Astronomy doesn't deserve its reputation as a tough, expensive hobby. You just need to begin with the right advice.

Take a few minutes to learn the most important astronomy terms.

Here's all the essential information about the 88 constellations.

Confused by the bizarre names that astronomers have given the stars? Here's where they come from and what they mean.

Expert observer Brian Skiff explains NGC, UGC, and everything in between.

"Right ascension" and "declination" tell you where your telescope is pointed in the sky. But what do they really mean?

While civil time is based on official edit, the cosmological clockwork follows its own rhythms.

Why do larger numbers mean less light? Here's the story of astronomy's odd but beloved scheme for describing star brightnesses.

Without its spectral type, a star is a meaningless dot of light.

Here's how to hone your galaxy-hunting skills — and what to expect at the eyepiece.

With the stars increasing being lost amid the light pollution of our urban areas, is there no hope for an astronomer in the city? Fortunately, there's still a lot of observing that can be done.

Ready to voyage beyond the Solar System? Here's what you can see.

"Seeing" — the atmospheric quivering that fuzzes out high-power views — is the bane of every telescope user. Here's how to minimize its impact.

Amateurs long have recorded the seeing quality in their observing logbooks on a rather subjective scale of 1 to 10, with 1 hopeless and 10 perfect.

Image brightness, magnification, and why the old ideal of a 7-millimeter exit pupil is not so ideal at all.

An easy guide to exploring the universe is just a quick download away. This PDF document contains valuable tips for beginner stargazers, a detailed Moon map, and six bimonthly star charts for either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere.