DARKWARDS666

I am a spirit of darkness named Darkwards, I go to dark places at night.

The definition of darkwards is: towards darkness, to be truly devoted to the night and darkness, and is suitably pronounced "dark-woods". I go to the woods, nature and various atmospheres in the dead of night, to go out during the new moons and full moons are monthly rituals. I am more than just a gallery of photos, I aim to capture the atmosphere of actually being there alone and immersed in nature at night. The dark nature to me is a very powerful and calming way to disconnect from all the light and noise of every-day life.

All the sections on this page are about observing and embracing darkness. If you have further questions you can ask here.

One of the most common questions I get asked is: are the woods at night scary?

The answer is: it depends on why you think it should be scary, is it rational or irrational? It doesn't have to be just for ghosts and horror movies in the way that many imagine; I find the dark empty woods is a fantastic way to immerse yourself in nature and isolation. I do not get lost and my area is quite safe from aggressive wildlife. It is important to consider safety before you go anywhere, but logically, the woods at night is often no more dangerous (and arguably less so) than it is in daylight.

If you haven't already, you can read the fun darkwards code, which consists of 6 codes that define the darkwards lifestyle:

• #1: Go to nature at night
• #2: Set apps to dark mode
• #3: Wear black
• #4: Listen to dark music
• #5: Know the night sky
• #6: Keep others in darkness

The only code that I do not follow is the final one, Darkwards Code #7: Follow Darkwards666 on Instagram, just because I do not follow myself. I follow the other 6 codes very sincerely in my daily life out of love for darkness, but it's not rigid like religious dogma. You can be truly devoted to darkness and adaptable at the same time.

This is answered in Darkwards Code #4: Listen to dark music.

Great bands: Darkspace, Darkseed, Darkcell, Darkthrone, Dark Tranquility, Dark Oath, Dark Funeral, Dark Fortress, Dark Age, Darkest Horizon, Dark the Suns, Spell of Dark, Dark Forest, Black Forest, Black Therapy, Nightcreepers, Nightland, Nightwish, Midnight Eternal, Midnight Odyssey, Midnight Realm, Nocturna, Twilight Force, Beast in Black, Obsidian Gate, Nyktophobia, Moonshade, Moonlight Haze, Moonlight Sorcery, Cryptic Wintermoon, Sunless Rise, Swallow the Sun, Starforger, Ghostheart Nebula, Nebula Orionis, Astrophobos, Duskmourn, Crepuscule, Wintersun, Sunn O)))

Honourable mentions: Mist of Misery, Catamenia, Suotana, Insomnium, Havamal, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, My Useless Life, Evilfeast, Battle Dagorath, Sorcier des Glaces, Uada, Dimmu Borgir

I am a figure of darkness that explores and lurks in dark nature, most often during new moons and full moons. Nice to meet you, let's get to know each other.

A bit about me: I have black cats, I like darkwave and black metal, I like dark orange chocolate, my favourite drink is black coffee, I wear sunglasses in daylight that are too dark for legal driving, I overcome fear of spiders by turning the lights off, my biggest dislike is light pollution and my favourite area of scientific study is the night sky.

The powers of the dark forest live with us everywhere. This section is related to Darkwards Code #6: Keep others in darkness.

It does feel safer and more liberating to maintain some element of mystery, to embrace darkness not just in the woods but in every-day life too; to maintain a level of invisibility and darkness everywhere. In darkness we can live our own narrative, control and reduce external influence, judgment, comparisons and unwanted attention; this darkness is peace and liberation like the dark woods, the ultimate detachment from all the light and noise of this world. Society compares and judges, the dark forest does not.

However it is darkness not blindness; friends are important and if you are too hidden you will be lost, totally unguided and losing opportunities. Be selective what you share, who you share it with and find the right balance! As social beings we naturally compare ourselves and what we have to others, but this video by the legend Sadhguru, addresses how too much social comparison leads to a sickness of enjoying other people's failures, and the issue with the word "best".

There is a link to darkness with the lowest states of mind, such as "having dark thoughts". Depression, despair, wanting to die...

The darkness in the forest is for exploring darkness, not causing it. The dark forest is the last thing to cause total despair, but as an explorer of darkness one must have the courage to explore it. DSBM and funeral doom are two extremely dark and depressing genres of metal music, I love them and I notice many followers of darkness do too. The opposite way to exploring darkness is to invalidate and dismiss it, and this approach is always a disaster.

