellations in the nightsky. There a number of other constellations to watch, but these three are great objects to start astronomy. Welcome to the fascinating world of astronomy!