Backyard Sky Finder

Know what you can see before you step outside.

Most stargazing books assume a dark sky and a big telescope. Backyard Sky Finder starts where you are: a backyard, a balcony or a park on the edge of town.

Every one of its 75 targets is rated three ways: for your eyes alone, for a pair of binoculars and for a small first telescope. Each target also shows the brightest, most light-polluted sky in which you can still expect to see it, so you can choose targets that will actually work from home.

Inside you'll find:

• 75 targets across the four seasons, from the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades to the Andromeda Galaxy and the rings of Saturn


• A finder chart for every target, plotted from star-catalogue data, with simple star-hopping directions


• Simulated eyepiece views that set honest expectations: how big, how bright and how grey things really look


• Four seasonal all-sky charts for 30° to 50° north, covering the United States and Canada


• A plain-English guide to binoculars and a first telescope, with setup steps and a troubleshooting table


• A Moon map with 15 features to find, planet dates for 2027 to 2030, and a 2027 to 2028 sky calendar of eclipses and meteor showers


• Easy activities for stargazing with kids


• A 75-target checklist, observing log pages and a glossary

Square, full-colour pages lie open beside you while you observe. Start with the targets rated easy for your sky tonight, and work your way to the challenges.