An unnamed follower of darkness was once so low and almost reached the grave. She has since found herself, and said that whatever reason you can find to realize your worth, exploit the hell out of it, even if it slightly exceeds truth. To engrain higher thoughts of yourself is a conscious process of guarding them long enough, to keep affirming them until you eventually believe them.

We learn that things seeming too good to be true often are. With time more hopes die, then survival mode tells us that hope is a mental illness and to never have it. All the slightest good things are dismissed as impossible fantasies, and the cemetery shown in the photo becomes a desired final destination of no return. Any faith in God is useless when that itself also gets dismissed as just another false hope in a hopeless existence.

One of the most reliable sources of joy is the simplest; a walk in a dark woods. If you feel like nothing good can ever happen again, I can only assure to give fate a chance. A recurring theme throughout this chapter is uncertainty, and realizing we know nothing... do not fear this darkness but embrace it, as even if you lose all hope, things you never knew or imagined can happen. There is only one absolute certainty in this cosmos, and we explore it in the next section: the end of all existence.

It can be premature or delayed, gradual or sudden, feared or desired, natural or inflicted, deliberate or accidental, painful or painless, happy or tragic... but it is always 100% certain: the inevitable end. 🪦

The inevitable end is of not just life, but of every creation, every situation, every relationship, and even the whole universe. Every full moon, every spectacular sunset, every night sky event; they are all reminders of the passage of time, every one of them could be the last one for anyone. Compared to pure nature and forests, the cemetery is also a powerful atmosphere while offering a different, more intense experience, with more emphasis on connecting with finality. The only universal certainty in this cosmos is impernanence. With acknowledgement of death and finality comes appreciation for what life offers, and preparation to reduce the devastating effects of tragic but inevitable losses.

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We faced the inevitable finality of all existence... but now, no matter what we even make of ourselves, the cosmos reduces us all to nothing.

The biology, chemistry, geology, physics, astronomy and the other governing forces of our cosmos are all mind-boggling. The most humbling of all, however, is the size of this great cosmos. We are on one planet, orbiting one average-sized star. Our planet could fit into the sun 1.3 million times, and then our sun could fit into the largest star in the galaxy 10 billion times. Our sun is part of one galaxy called the Milky Way, and this one galaxy is part of a supercluster of galaxies within a universe containing trillions of galaxies. All the trillions of galaxies contain hundreds of billions of stars which contain planets, along with nebulae, quasars, black holes etc, with these galaxies grouped in superclusters fitting in great voids of empty space.

Everything described so far only exists within the observable universe; what exists beyond will never be known, but the unobservable universe is likely far greater... and potentially infinite. Anything we do or feel may have significance in some contexts, but in the vast cosmos it is all utterly void of even the slightest significance. We live and die as invisible and insignificant entities of nothing on the cosmic scale.

Did any higher powers design all this, or did it all happen by itself? Science can influence beliefs either way, but the truth is: we can only believe in one or the other, we still cannot know. All we can conclude is that the universe is an amazing creation, and we can seek to understand rather than know, which is what the next section is about.

Now we have explored the vastness of the cosmos, we can seek to understand any higher powers who may have created it. Is it through fear-based religious doctrine, or is that also swallowed into meaningless oblivion by the crushing weight of cosmic enormity?

Strict dogma teaches blind faith, based on obedience to a religious authority that shuts down questions and instills fear, guilt and ignorance. No questioning is no understanding, which is why acts of blind obedience often fail to achieve their own alleged purpose, or even backfire with opposite effects. To force one belief system and prohibit exploring alternative ideas is control by instilling ignorance; the end result is fragile, divisive and ironically unfaithful.

In Darkwards Code #5: Know the night sky, “not tracking the lunar phase" is listed as a horrendous sin you'll burn in hell for to satirize fear-based control; this kind of absurdity that's linked with sins and hell-fires is totally insignificant against the vast cosmos, and is belittling and insulting to its creator. Do we believe God is a magnificent creator of galaxies or an insecure tyrannical despot with an astronomical ego? To me an afterlife 'day of judgment' seems too much of a perfect narrative for control freaks to propogate for me to trust its reality, but there is real heaven and hell right here on Earth. In either case, a legendary islamic scholar Mufti Abu Layth has great words of reassurance.

