I recently discovered the Humble Bundle site through a colleague, and I really got to like the site! Imagine, you not only get to have great ebooks and games for a price you decide, you also have a choice to donate a portion of the money you pay to charity! Whoever coined the idea for this website is a genius.

My first ever purchase on this site is a book bundle consisting of Astronomy-related titles! Astronomy is one of the fields I'm passionate about so I didn't need to bat an eyelash before I purchased the ebooks from this site. One of the titles included in that bundle is A Stargazing Program for Beginners by James Carter.

I've started reading the book since the start of the year, which is perfect because the stargazing guidelines in this book are divided into months. So far, I've been learning a lot of things, especially in navigating my way around the night sky.

Here's some of the things you'll be able to learn during the months of January to March:

January
- locating the Big Dipper
- finding Polaris using Big Dipper
- finding Polaris using Cassiopeia
- finding Sirius using Orion

February
- measuring the night sky
     1 degree - finger
     5 degrees - width of 3 fingers
     20 - palm wide - from thumb to little finger
- locating the Winter Circle asterism, which is composed of the stars Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Castor, Pollux, and Procyon
- locating the Milky Way arm, which is in between Procyon and Sirius
- locating Bellatrix, Aldebaran and Pleiades
- locating the Winter Triangle, which is composed of Procyon, Sirius, and Betelguese

March 
- finding the ecliptic and how to use it in locating planets
- celestial motion: stars rise 4 minutes earlier each night
- analyzing Ursa Major (where the Big Dipper is part of)
- astronomical conjunctions
- phases of the moon; observing an earthshine

I tried photographing the sky during those months, and here are two of the best shots I took.

See the Big Dipper? (Sagada, January 2017)

Canis Major, Sagittarius, and Taurus (Pangasinan, March 2017)

I like how in the photo above, the stars Betelgeuse and Aldebaran stood out because of their orange color.

I want to get out more and take photos of stars. It sucks to live in an urban city with all the light pollution around. My mission now is that whenever I'll be out of town, I make sure I bring my good 'ol SLR and the tripod so I can take more starry photos in the future.

Here's to more sky observations and clear nights in the future! 🍷⭐