Question: why do you go outside at night?

Rosie Cane answered on 16 Jun 2017:

I like going outside at night to look at the stars, a hobby called star-gazing. I love finding the different patterns in the stars, called constellations, and pointing out the planets. We can see the other planets in our solar system in the night sky, and you might have even spotted one before yourself.

You see, stars twinkle, just like the song ‘twinkle twinkle little star’. Things in space (usually gas and dust) get in the way of the light from a star and make that light flicker like a candle. The planets are much, much, much closer to the Earth than any of the stars we see in the night sky, and so they do not twinkle, they are just steady points of light!

So if you see a steady point of light in the night sky, that isn’t the moon, you are probably looking at a planet!

If this is something that you’re interested in, there are lots of super useful online guides to finding these constellations, pictures in the stars. This website tells you what constellations you can see at different times of the year! http://kidscosmos.org/cosmos/cosmos_star_maps.php

Happy star-gazing!