By observing the amazing universe, it showed me that God or religion cannot be quoted to excuse injustice, and I felt that any higher powers would surely be better than rigid rules, fear and punishment. To me the great powers of starlight and moonlight scream louder and shine brighter than any doctrine, the forest more powerful than any place of worship, and I found a faith exclusively in magnificence of the creation from nature and darkness.

We can believe in anything we want to, but to believe or not are both to not know. Belief and disbelief are just opposite ends of the same spectrum of not knowing, which is why to punish for either is so ridiculous. To realize our not knowing unlocks unlimited possibilities of seeking that religion doesn't teach, although it would threaten many authorities' quest for ignorance-based control. Religious faith is fine to have, but when a religion has power it's a disaster.

Whether your faith is religious or not, to follow sense and ask questions is never unfaithful. The stars appear in darkness not blindness, as dark faith is not blind faith... and my name is Darkwards666, not Blindwards666.

The following is a message sent to me by a follower of darkness who was interested in contributing to this site, who shared his story of how he found his connection with the universe and higher powers:

Any story that begins in a forest at dawn is bound to be good, this one is definitely no exception! It's great to see such a connection formed by sensing the wonders of the forest, and so much appreciation of the simple things. I can also relate to how the wonders around us can feel so intentionally designed. I can see this is a very sincere faith, a forest is certainly one of the most powerful ways to start. The real question is though, why was he out in the forest so late? Or was it early?

Twilight is the transitional stage in between day and night, after sunset or before sunrise. The definition from timeanddate.com: "Twilight occurs when Earth's upper atmosphere scatters and refracts sunlight which illuminates the lower atmosphere." The upper atmosphere is still illuminated by sunlight during less advanced stages of sundown for the same geometrical reason that the higher you are, the more objects you can see over with the steeper line of sight. The higher you are, the more you can see of low curvatures of the horizon that are invisible at ground level.

To be truly darkwards, it is important to know the stages of darkness/twilight.

Image provided by timeanddate.com

At civil twilight, the sun is between 0° - 6° below the horizon.

Civil dusk is just after sunset, and civil dawn is just before sunrise. This is the brightest stage of sundown, there is enough light to allow for most daily activities like sports and gardening to continue without difficulty. The sky colour in the photo is a beautiful golden, and it is explained why in Section 4.4. In any location less than 6° outside the Arctic or Antarctic circle, darkness does not exceed civil twilight during the summer solstice.

At nautical twilight, the sun is between 6° - 12° below the horizon.

This is the intermediate stage of twilight, where the sky is relatively dark, many celestial objects are visible but there is enough light for sailors to distinguish the sea from the horizon. This is where the name "nautical twilight" comes from. In any location less than 12° outside the Arctic or Antarctic circle, darkness does not exceed nautical twilight during the summer solstice.

At astronomical twilight, the sun is between 12° - 18° below the horizon.

This is the darkest stage of twilight, and most people could not distinguish it from night. In light-polluted areas or on cloudy nights this is as dark as it gets, although in darker areas there is still enough light scattered from the upper atmosphere to make faint celestial objects less visible to astronomers, which is where the name "astronomical twilight" comes from. Despite the strict definitions in terms of the sun's position, from my experience I can detect a faint glimmer of light in the sky whenever the sun is 13° below the horizon or less. In any location less than 18° outside the Arctic or Antarctic circle, darkness does not exceed astronomical twilight during the summer solstice.

At night, the sun is at least 18° below the horizon.

The night is Darkwards' favourite stage! At this stage, the sun is 18° below the horizon, which is defined as the point where no sunlight scattered by the upper atmosphere can reach us; the sky is fully dark and true night begins. For night sky lovers, this is the best stage and when the most celestial objects are visible.

On planet Mercury, the night virtually starts as soon as the sun sets, there is no transitional twilight stage because there is no atmosphere to scatter any light. On planet Mars, the atmosphere is also very thin but twilight is actually very long because light is primarily scattered by the many high-altitude dust particles in the Martian atmosphere. The atmosphere and light scattering of both Earth and Mars give the sky interesting colours, and even more so if volcanic material enters the atmosphere.

