As well as the planets and the Moon, there are stars, constellations, nebulae, galaxies and star clusters to discover during National Astronomy Week. For a quick guided tour around the sky, take a look at the video below, recorded live under the stars so you get a realistic view of what’s up there.
As well as the bright planets Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune are also in the sky at the moment. Want to search for them? You will need binoculars, and a good clear sky, but even from a city you can find Uranus. Head over to our Uranus and Neptune page to find out where they are.
More stars to look for
See if you can find these constellations
Cassiopeia
Where to look: almost overhead, in the early evening. If you found Andromeda from the video, look above it and to the right for a W-shape of stars.

Cassiopeia, like The Plough, is always in the sky as seen from the UK, although in summer you’ll find it low down on the northern horizon.
Things to look for in Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia is crowded with stars, because it’s in the Milky Way, the band of faint stars that stretches around the sky and which is our galaxy seen from the inside. If you can’t actually see the Milky Way from where you are, gaze at Cassiopeia with binoculars and you’ll see that it has many more stars than other areas. like the Square of Pegasus.
See if you can find the three star clusters shown on this map.

Perseus
Where to look: almost overhead in the early evening, between Andromeda and the bright star Capella

Things to look for in Perseus
Like its neighbour Cassiopeia, Perseus is full of stars and star clusters. One of the largest is very obvious in binoculars, and surrounds the star Mirfak. Look for an S-shape of stars known as the Alpha Persei Cluster or Melotte 20.
The real gem is the Double Cluster, midway between Perseus and Cassiopeia. This beautiful pair of star clusters are a gorgeous sight on a dark night in binoculars or a small telescope. In fact, you don’t need a high magnification to see them so a small telescope can give a better view than a large one.
Also look for the clusters M34 and NGC 1528, plus many other groups and bunches of stars visible in binoculars.
Take a look, too, at the star Algol. This is a famous ‘winking star’ – it changes its brightness every few days and goes dim for a few hours. You can witness one of these dimmings on 3 February. Look at it on 1 or 2 February and it is about as bright as the nearest bright star in Andromeda, at the end of the line. But on 3 February it will be about as bright as the star below it. The exact time of its minimum brightness is 20:00 on the 3rd. Then the next day at the same time it will be back to its normal brightness. The name means ‘The Ghoul’ in Arabic, but this may be just because in the Perseus legend it marks the head of the evil Gorgon Medusa, which could turn people to stone.
