Stargazing guides

Each guide answers one question in its first lines, then shows how. Written for a child and the grown-up beside them.

• How to use Sky Tonight at bedtimeThe five-minute version of stargazing on a school night: one ZIP, one box, one card, one look, and back inside.
• What's that bright star?Why the brightest 'star' in the evening is often a planet, how to tell the difference with your eyes, and how Sky Tonight names it.
• How to find the Big Dipper, and from it the North StarTwo hops: find the seven stars of the Big Dipper in the north, then follow the two pointer stars to the North Star.
• How to find Orion in winterFind Orion's belt of three stars in a row, then the red star above it, the blue-white star below, and the fuzzy patch in the sword.
• Watching a meteor shower with kidsTwenty minutes for eyes, a blanket, no binoculars, counting as the game, and when to give up: a meteor shower night that works with children.
• Why the Moon changes shapeA lamp, a ball and your own head: the Moon's phases explained with a model you can make in a dark room, at three levels.
• Why can you see the Moon in the daytime?The Moon is up in daylight for part of almost every day. When to look for it after school, and why it shows through the blue.
• Never look at the SunWhy looking at the Sun hurts eyes, why sunglasses don't help, and the safe way to see an eclipse, as NASA says it.
• How dark is dark enough?Civil, nautical and astronomical twilight in kid words, why Sky Tonight says 'dark enough by', and how long after sunset to wait.
• Light pollution: finding a darker spot ten minutes awayWhy towns hide the stars, what you can still see from a city, and how to find a darker place close to home for a meteor shower or the Milky Way.
• A sky journal for a monthHow to keep a month-long Moon and sky journal with the free Moon journal sheet: what to draw, what to write, and what a child discovers by the end.
• Which planets can you see with your eyes?Five planets show with bare eyes: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. How each looks, and when each is up in winter 2026 to spring 2027.
• What a shooting star actually isA shooting star is a grain of space dust burning up high in the air. Why they streak, why showers have dates, and why some come from asteroids.
• Space without a telescopeWhy a first telescope is usually the wrong first buy for a child, what eyes alone can see, and what to buy later: binoculars, if anything.

Where to start

New to looking up? Start with stargazing at bedtime, then what that bright star is, then the Big Dipper. For a meteor shower night, read watching a meteor shower with kids and how dark is dark enough. For the Moon, why it changes shape and why it is out in the daytime. Every guide answers its question in the first lines, links to the tool that goes with it, and says when it was checked. None needs a telescope.