The night sky is an important part of the nature at night, this specific focus of Section 4 is on observing the moon. The moon orbits around the Earth’s common centre of gravity, cycling between 8 different lunar phases in a cycle of about 29.5 days. The time between one new moon and the next is known as a lunar month. The moon’s appearance in the sky varies from 0% illuminated and invisible during the new moon, to 100% illuminated during the full moon and everything in between. All 8 lunar phases are shown in this image, taken from the website timeanddate.com.

Waxing means to be increasing in size, and waning means to be decreasing. A crescent moon is banana-shaped and mostly unilluminated, while a gibbous moon is more than half illuminated but not quite full. A quarter moon, despite the name, is a half-illuminated moon. Refer back to this section if you ever forget any of the lunar phases.

A full moon is arguably the most spectacular phase of the 29.5 day cycle, and it appears when the side of the moon which faces us is fully illuminated by the sun. For this to occur, the moon must be on the opposite side to our planet as the sun, as illustrated in the following drawing:

Notice that the daytime and night-time side of Earth and of each moon are also shown in the image, and in every case, the daytime side is the side which is facing the sun, and the night-time side is facing away from the sun. A full moon is always opposite the sun, and never visible during daylight.

You may be wondering why our planet doesn’t block the sunlight that reaches the full moon; the answer is that it sometimes does, either partially or fully, and when this happens, we get an eclipse. The reason eclipses don’t happen very often is because the moon’s orbital plane around us is tilted by 5°, just like ours around the sun is tilted by 23°. If the moon and sun could somehow appear together in the sky, the moon would appear between 5° north to 5° south of the sun due to its tilt. If the moon wasn’t tilted, there would be eclipses at every new moon and every full moon.

You may know that one side of the moon is always facing Earth, and the other side always facing away - the latter is often called "the dark side of the moon". The scientific reason for the same side always facing us is that the moon is tidally locked to Earth, a result of gravitational forces. However, is "the dark side" really the technically correct name?

The side which never faces us does not get any less sunlight than the side which always faces us, and this can be illustrated with the same drawing from Section 4.2. Notice how at the new moon, the side which faces away from us is entirely lit by the sun, and during the quarter moons half of each side is sunlit. Therefore, the more technically correct term is the far side of the moon.

You may have noticed that some just-rising full moons look spectacular, appearing orange/red and very large. The reason they appear this colour is because of the indirect angle at which they face us. During moonrise or moonset, the moon is very low on the horizon and its light has to travel through much more atmosphere to reach our eyes; the shorter blue light wavelengths are scattered away by the atmosphere, while the longer red/orange wavelengths are able to travel through all the atmosphere and reach our eyes. This is the same reason why the sky appears red or orange during sunrise and sunset. The moon's larger apperance during moonrise is believed to be because when it is low, there are nearby objects like houses and trees to compare it with, which cannot happen when the moon is high.

Although moonrises and moonsets may be when we think the moon appears largest (as explained in the previous section), this is just optical illusions and is not the definition of a supermoon. Supermoons are defined by moon distance to Earth. The moon’s orbit around the Earth is quite elliptical; its average distance from Earth is 384,000km, but it can be 21,000km closer or further away than that. Two important terms are: perigee (closest distance) and apogee (furthest distance). The less the distance, the larger the moon appears in the sky. When a full moon occurs during perigee we see a supermoon, which is the moon at its biggest and brightest. When it occurs during apogee, we get the opposite; a micromoon, which is the full moon at its smallest. A supermoon appears roughly 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a micro-moon.

You may notice from my full moon blog that in the winter photos I pointed high up to the sky, but in summer months the camera is angled much lower. In winter, the full moon is high and brings lots of light into the dark forest, but in summer it doesn’t. This section explores why that happens.

When the Earth’s northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun in June, we have summer; the sun is up for longer and appears much higher in the sky. We learnt in Section 4.2 that the full moon is opposite the sun, and now we learn that that also applies to its altitude. If the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun in summer, then it will be tilted in the opposite direction, which is away from, to the full moon. Notice how, in the following drawing:

In December, the northern winter, the exact opposite happens, and here is a drawing to illustrate it:

Notice that in the winter illustration, the northern hemisphere faces the full moon much more directly than the new moon or sun, as illustrated by the white lines. This is why I have to point to the sky much more in winter than in summer when I take full moon photos, and the moonlight effect is stronger in winter.

What happens during the equinoxes, when neither hemisphere is tilted towards the sun any more than the other? In this case, the opposite of 0 is 0, and the full moon appears at a medium height, which the following drawing illustrates. The equinoxes are an interesting subject when observing the altitude of quarter moons, which is what the next section, 4.7, is about.

