I want to know what stars and planets I'm looking at on a clear night?

does anybody know any sites where i can find this infomationI want to know what stars and planets I'm looking at on a clear night?
Either get yourself a planisphere as mentioned, or download Stellarium (like Google Earth, only from the ground looking out). If you know and can locate Orion, about an out-streched hand's width up from his belt is Mars (the big bright red one). And Saturn is visible this time of year, but you need to find a chart to locate it really. Hard to explain in writing.





I highly recommend 'New Astronomer' by Carole Stott (http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Astronomer-Carole-Stott/dp/0751306665/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8%26amp;s=gateway%26amp;qid=1203013105%26amp;sr=8-1), a great introductory book for astronomy, which comes with a free planisphere, and detailed sky maps, including locations of the planets for the next few years.I want to know what stars and planets I'm looking at on a clear night?
You can buy a plastic circle on which all the stars are printed. A concentric plastic circle secured over the circle star chart is turned to set the date and time. The plastic circle star chart can then be compared to the heavons.


Sorry I cant recollect the name of the devise ... its about 9inches diameter.


I keep it in my caravan for those dark star luminous nights!
There are astronomy sites out there. Like Sky and Telescope





Right now there is Mars at night from sundown til 2 AM overhead





Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the morning 2 to 1 1/2 hours before sunrise in the East
The milky Way. Venus. Orion (The Hunter) are the main ones on clear,cold nights.


Google something and follow the links to what you want.
I have a program on my cellphone (motorola-Q) called pocketstars. It is perfect for that. you can drop by the bookstore and pick up an astronomy book with a chart in it. otherwise do a search on star charts.
Get yourself one of those circular map things to give you all the info you need, but just as a quickie if you can't wait.....At the moment (UK) on a clear night you can see the Plough - looks like a question mark on its side, and Orion - got 3 stars in a straight line (that's Orion's belt) - they are on the squiff as well but you can't really miss them. I think Saturn is viewable too at the moment. Have fun.
For the stars, one of the very best things you can buy is a planisphere (those ';circular map things'; that people keep talking about). The bigger the better; mine is the great big one published by Firefly, and on many nights it's the only star chart I need. Yes, there are web sites, but even a laptop is nowhere nearly as portable.





For the planets, try the charts at Sky %26amp; Telescope's web site.





Addendum: one of the better books for finding your way around the sky and identifying the constellations is ';The Stars: a New Way to See Them'; by H.A. Rey.





A planisphere is also handy for ';what if'; questions, like ';When does Sirius rise at dawn?';
Go to www.skymaps.com





You can print out a map of the sky for any month of the year for either the northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere.








*****Also, if you go to http://www.stellarium.org you can download a free program that depicts the sky on your computer. It's an excellent program.