Embedded Files
Observation Packs
Each pack is a single page covering one night: what to look at, when to look, how to find it, and what you can realistically expect to see through our kit..
There are ten packs in the 2026–27 season, one for each observing night from September through April. They are designed to be printed and taken outside — one sheet, one night, no page-turning in the dark. If you would rather read from a screen, set your phone to its dimmest setting and use night mode; a bright screen will undo twenty minutes of dark adaptation in about two seconds.
What's on the sheet
The five boxes at the top
Sunset, astronomical darkness, the Moon, how high the target sits, and the best window to observe in. Check whether times are BST or GMT — it's marked in the title line.
The Note underneath
Small print, but the most useful sentence on the page: the plan for the night, and the order to work in.
The planet table
On nights with planets. They don't need full darkness, so they're what to do while you wait.
The Sky Above You, and the chart
Naked-eye orientation first. The chart is north up, east left, as in a star atlas, and one fist at arm's length covers about 10°.
Finding it
Four numbered steps from a star you can see to the object you can't. Works with a finder, binoculars or a low-power eyepiece.
What You Are Looking At
What the object is, plus the reference figures. Magnitude runs backwards — lower is brighter.
At the Eyepiece
Four rows by instrument size, from 10×50 binoculars up to 300 mm. Find yours and read that one. Where something will disappoint, the sheet says so.
Also in this constellation, and Worth Knowing
Bonus targets nearby, and one closing fact for the walk back to the car.
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