A quarter moon is a half-lit moon, halfway between the new and full moon. If you do not know the lunar phases at this point, please go back to Section 4.1 as this section assumes knowledge from earlier sections.

What is the height of quarter moons during the summer or winter solstice? Let's analyze this drawing:

While it may appear as though the first quarter moon is closer to the northern hemisphere, this is just a natural error of a 2D drawing. A white line has been drawn straight from the first quarter to the last quarter, and at its center does not point towards either hemisphere. For this reason, both quarter moons, during both the summer and winter solstice, appear at a medium height. Next, let's look at the equinoxes.

This image was drawn for the March equinox, spring in the northern hemisphere, again with lines drawn straight down or up from both the quarter moons. Which hemisphere does their center align with?

Notice that in this image, when you draw a straight line down from the first quarter moon, it is clearly in line with the northern hemisphere. This is why, in the March equinox, the first quarter moon is at highest and the last quarter moon is at its lowest. What happens during the opposite equinox that occurs in September?

It is important to note that the moon orbits the Earth in an anti-clockwise direction, which is illustrated in all the drawings. For this reason, when the Earth is on the opposite side of the sun at the opposite equinox, the two quarter moons' altitude is also reversed. In September, the last quarter moon is clearly aligned with the northern hemisphere, it becomes the moon phase that appears highest, and first quarter becomes the lowest.

So far we have explored four moon phases a lot: the new moon, full moon and two quarter moons... what about the other four? When does a waxing gibbous appear at its highest? This needs no image illustration, but can be worked out by knowing that a waxing gibbous is the phase in between first quarter and full moon. The first quarter moon appears highest in March, and the full moon appears highest in December... so the waxing gibbous will appear highest in January-February. When the waxing gibbous appears at its highest, the waning crescent would be at its lowest. Finally, let's create a table to summarize:

Moon phase altitude

We know by now that a waxing moon is increasing in size, and a waning moon is decreasing... but how do you tell them apart visually?

To understand how, when and where they appear, we must understand how it's all affected by Earth's axial rotation. Due to this rotation, all the stars, the sun and the moon all rise in the east and set in the west. However, when the Earth has completed one rotation on its axis, Earth has also moved around by the sun by 1°, and the moon has moved around Earth by about 13°. This requires the Earth to rotate an extra 1° to face the sun in the same position again, and 13° for the moon, with this difference of 12° taking about 50 minutes. This is why, one full motion in the sky takes the moon 50 minutes longer than the sun, and the moon would appear to move slower. This difference is also covered and illustrated with further imagery in the section about stars, Section 5.5.

At the start of a new lunar month, when the new moon and sun are on the same line, the moon's slower motion in the sky causes it to continuously move further east of the sun, rising and setting later every day. This affects its appearance - a waxing crescent moon is just behind the sun and is illuminated on the west side. If you are in the northern hemisphere above the tropics, the moon always appears due south: if you face south, west is on your right, therefore in the northern hemisphere a waxing moon is always illuminated on the right, and a waning moon is illuminated on the left. In the southern hemisphere, where the moon appears due north, it's reversed - waxing is left and waning is right. This is how, just by looking to the sky, you can easily tell whether the moon is waxing or waning.

Another easy way to tell the difference is that a waxing moon being behind the sun, will appear at sunset and set at night, while the waning moon rises at night and is visible until dawn.

The night sky is an important part of the nature at night, this specific focus of Section 5 is on observing the stars. It's very unfortunate how light pollution ruins the night sky. The best time of the month to see the most stars is at or close to the new moon phase, because the sky is darker with no moon. The full moon is spectacular but is a natural source of light, so keep track of the lunar phase and don't book stargazing trips when there's a big bright full moon! This site, Sky Map Online, shows what stars are visible in your location in the night sky right now.

The north pole of our Earth is currently pointed towards the bright north star Polaris. In this image, drawn by me, the Earth is rotating on its axis, one star is in line with Earth’s equator, and the other (Polaris) is in line with the north pole.

As the Earth rotates on its own axis, it can be directly facing or opposite the star shown at the equator, but the north star is at the axis of rotation so the northern hemisphere is always facing Polaris.

