Astronomy and Star Gazing is the pleasure of gazing up at the heavens above and looking at the stars and planets.
Skills – Strength: 1, Balance: 1, Flexibility: 1, Agility: 1, Coordination: 1
Time needed: As long as you want, Cost to try: £Free
Astronomy is the scientific study of stars, planets, comets, galaxies and other phenomena that originate outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe.
“Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Astronomers of early civilizations performed methodical observations of the night sky, and astronomical artefacts have been found from much earlier periods. However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, the making of calendars, and even astrology, but professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics.” – Wikipedia
There are plenty of online astronomy websites that provide lots of information about space and astronomy. A lot of people want to have the astronomy picture of the day as their computer wallpaper.
Visit www.spaceweather.com to see if there will be any meteor showers or auroras that you can watch or photograph.
If you want to find out more about astronomy, get one of the many astronomy magazines or astronomy books from your library. There are several online astronomy shops and online astronomy stores. They supply a huge range of astronomy equipment such as astronomy telescopes and binoculars or posters. Online astronomy shops are ideal if you want to get someone an astronomy gift.
Keep an eye out for information on astronomy events that are advertised in the news.
For a quick guide to stargazing and dark sky tourism, visit BBC stargazing pages. You can also download a beginners guide to stargazing