Star Hopping 101: The Beginners Guide to Star Hopping

There are roughly 5,000 - 10,000 stars in the night sky that are visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, light pollution can diminish the number of visible stars to a few dozen. However, a telescope can reveal many more. Many of these stars can be used as “pointer” stars to help lead your way to faint celestial objects. This article will serve as a general overview of some basic star hopping tips and tricks to help find your way in the night sky.

What is Star Hopping? Why is it useful?

Most deep sky objects are too faint to be seen by the naked eye. The goal of star hopping is to find these faint deep sky objects that are located near recognizable stars. This is useful if you don’t have a computerized mount with a catalog of deep-sky objects in the sky. Through star hopping, many astronomers (armed with nothing more than a sky chart), can quickly find objects like the Andromeda Galaxy or the Crab Nebula by hopping from one star to the next until they land on their target. Star hopping can be done with a telescope, but it can also be done with the naked eye to locate faint objects like the Andromeda Galaxy or the Orion Nebula.

5 Tips to Make Star Hopping Easier

1. Know Your Constellations: The most important tip is to know your constellations! There are 88 constellations officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Some of these constellations, such as Orion, Leo, Pegasus, and Sagittarius are very prominent. However, others are not as easily recognizable and might appear as just a jumble of stars in the sky. Understanding your constellations and which stars belong to what is important if you want to use said stars to find something in the sky.
2. Know Your Asterisms: Asterisms are patterns within constellations that are recognizable. However, they are not constellations in their own right. This includes the Teapot of Sagittarius, the Belt of Orion, the Big Dipper, the “M” (or “W”, depending on its orientation) of Cassiopeia, the Summer Triangle, and more. Knowing these asterisms is just as helpful as knowing your constellations, as these bright stars might serve as pointer stars to fainter ones and are easily recognizable.
3. Bring a Star Chart: While it’s useful to know constellations, it’s not reasonable to expect to remember the location of each and every star. Having some sort of navigational sky chart to help find your way in the sky is useful. A planisphere is a useful tool for those wanting to avoid using a smartphone. A planisphere will usually be able to tell you what constellations are in the sky at a particular time based on the month. But for those looking to use a smartphone, an app like SkySafari is ideal, with a catalog of thousands upon thousands of stars, as well as the locations of different deep sky objects.



4. Use Binoculars: Bringing a pair of low-powered binoculars is a great way to become more familiar with the stars in the sky near the object you’re looking for. A pair of binoculars will reveal many more stars in the sky than the naked eye. This will show you many of the 5th and 6th magnitude stars (or dimmer) that will likely be closer to the celestial object you wish to observe than the bright stars in the constellations. The Celestron Cometron 7x50 binoculars, or any 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars, are great binoculars to help with star hopping.



5. Use Laser Pointers: Another useful tool is a simple green laser pointer, such as the Hotech AstroAimer Green Laser Pointer. A laser pointer will make it easy to visualize and to point out to your friends and family stars in the sky (as opposed to just saying, “That one bright star below those two bright stars”) WARNING: Under no circumstances should you point a laser near a car, plane, or any moving object. Be careful that the star you’re looking at isn’t actually a plane’s navigation lights - they will usually be blinking.

Finding North: Locating the Pole Star via Star Hopping

The easiest celestial object in the sky to identify via star hopping is Polaris, the north star. Earth’s axis of rotation is located very close to Polaris in the sky, making it appear “fixed” in the sky for northern hemisphere observers. This makes it a very useful navigational tool, as Polaris’s altitude above the horizon will always match the observer's latitude & will always point north. There are two asterisms you can use to find Polaris. The first one is the Big Dipper, the main asterism in the constellation of Ursa Major. Find the Big Dipper in the sky, then go to the two stars that make up the end of the dipper. These stars are Merak and Dubhe and serve as “pointer stars” to Polaris. Draw a straight line between these two stars, and then continue that line over until you find the next brightest star. This will be Polaris!

Another method of identifying Polaris is to look for the “M” of Cassiopeia (this also looks like a “W” depending on its orientation). This is useful if Ursa Major is blocked by trees or is too low for you to spot on the horizon. Find the star Navi, a magnitude +2 star. It will be the center star in the asterism. From Navi, draw a line until you find the next brightest star. This will again be Polaris.

Finding the Breathtaking Orion Nebula

Another easy object to find with the naked eye through star hopping is the Orion Nebula in the constellation of Orion the Hunter. The Orion Nebula is traditionally associated with the sword of Orion. Finding the Orion Nebula is fairly straightforward. First, identify the constellation of Orion in the night sky. In early winter, Orion is usually visible rising on the Eastern horizon just after sunset and is the most prominent and identifiable constellation in the night sky. Now find the three stars lined up next to each other that comprise the “belt” of Orion. These are the stars Alnitak (eastern star), Alnilam, and Mintaka (western star). From Alnilam, head south until you see another fainter row of three dim stars that make up the “sword” of Orion. The star in the middle is in fact the Orion Nebula! Point a telescope at the Orion Nebula and you’ll be treated with a stunning display of bright nebulosity.

Now that you’ve identified these four stars, identify the star Alpheratz. Alpheratz is the star that makes up the upper-right star of the asterism (note: this is assuming you are observing Pegasus as it’s rising on the western horizon). From Alpheratz, move over to the star Delta Andromedae. Then hop to Mirach, a yellowish star roughly as bright as Alpheratz. From Mirach, move west and south slightly until you find Mu Andromedae; then continue until you identify Nu Andromedae. If you are at a dark sky site, you may notice a faint fuzz in the sky. This is the Andromeda Galaxy! If you have a bit of light pollution, we recommend using a pair of binoculars to help resolve the galaxy.

Locating the Ring Nebula (M57)

If you’ve found the Andromeda Galaxy, you’re now ready for our next challenge: locating the Ring Nebula (M57). For this challenge, you will need a telescope with a minimum aperture of 70mm. We recommend a relatively high power eyepiece and dark skies to be able to resolve it. We also strongly recommend a finderscope or a telrad. Find the constellation of Lyra. Its main asterism makes up five stars, the brightest of which is the very luminous blue star Vega. The other four stars that make up the body of Lyra are Zeta1 Lyrae, Delta2 Lyrae, Sulafat, and Sheliak. We’ll be focusing on Sulafat and Sheliak for this next part.

Once you’ve found these four stars in the sky, it’s time to look through your telescope! For this demonstration, we’ll be simulating a view through an 8” Dobsonian and a 13mm eyepiece. This yields a magnification of roughly 0.5 degrees or roughly that of the Full Moon in the sky. Center your eyepiece on the star Sheliak. Now look up in the sky and draw a straight line between Sheliak and Sulafat. The Ring Nebula almost lies directly on this line. Look back into the eyepiece, and move your telescope along that straight until you’re roughly halfway between Sulafat and Sheliak. M57 should be nearly dead center in the field of view.

If you’ve found the Ring Nebula, congratulations! You’re ready for even more challenging objects to hunt down through your telescope. We challenge you to also find fainter galaxies like the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), and many more - all of which can be found easily through star hopping. Although star hopping is relatively simple, it can be challenging as you begin more challenging searches. However, through star hopping, you will gain a mastery and understanding of the night sky unlike many others!

This Article was Last Updated on 07/20/2023