Anyone in the northern hemisphere can see Polaris, and it does not change its position in the sky. If you can locate the star in Ursa Minor, it will show you which way north is, then east on your left, west on your right, and south behind. If you have not located Polaris before, you can use the method shown in this image.

There is no equally visible south star, I believe that in the southern hemisphere they have their own navigation method of finding south by lining up constellations, but I do not know it, because I have not been there. Maybe you have the answer?

All stars have celestial co-ordinates so that they can be located in the sky. The first co-ordinate is called declination, ranging from +90 at the north pole to -90 at the south pole. If you observe the sky and look straight at the zenith, which is the point in the sky directly overhead, any star you see there will have the same latitude as the point on Earth at which you are observing from. For an observer standing at 60°N, this is a star with a declination of +60.

To an observer standing at any point on Earth at latitude 60°N, a star like Polaris with a declination of +90 will appear 30° north of the zenith. To the same observer standing at 60°N, a star with a declination of 0 (the celestial equator) will at peak altitude appear 60° south of the zenith. Any star with a declination further south than -30 will not be visible to the observer at 60°N on Earth. Here is an image drawn by me, not to scale, and with a table to summarize.

Star Visibility from Earth at 60°N Latitude

Keep in mind this table is only for stars as they cross the meridian (more on that in Section 5.6). Any star with a declination 90° or further from the latitude at which you stand on Earth is not visible, this is why Polaris is always invisible for the entire southern hemisphere.

What is the declination of the sun? That depends on the time of year: during the equinoxes, it is 0, but in June it is +23 and in December it is -23. This is because Earth’s orbital plane is tilted by 23°, and is why we have the seasons: when the northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun in June, it is their summer.

A circumpolar star is a star that is always visible and never sets: the most notable example being the north star Polaris for the entire northern hemisphere. One can say that the stars rise in the east and set in the west just like the sun, but it may be even more accurate to say that they all appear to revolve in an anti-clockwise motion around the specific point where Polaris sits, completing one full circuit in the length of a sidereal day which is 23h 56m 4s. Here is an image drawn by me to illustrate how stars, due to Earth’s rotation, appear to revolve around Polaris:

We can see that the closer a star is to a polar declination, the more likely it is to be circumpolar. If you stand at a location on Earth that is 60°N in latitude, any star up to 60° south of Polaris is always visible - stars that have a declination between +30 and +90. If you stand at a location that is 20°N in latitude, any star up to 20° south of Polaris or with declination between +70 and +90 is always visible. There are far more circumpolar stars the closer you go to the north or south pole of the Earth.

The correct term is day not night, but I am Darkwards and I obviously like the word night more.

Due to Earth's rotation, all stars rise in the east and set in the west, taking 23h 56m 4s to complete one full motion, the same time taken for Earth to spin once on its axis; this is known as a sidereal day. Why does one day on Earth relative to the sun take slightly longer at 24 hours? The answer is: every time Earth completes one rotation on its axis, it has moved by 1° in its orbit around the sun, so it must rotate an extra 1° to go from one sunrise to the next; this is known as a solar day. The extra 1° of rotation takes 3.9 minutes, which causes the sun to fall 3.9 minutes further behind (east of) the stars in the sky every night, adding up to 2 hours each month. This is the difference between a sidereal day (a day relative to stars) and solar day (a day relative to the sun).

Here is an image, not drawn to scale, to illustrate why a solar day on Earth is 4 minutes longer than a sidereal day. Notice that the line coming out of Earth which illustrates sidereal days does not change face of direction at all; what's initially a line from the midday side of Earth is at midnight when on the opposite side of the orbit around the sun. This is why Earth has to rotate on its axis more than 360° for the sun to go from one point in the sky to the same point the next day.

What happens on other planets, especially those closest to the sun? The length difference between their sidereal and solar days can end up being much more significant than on Earth as it requires a lot more than just 1° of extra rotation. This is explored in depth and darkness in the planets section. The difference between a sidereal day and solar day will continue to be relevant in multiple later sections.

