A beginner’s guide to stargazing near Philadelphia

When Brendan Happe came to Philadelphia for a weekend five years ago to visit his stepbrother Bill Green, they did something that persuaded Happe to move to the city: They looked up at the night sky.

“I saw the moon up close for the first time that night,” Happe said of viewing the vast craters and miles-high mountain ranges on the Earth’s moon through Green’s binoculars.

Green and Happe founded the Philly Moon Men in 2018, organizing sidewalk astronomy events along South Street. They brushed up on their knowledge of the heavens and invited people to pause the chaos of everyday life to learn more about something that many take for granted.

“The sky is literally the background to our world, and we don’t really pay much attention to it,” Happe said.

Viewing a clear night sky can be challenging in Philadelphia or any metro area because of light pollution. Add the prospect of needing an expensive telescope to stargaze, and many people can be turned off from doing so.

However, according to the Philly Moon Men and Franklin Institute chief astronomer Derrick Pitts, pursuing a stargazing hobby is not as intimidating as it seems.

“You don’t have to have a big telescope. In fact, you can start right at the basics just by observing,” Pitts said.

“The lowest level you can start at is just go outside and look up, and if you pick the right time to do that, there’s a whole host of things you can see without any optical aid,” Pitts said.

If you’ve always been curious about the night sky and want to take up stargazing, here’s your sign.

These local astronomy experts, along with Tatenda Mushonga, an organizer for the local public astronomy viewing group Philly #Popscope, and folks from the cosmological trivia group Astronomy on Tap Philadelphia, shared their best tips for budding astronomers to get the most out of stargazing near Philadelphia.

All the experts that spoke to us for this article agree that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to telescopes and binoculars for stargazing. If you’re a newcomer to this hobby, the first thing you should use to stargaze is the naked eye.

“In the evening, about half an hour after sunset, you’ve got all the bright stars and whatever bright planets are available. You have the moon, you might have some meteors or satellites,” Pitts said. “, Depending on how dark your sky is, you might even be able to see the arms of our galaxy and at least one other spiral galaxy.”

To level up, the Moon Men suggest getting middle-of-the-road binoculars, which cost around $100 or more.

“Get a nice pair of binoculars and put them on a tripod to keep it steady. You can see Jupiter’s moons, and you can already see the craters on the moon,” Happe said.

An easy pair of binoculars to use has a magnification range of 7 to 10 with a binocular lens diameter up to 50 millimeters — these specifications will be noted by number combos like “7x42″ or “10x50,″ the first number being the magnification range and second being the diameter length.

Check out outdoors shops like REI and Cabela’s or photography retailers like Unique Photo or B&H Photo and Video.

To view farther into the solar system, a second-hand telescope costing $200 to $300 is the next best bet, Happe said.

The Philly Moon Men, local online astronomy groups on Facebook, and popular astronomy forums like cloudynights.com often have used telescopes for sales, or you can buy new from retailers like High Point Scientific, Astronomics, or B&H.

“That level can bring you to Saturn’s rings, Jupiter’s weather, and the craters in the mountains on the moon,” Happe said.

With telescopes, it’s all about how much light it can capture in the night sky, expressed by the telescope’s aperture length. The greater the aperture, the clearer and farther the views.

For beginner telescopes, an aperture range between 70 mm to 130 mm is best, according to the astronomers at Telescopic Watch. When looking to go bigger, Pitts said the most one should spend is $1,500 because after that, the difference between more expensive telescopes is “splitting hairs.”

Finding the perfect spot to stargaze depends on light pollution and the weather at night. You’re looking for clear weather and skies with little light pollution in the surrounding area.

Even In Philadelphia, you can stargaze by going to dark areas of a park or getting above the streetlights on rooftops, Green said. If you want clearer views or views outside the solar system with the proper telescope, Happe said, you’ll likely need to leave the city for an area with less light.

Some of these spots are designated “Dark Sky Places,” which DarkSky International defines as “land possessing an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights” and a nighttime environment that is protected from light pollution through local outreach and advocacy.

Local astronomers use tools like lightpollutionmap.info and darksky.org to find the darkest areas around the region. They also use apps like Stellarium (Android) and StarView (iPhone) to find, weeks in advance, the best times to stargaze for astronomical events and use the app’s camera features to identify stars, constellations, and satellites in real time.

For those ready to take their stargazing a little more seriously, there are plenty of spots near (and far) from Philadelphia.

You can still stargaze in the city, but for the best views, you’ll need to go to dark areas of parks like Fairmount’s Belmont Plateau and Lemon Hill, or have some high-quality equipment.

Regional observatories invite the public to use its advanced telescopes, like Franklin Institute’s Holt & Miller Observatory and Widener University’s Observatory in Chester.