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Decide What to Observe

Whether you are new to Go Observing or are a regular user, sometimes you just need some help choosing what to look at in the night sky.

A lake at night with dark silhouettes of trees around the edge. Most of the image is focused on the night sky, where a bright arc sweeps upwards and then down again. Dark brown-red clouds cover sections of the brighter patches in areas. Small, white dots of stars are scattered everywhere in the sky.
This work by Juliancolton is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International
The wonders of the Night Sky
Resources around the website

All the telescopes you can access are robotic. This means you don't need to stay up all night to use them - or worry about differences in time zones, depending on the observatory site.

However, you do have to think about when you request your observations. Sometimes, the light from bright objects in the sky (like the Sun or full moon) blocks your chosen object from the telescope's view.

These web pages can help you to plan your observations:

Use the visibility scale

The Go Observing interface will help you with decision-making, too. For each type of object (e.g. planets, galaxies, stars, etc.), the one you have the best chance of observing will be put at the top of the list.

The visibility scale shows you the chances of observing each object in the upcoming time period.

A horizontal rectangle on a white background. The rectangle is black on the left, and then the colour fades to dark blue, light blue, and then finally white on the right. A title at the top reads "Key: Chance of Observing". Beneath this, from left to right, it reads "Poor", "Reasonable", "Good", and then "Excellent".
This work by The Schools' Observatory is licensed under All rights reserved
The Visibility Scale in Go Observing

Want to get your images quickly? Choose something where the chance of observing is Good or Excellent on the day you submit your observation.

You can turn the challenge of not being able to see your favourite planet right away into a classroom activity. Students can explain why some objects can be observed almost immediately and why you need to wait for others.

Use the Learn section to explore different kinds of objects in space.

 

Galaxy Example:

The image below shows a list of galaxies on the left. There is a ‘visibility bar’ for each galaxy on the right. The colour of the visibility bar tells you how good the chances are of observing that object in the upcoming time period.

A table displaying "Objects" in the left column, "Classification" in the middle, and horizontal rectangles in shades of blue and black in the right column. At the top of the right column is a timeline displaying the month of October 2014 to November 2024. Each object is described to be a type of galaxy. A rectangle in the bottom right indicates what the colours mean: black is a poor chance of observing, up to white which is excellent. The rectangles are colored slightly differently for each object.
This work by The Schools' Observatory is licensed under All rights reserved
Visibility Scales on the right for available galaxies

The visibility bar shows poor conditions for observing all galaxies around the 15th of October and good conditions for observing all galaxies around the 25th of October. This is because there is a full moon during this period.

The telescope knows not to observe galaxies around the full moon because the light from the Moon brightens the night skytoo much. You need a dark sky to get good images of deep-space objects like galaxies without them looking "washed out". Go Observing takes this into account.

 

Planet Example:

The image below shows a list of planets for the same time period. 

A table displaying "Objects" in the left column, "Classification" in the middle with each row stating “A Planet”, and horizontal rectangles in shades of blue and black in the right column. The rectangles in the last 2 rows are fully black and labelled “Not Observable”. At the top of the right column is a timeline displaying October 2014 to November 2024. A rectangle in the bottom right indicates what the colours mean: black is a poor chance of observing, up to white which is excellent.
This work by The Schools' Observatory is licensed under All rights reserved
Visibility Scales on the right for available planets

This shows good chances of observing Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune during the full moon.  Planets are much brighter than galaxies, so the full moon does not hamper observations of them. But planets orbit the Sun at different speeds and are sometimes hidden by the Sun.

Unfortunately, you cannot observe the planet Mercury with the Liverpool Telescope. This is because Mercury is too close to the Sun. It is also very difficult to get a good image of Venus for the same reason.

However, you may be able to spot them without using a telescope. 

Other Resources

You can use websites such as Heavens Above and Sky View Café to find out about what is in the sky.

Stellarium is a good piece of planetarium software that you can download for free or use in a browser.