How do we learn to observe and contemplate the sky?

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies are all made in the cores of collapsing stars. We are made of the stuff of stars.” Carl Sagan

So, as an amateur astronomer, how can you discover the sky around you and probe its depths? Just choose a dark night without the moon or artificial light sources such as lampposts, house lights and cars, clear without clouds and give your eyes some time to get used to the darkness and then enjoy the view from above you, dozens of stars will decorate that dark space in majestic beauty! After you understand the scene, start identifying the constellations and planets using any sky map available to you, which is a chart that shows the exact locations of the stars, to which constellation each of them belongs, and how to find them from your place.

If you start to be able to observe with the naked eye, you can then use binoculars, they will make the scene clear to you more, you will be able to see the topography of the moon and some galaxies and nebulae, and if you are more lucky, the glasses will enable you to see the four moons of Jupiter. In the event that your financial capabilities allow to buy a telescope after that, it will give you a great experience that you have not experienced before, provided that you have known the sky well and spent a long time observing it so that the vision with the telescope does not disturb you, and if your financial capabilities do not allow.

Here you are, ready for the next step. The sky map is more saved to you than your home map. With time, you will not need to use any external sources for monitoring. You can then start your mission as a planet hunter by participating in the research of scientists to search for exoplanets, especially those similar to our home planet. There is more than one project in this field. You can access them through websites where images of regions in space are displayed, and you have to search in those images for any evidence that indicates the existence of any planet. You must ask yourself: How am I supposed to know how to search? About a planet?! Here lies the ease of the process, as you will be provided with simple data that does not require any educational backgrounds and will follow in order to succeed in the task.

For example, you will find a picture crowded with very many points, and all you have to do is observe the points that move and distinguish them from the static in their place. In some other images, you will find diagrams of the light emanating from a star, and your task is to know whether this star has a planet revolving around it or not? If there is a planet orbiting this star it will block out a very small but measurable portion of the star's light reaching us, so if there is any indication of light dimming in the chart that indicates the presence of a planet and this is what you have to do, locate those areas In the scheme and if you succeed then you have succeeded in catching your first planet.

Some research projects whose mission is to search for a ninth planet in the solar system, while others search for asteroids, galaxies, disks that make up planets, and others. You can take a tour of some of them and choose what attracts you to start your journey:

• Backyard Worlds: Planet 9
• Exoplanet Explorers
• Planet Hunters TESS
• Planet Patrol
• Disk Detective
• Important discoveries made by amateur astronomers!
• "Green Pea" galaxies

In 2009, a group of amateur astronomers volunteered for a Galaxy Zoo project, in which their task was to classify all galaxies into groups, and during that they discovered that very few galaxies - about 250 galaxies out of a million total - have the same characteristics in terms of their very small size. It is ten times smaller than our Milky Way galaxy, and its color was brilliant green, which is why it was named “green pea” galaxies due to the similarity between them and peas, and it turned out that they are indeed very rare and very active galaxies. Stars are forming at a rate 10 times faster than our galaxy. "It wasn't just one person who could make it," says Yale University student Caroline Cardmon, one of the people behind the discovery. "Even if we could look at 10,000 images, we'd pass a few green pea galaxies and wouldn't consider them to be a rare type of galaxy."

In 2021, the first moon of a planet to be discovered was announced by an amateur astronomer, as "Kia Li" found a moon of Jupiter that he discovered after examining a number of old photos of Jupiter taken in 2003 by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and telescope Subaru, and indeed the existence of the moon has been confirmed, but no official name has been given to it yet.