How many stars can you see from your backyard tonight? In a dark sky, far away from any light, about 4500 stars can be seen with our naked eye. In contrast, when viewing night skies from a city like Chicago, we can see only about 35 stars. Adding binoculars or a small telescope will greatly increase the number of stars and the detail you can see.
Fall, winter, and spring, during the months of standard time, is called the “observing season” by astronomers. Winter months give us long nights and short days. Earth’s northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, significantly reducing the length of time for morning and evening twilight. At this time of year, it gets dark late in the afternoon, providing many hours of stargazing time. Also in winter, cold air holds less moisture than warm air, yielding clearer skies without any haze.
Factors to consider when choosing a time and location to go stargazing is the brightness of other lights in the area. On cloudless nights, a full moon can be bright enough to light up the sky and hide a majority of the stars from view. Observing the night sky is best during the few days before, during and after a new moon, which occurred this month just a couple of days ago, on January 12th. Other sources of light obscuring our visibility are man-made. The farther away from these areas you can get, the better your observing experience will be. This is a spectacular time of the month when, depending on your location, hundreds of stars may be visible with the naked eye. With assistance from binoculars or a telescope, faint objects such as galaxies, nebulae and star clusters will also be visible.
When the northern hemisphere is experiencing summer, at night the Earth faces towards the center of our galaxy, with the 300 billion stars of the Milky Way. In winter, Earth has traveled to the opposite end of its orbit, and during the night, it faces outward towards the farther reaches of the galaxy. Stars are being displayed against a much darker background, making it easier to see individual stars, constellations and planets. Many sites out of the city, especially State or National Parks and recreation areas, have far fewer visitors in winter months, contributing less light pollution and less competition for viewing locations. Check for hours on their websites.
What’s visible right now in our neighborhood? There are several good online sites with information for what to view and when to look for it. Plus they provide good descriptions and other information. But the best way to learn about this aspect of nature is to get out and see it yourself. Check the weather for clearer nights and check some of the sites listed below for moon phases in the coming weeks.
Planets that are easily viewed tonight include Mars from sunset to 1:00am in the west-south-west; Uranus in the south drifting westward from sunset to 1:30a; Neptune in the south-west from sunset to about 9:00pm. Uranus and Neptune are very faint, but your view can be greatly improved with binoculars of 7x power or better. Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter can be seen with your naked eye, clustered low in the west-northwest sky, in the constellation Capricornus, for about an hour after sunset for the next few days.
Here is a list of websites with basic information that can get you started:
- Lunar calendar for Chicago including dates for each phase, moonrise and moonset times https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/usa/chicago
- Planets visible today in Chicago including rise and set times and direction https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/usa/chicago
- Planetariums in Illinois (be sure to check websites for hours/availability):
- WVHS Planetarium Aurora http://planetarium.ipsd.org/ Strickler Planetarium Bourbonnais https://strickler.olivet.edu/ William M. Staerkel Planetarium Springfield https://www.parkland.edu/Audience/Community-Business/Parkland-Presents/Planetarium Adler Planetarium Chicago https://www.adlerplanetarium.org/ Herbert Trackman Planetarium Joliet https://www.jjc.edu/about-jjc/places-interest/herbert-trackman-planetarium Illinois State University Planetarium Normal http://www2.phy.ilstu.edu/~trw/planet.html John Deere Planetarium Rock Island https://www.augustana.edu/locations/john-deere-planetarium-and-carl-gamble-observatory
- Illinois state parks, wildlife management and recreation areas (be sure to check sebsites for hours/availability): https://www.stateparks.com/illinois_parks_and_recreation_destinations.html
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