Summer Sky Tour

Stargazing

Summer Sky Tour Home Page

Every year, in July, our Boy Scout Troop heads off to the North Woods of Wisconsin for a week of summer camp. It's been known on (rare) occasion to rain or cloud over at night, but when it's clear, the sky is stunning. On those nights we never fail to get out our binoculars and telescopes and head down to the lakefront for stargazing.

The account here is the agenda that I loosely follow in providing a guided tour of the summer skies as visible from 45° North Latitude. This tour is designed for one topic to lead to the next, so it flows nicely and still manages to teach Astronomy under the night sky as we caravan from one constellation to another. Aside from the binoculars and telescopes I usually make a point of also bringing a highly focused flashlight which serves as an effective pointer for tracing out constellations.

Note that this tour is specifically designed to meet requirements 5, 7 and 8 (b) of the Astronomy merit badge, although of course there are lots of other tidbits here that go beyond the requirements of the badge.

View to the South

View to the North

Index to the Tour

Polar Constellations

Boötes

Virgo

Cepheus

Sagittarius

Scorpius

Up the Milky Way

Lyra

Hercules

Draco

Overview of the Tour

The blue arrows map out the basic flow of the tour.

The Top Attractions

Time might be limited, if it's chilly, if conditions are changing, if the bugs are bad or else if time is just limited. In that case, these are the best items to hit - the ones that the kids (and the adults) are talking about days later.

Feature	Naked Eye	Binoculars	Telescope
Mizar & Alcor	✔		✔
δ Cephei	✔
The Scorpion's Claws (Libra)	✔
The Lagoon & Trifid Nebulae	✔	✔	✔
The Coathanger		✔
Albireo		✔	✔
The Double Double		✔	✔
The Ring Nebula			✔
M13		✔	✔

Feature	Visual	Binocs	Scope
Mizar & Alcor	✔		✔
δ Cephei	✔
The Scorpion's Claws (Libra)	✔
The Lagoon & Trifid Nebulae	✔	✔	✔
The Coathanger		✔
Albireo		✔	✔
The Double Double		✔	✔
The Ring Nebula			✔
M13		✔	✔