How to use Sky Tonight at bedtime

On a school night, stargazing works best as five minutes, not an hour: open Sky Tonight, let your child pick the Moon, a planet or shooting stars, read the card aloud, step outside, face the way it says, find the thing, come back in. The card is built for exactly that.

Before you go out

Type your ZIP once; Sky Tonight keeps it on the phone, so next time it is already there. Then hand the phone over and let your child choose one of the three boxes. Choosing is half the fun, and it means the five minutes are theirs.

Tap 🔊 and the card is read aloud: what to look for, which way to face in compass words, how high in fists, and the time it is dark enough. If that time is after bedtime, pick a different box. The Moon is often the easiest win.

Outside

Turn on Outside mode before the door opens. The screen goes red on black, so it doesn't spoil anyone's night eyes.

Find the direction first. If you don't know which way is south from your back step, the Sun set in the west, and a phone compass app works too. Then hold an arm straight out, make a fist, and stack fists up from the ground, as many as the card says. The thing is just above the top fist.

Face the way the card says.
Stack fists from the horizon.
Look for the brightest point that does not twinkle much: that's usually the planet.
Say what you see out loud. That's the whole job.

After

Back inside, the Print button on the card makes Tonight's sheet: a Moon to colour, a compass and three ticks. Five minutes outside and a drawing for the fridge is a complete night.

For the rest of the week, Seven Nights of Sky gives one thing per night, so tomorrow's five minutes are already planned.

When it doesn't work

Clouds win sometimes; the card says "if the sky is clear" for that reason. Streetlights hide faint things but not the Moon or the bright planets. And a child who would rather look at the Moon than find Saturn has still been stargazing.

A week of bedtimes

Five minutes once is a nice evening; five minutes on several nights is how children start to notice the sky changing. The Moon is the best teacher here: look at it three nights in a row and it has grown or shrunk, and it is in a different place at the same time of night. Seven Nights of Sky gives one thing to find on each night of the week, and a tick for each night you find it. Seven ticks put a Sky Week stamp in the Activity Book.

On cloudy nights, swap the yard for a world page: every planet has a page at three reading levels with NASA's numbers, and a Hear button that reads it aloud. The sky will still be there tomorrow.

More guides

“Read it, then go and look. The sky is the best page in the book.”