I’ve been asked A LOT about #Stargazing best practices!! 🪐🔭 Like stargazing tips, what sorts of equipment to use, and how to have the best stargazing experience! 🤩 ⬇️ So here are my top 5 for THE BEGINNER stargazer!! The basic rules you should probably aim to follow on each stargazing adventure you have. 1️⃣ Avoid light pollution 💡❌ Go to DarkSky.org to locate certified dark sky locations! 🌌 2️⃣ Binoculars (before a telescope) IMO 🔭 I recommend this because you will start to get used to how to navigate the sky, which is very very vast, using binoculars, and eventually will become sensitive enough to how to navigate using a simple telescope and beyond to advanced ones. I have some binoculars that I like listed on my Amazon storefront: Amazon.com/Shop/Astroathens 3️⃣ Astronomy Apps 📱 I use Sky Guide all the time. Sky Safari is great too! 4️⃣ Patience 😌 Your eyes take about 20 minutes to adjust to the environment. So put away the phone 📞 or set it to night shift + True Tone, get a red flashlight 🔦 and you’re all set! 5️⃣ Join an astronomy club 🪐 Joining an astronomy club is an amazing way to make friends, to learn stuff about the night sky, and to truly enjoy the cosmos in w way that I believe we are meant to as people. You get to share your own equipment and view the stars through others’ equipment too. 🤩🔭 I hope these tips & tools are useful to you on your next stargazing adventure! 🤓 Did I miss any tips or tools you use when you go stargazing? Comment them below 👇 I’m always looking to learn something new. ☺️ #stargazing #astronomy #nightsky #lookup #astronomytips #spacenerd #explorethecosmos #cosmos #spaceExploration #astroathens

In case you missed the total eclipse April 8, here’s a real conversation between ☀️🌎🌑 😂 The anatomy of a solar eclipse! Totality happens within the Moon’s umbra (full shadow), whereas the partial eclipses happen within the Moon’s penumbra (partial shadow). 🌑😎☀️ Which part of the Moon’s shadow did you watch from? 🌙 #totalsolareclipse2024 #TotalSolarEclipse #Eclipse2024 #EclipseWatch #SolarEclipseViewing #EclipseChasers

🔭 How do astronomers measure 📐distance in space? 🪐 ⬇️ 🧐 Here are 3️⃣ techniques that astronomers use to measure those super far-out object in space! 🌌 1. Parallax - an angle measurement between an apparent shift of a star. 2. Cosmic rulers - using an object with a known intrinsic brightness, like type 1a supernovae, astronomer can find distances to the host galaxy of that supernovae by measuring how long the light takes to reach us, since the speed of light is known at 300,000 km/s. 3. Redshift - galaxies super duper far away will begin looking redder and redder 🔴 as they move away, by measuring the degree of the shift to the red end of the spectrum, astronomers can make a measurement of just how far these galaxies are receding away from us. Here are some studies you can read to learn more about cosmic measurements!! 1. “The Astrometric Technique of Parallax” by Perryman, M. A. C. et al. (1997) - This paper discusses the astrometric method of parallax measurement and its application in determining the distances to stars using data from the Hipparcos satellite. 3. “Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties” by Gaia Collaboration et al. (2018) - This paper discusses the second data release from the Gaia space mission, which provides precise parallax measurements for over a billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. 4. “The Use of Cepheids as Distance Indicators and the Scale of the Universe” by Freedman, Wendy L. (2010) - This paper provides an overview of the use of Cepheid variable stars as standard candles and their role in calibrating the cosmic distance scale. More papers are cited on my youtube channel for this same video!! Did you know of any of these techniques?? #space #astronomy #lightyear #parallax #supernova #redshift #galaxy #astrophysics

Where will you go for the next total solar eclipse?? I am going to try and make it to Egypt!!!!! #solareclipse2024 #totaleclipse #solareclipse

Can’t believe i didnt post this here after hitting 310K on IG lol hope you all had a great total eclipse day!!! #totaleclipse #solareclipse2024