Every star has celestial co-ordinates that include a declination which we looked at in Section 5.3, and right ascension, which is the focus of this section. The definition of a star’s right ascension: how many hours the star appears behind the sun in the sky on the day of the northern vernal equinox (generally March 20th). This figure ranges between 0h and 23h 59m. Here is an image to demonstrate the Earth going around the sun as it faces stars with different right ascensions, not to scale, drawn by me:

We can see from this image that in March, stars with a RA of 0h are on the same side of the sun, and stars with a RA of 12h are on the opposite side, which makes the stars with a RA of 12h most visible in the March night sky, and 0h the least visible. Here are a few examples of bright and well known seasonal stars:

• Fomalhaut: dec -29, RA 22h 57m, constellation Piscis Austrinus, most visible in northern autumn
• Sirius: dec -16, RA 6h 45m, constellation Canis Major, brightest star in the sky, most visible in northern winter
• Spica: dec -11, RA 13h 25m, constellation Virgo, most visible in northern spring
• Altair: dec +8, RA 19h 50m, constellation Aquila, part of the summer triangle, most visible in northern summer

Remember that due to the difference between a sidereal and solar day, as explained in Section 5.5, the stars catch up with the sun by 3.9 minutes every day, which is 2 hours per month; if a star has a RA of 6h, it will be 4h behind the sun one month later in April, then 0h behind the sun three months later in June.

Stars' best viewing time by RA:

Keep in mind that the midday this table refers to may be slightly out of sync with the time when your watch says midday, as right ascension is based on the time that solar noon occurred in your location on the day of the March equinox. If clocks later go forward by an hour, this also needs to be taken into account. Solar noon is the halfway point between sunrise and sunset, the point when the sun is at its highest and crosses the meridian. This is why I am always in arguments about whether it's the morning or afternoon!

This is a good list of the 200 brightest stars in the sky with their celestial co-ordinates included. You could use this information to go outside and locate some stars! The lower the number is for a star’s apparent magnitude, the brighter it appears in the night sky.

If you know the RA of any stars (RA explained in Section 5.6), you can use a method I discovered for myself and have successfully used before to estimate the time. We know that every night the sun falls behind the stars by 3.9 minutes, due to the difference between a sidereal day and solar day; this 3.9 minutes adds up to approximately 2 hours every month.

To calculate the time at which stars cross the meridian: add the sun's number of hours behind a RA 0h star for the current time of year (+2 for every month after the March equinox), plus the number of hours after the time of solar midday on the March equinox.

10pm on July 21st

If you see RA 18h stars culminating (crossing the meridian) on July 21st, the time will be 10 hours after the time of solar midday of the March equinox... roughly 10pm. Vega is a famous star and 5th brightest in the sky with a right ascension of 18h! At around 10pm on July 21st Vega reaches its highest point, crossing the meridian lining up with the north star Polaris. If Vega appears in the east, the time is earlier, and if it's west the time is later.

Let's try another example!

4am on October 6th

Oops, there’s a problem here, no star has a right ascension of 29h... easy fix: the hours reset after 24h, so we can find the solution: 29h – 24h = 5h

At 4am on October 6th: the stars with RA 5h at their highest. A lot of stars in the constellation Orion have RA of roughly 5h. Whenever I see Orion already halfway through its journey in the sky from east to west in early October, it silently screams that I have stayed up way too late.

The star sign we commonly associate with is the zodiac constellation that was on Earth's same side as the sun 2,000 years ago on the same date we were born. At the time star signs were invented, an additional Earth motion called axial precession was not known about, which is the direction of the Earth’s tilt changing in a 3D motion like a spinning top, in the opposite direction to Earth's orbit on its axis and around the sun, with one full circuit of this motion taking 26,000 years. Here is an image taken from Wikipedia to illustrate it:

Most people born in late March will believe their star sign is Aries, but this is only based on Aries being in line with the sun on the same side in late March 2,000 years ago. What happens 13,000 years later, when the tilt is facing the opposite direction? The following images, not to scale, both drawn for the March equinox, illustrate:

Why is Earth on the opposite side to the sun in the image after 13,000 years? Because, as the tilt direction changed to the opposite direction, it was necessary to preserve the date of the vernal equinox as March 20th. To illustrate: June may be northern summer today as it's when the north tilts towards the sun... but what happens 13,000 years later when the tilt is facing the other way? June would then become the month of northern winter solstice! They design the Gregorian calendar to ensure this doesn't happen, but the effect is that star signs become out of sync with modern astronomy.

