Learn to measure distance easily in the night sky: Stargazing Basics 3 of 3 

Salam, don't worry my friend, it's my language and I still need to listen more than once to catch the meaning.

Thank you Charles!

Thank you very much!

Thank you for this wonderful comment, Joseph! Very thoughtful of you, and much appreciated. Yeah, the 180mm diameter of those charts was something I discovered when I was trying to help people scale a chart to the sky, and I realized, "Hey! This is brilliantly done as it is!" So I've promoted the Skymaps anytime I do public outreach (which hasn't happened this year, unfortunately). I did know about the various stars in Ursa Major - I just though that was one too many things to put in that video. But I may make another that includes it. Thanks again!

Not really politically correct. But yes, it was funny :)

The ruler is indicating a form or linear measurement and the hand configurations are for angular measurement.

@@Eyesonthesky My point is a ruker could be jsed the same way as yhe hand and it will be the same size for everyone. Unlike the hands.

@@LargeNuts that doesn't work though, because the ruler is the same size, and everyone's arms are different lengths. That's why the hands work better. It's also easier to see in the dark than a ruler.

@@Eyesonthesky There is no linear coefficient between someone's hand/digit size and there arm length that is rediculous. It is random and using a ruler is no less accurate.

@@LargeNuts the best part about using one's hand - which can be calibrated to the stars to see what the actual angular distance is - is that everyone always has their hand with them. A ruler? Not so much. And again, hand at night: Easy to see. The ruler? Not so much. Also: I am not the only one who teaches this. Hundreds of other amateur astronomers teach this exact same method to tend of thousands of people.

Thank you so much. I guess entertainment "sells" better, but this is what I know and what I do. So it's ok.

Thank you!

This might be what you're looking for: ru-vid.com

oh yh i know these guys , they appear in some sixty symbols videos , thanks lot , i appreciate it

Working on these right now: ru-vid.com/group/PLLM5fRxAaC_fTbgcoI2rNyQZCuZ1VCnLY

@@Eyesonthesky Fantastic!! Can't wait to see these too. Really appreciate you sharing your expertise thank you. 😊

Yes, you have to have your arm fully extended.

Not at this time, no.

If I can brighten people's day with the way I talk about astronomy, then I count that as a win. :-)

deadddddd :):):)

+eugeniomyles Yes. It's not 100% accurate, but good enough to measure distance on a star map (that has known degree measurements) and apply it to the sky with a reasonable amount of accuracy to help one identify objects up there.

Close enough has always been good enough for me! I tend to use estimates a lot, much to the chagrin of some of my friends LOL! But it works for me and that is what matters :)

I'm not 100% sure based on your description, but it sounds like it starts about a fist width above the horizon to the NW, rises to about 16 degrees at it's highest point, then sinks back down to about a fist width in the NNE. You have to look at the right time - and sometimes the apps are off by a few minutes. It's the non-blinking bright spot in the sky (planes always have blinking lights).

@@Eyesonthesky spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_States&region=Illinois&city=DeKalb this is a NASA link but I don't follow it.

denis dralec nope. Remember, we are use to looking at maps which are on the ground. The sky is up. The directions are correct when you realize you have to look up, not down..

Hi there - you can see most anything I talk about in my weekly videos. Check out my RU-vid channel and look for the weekly installments.

Thanks a lot I will check them out!

yes what is your question about it?

The sky appears to be a spherical (or half spherical) shape from our perspective on the ground. So we measure distance between those objects as if they are in degrees, because using linear measurements like inches or meters doesn't make sense. So you can measure those angular distances using your hands, outstretched. Then you can measure the distance from a known, bright star or object on a star chart, and apply it to the sky to find the dimmer objects, or measure between two naked eye objects. Make sense?

Ok, but how to use degrees? The two axis are RA and Decl, one is measured in hours minutes.. and the other in degrees. But how to actually use your fingers to jump between objects? :)

Don't worry so much about RA / Dec. Unless you have a telescope with large setting circles (4 inches or larger) that is very precisely aligned, they won't do you much good anyway. The hand configurations are meant to help you star hop around the sky naked eye anyway. For example, Sirius is about 20 degrees to the SE of Orion's belt. If a person can find Orion, they can locate Sirius by using two fist-widths to measure the 20 degrees to the bright star. Of course, that's a simple one, but it can help you locate dimmer stars in the sky, to assist with starhopping using a finderscope on a telescope.

Eyes on the Sky that's usefull! Thanks :) but where can I actually read that a star is x degrees from another 😂 for example Stellarium only gives ra and decl. However your channel is awesome.. Subscribed

Marcello 3055 I try not to, but understand that 98% of my audience does live there, and I've never been south of the equator so I dont have any reference point to help guide people in those locations. Astronomy is sometimes location specific, and I am not always able to make videos for everyone, though I do my best to make them applicable to as many people as possible.

Eyes on the Sky don’t worry it’s hard to remember us down here, we are only like 12 percent of the worlds population.

The closed captioning has been available since it was first posted in 2012.

@@Eyesonthesky It is working now since it was not English before, but other CC, like Spanish.

Chaitu Koribilli Kilometers is distance. 25 degrees is an angular dimension. They're not the same.

Eyes on the Sky I would like to know the distance between two visible stars. How to calculate the distance between two stars

You can´t do it with your fingers, because the stars in the sky are not in the same plane. Obviously, some are further away than others, although we, from the earth, see them in the same plane. Sorry for my english.

With a map we are looking down at the ground? Yes. For a map overhead of the sky? Nope. The video is correct.

@@Eyesonthesky I stand corrected.

It is a bit confusing at first, because we are all used to looking down at a map, with the ground being below us. But for the sky, things feel reversed. But if we think about holding the map over our heads, it makes more sense. If we laid down on the ground, with north above your heads and south below our feet, then east is to the left and west is to the right. And that's the orientation of the sky maps. But it DOES feel weird when we see it, because we think of "land" maps being the other way. :-)

It is not software. I was referencing these free PDF star maps. skymaps.com/