We can see that in the first picture, Earth was lined up with the sun and Aries, albeit not drawn well to scale... but 13,000 years later ends up with the sun and Aries on the opposite sides and totally out of sync. Today’s star signs are already one month out of sync and counting; those born in late March are known as Aries but by modern astronomy are actually Pisces. I believe the horoscopes' failure to observe this misalignment is enough to raise serious questions on whether their words have truth. They are also not backed up by any scientific evidence.

• Altitude – The angle of a star above the horizon, measured in degrees (0° is on the horizon, 90° is directly overhead).
• Apparent magnitude – A measure of how bright a star appears from Earth. Lower numbers mean brighter stars
• Celestial equator – An imaginary line around the sky above Earth’s equator.
• Circumpolar star – A star that never sets below the horizon and is always visible from your location.
• Declination – A star’s position north or south in the celestial sphere, measured in degrees from +90 (north pole) to -90 (south pole).
• Equinox – The two times a year (around March 20 and September 23) when day and night are roughly equal, and the sun is directly above the equator.
• Horizon – The line where the Earth and sky appear to meet.
• Latitude – Your position north or south of Earth’s equator, measured in degrees (0° at the equator, 90° at the poles).
• Meridian – An imaginary line in the sky running from due north to due south, passing directly overhead. Stars reach their highest point when they cross the meridian.
• Polaris – Also known as the North Star, it is aligned almost exactly with Earth's north axis and stays fixed in the northern sky.
• Right ascension – A star’s longitudinal position determined by number of hours behind (east of) the sun on the day of the March equinox.
• Sidereal day – The time it takes Earth to rotate once relative to the stars: 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds.
• Solar day – The time it takes Earth to rotate once relative to the sun: 24 hours, the time between one solar noon and the next.
• Zenith – The point in the sky directly above your head.

The planets appear like stars in the night sky, but they are generally brighter and don’t twinkle as much. Unlike the stars, planets do not emit their own light, what we see is sunlight reflected off their surface. Mercury and Venus are the two planets closest to the sun, both reaching scorching temperatures of well over 400°C, although Mercury is extremely cold at night. As both planets are closer to the sun than Earth, we can never see them at midnight when we are facing away from the sun. The following drawing shows why:

As they are closer to the sun than Earth, they can only be seen in the night sky shortly before sunrise or after sunset. Venus is the brightest object in the night sky, only the moon and the sun are brighter.

Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are the three most visible outer planets, and while they vary considerably in brightness according to their position, Jupiter is almost always the brightest due to its size and reflectivity. The two outermost and coldest planets, Uranus and Neptune, are generally too dim and far to be visible with the naked eye. The following image is not close to drawn to scale.

The outer planets appear at their best and brightest in the night sky when Earth is between them and the sun, facing away from the sun and towards the outer planet, just like the full moon. All planets have elliptical orbits around the sun, and they appear at their absolute brightest if they are in alignment while also at perigee (closest to the sun) and Earth is at apogee (furthest from the sun), but these are exceptional events.

One of my most memorable night sky events is from the night of July 6 2020, where the full moon, Jupiter and Saturn formed a triangle in the sky. It was before I started taking decent photos, but I remember I stayed outside until dawn that night.

It is commonly believed that a day on Venus is longer than a year, but does it also consider the time between one sunrise and the next on Venus?

In terms of sidereal motion, Venus takes 243 Earth days to spin once on its own axis, and 224 Earth days to make one trip around the sun. It is explained in Section 5.5 why a solar day on Earth is slightly longer than a sidereal day... but another important point is that Earth’s axial rotation and orbit are both in the same (anti-clockwise) direction. On Venus, this is not the case! Venus is the only planet in the solar system that rotates on its axis in the opposite direction to its orbit, so unlike other planets it has to rotate less than 360° for the sun to complete one full motion in the sky from one sunrise to the next, shortening the solar day to just 117 Earth days. By this definition, if you could observe a solar day by standing on Venus without dying, it would not even be close to longer than a year.

Is Mercury in fact the real winner for long days? Mercury takes 59 Earth days to rotate once on its axis, and just 88 Earth days to make one trip around the sun. When Mercury has finished one rotation on its own axis, it's about 66.6% of the way through its orbit – so much that Mercury has to spin on its axis exactly three times for the sun to complete a full motion in its sky. A day as observed on the surface of Mercury is not just longer than a year, but it would take a Mercurian year just to go from sunrise to sunset, or the other way round. One solar day on Mercury takes the same length as two Mercurian years, and three sidereal days.