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FOR THE BEGINNER
Amateur Astronomy can begin with just your naked eye. Go outside during the day and look at a sunrise or sunset, or an unusual cloud formation. They are beautiful! Or go out at night and look at the moon and the stars. Notice that the stars are not all the same brightness. Some are bright, while others are very dim. Some stars form certain patterns. These are called asterisms and constellations. One of the first steps in astronomy is to learn some of these patterns. My favorites are the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia (a "W"), the Northern Cross (or Cygnus the swan), the Great Square of Pegasus, and Orion the Hunter. If you have good eyes and it is late fall or early winter you may also be able to pick out a very tight group of stars called the Pleiades, which looks like a tiny little dipper. And if you observe the moon over several days, you will notice it change shape and position relative to the stars. Part of the moon is dark, while other parts are bright. Many imagine they see a man in the moon, or a rabbit. Finally, if you are lucky, you may see a quick-moving shooting star, called a meteor, or a slower-paced man-made satellite. And if it's dark enough, you may even be able to see what's called the Milky Way, part of our galaxy.
INTERMEDIATE
After observing with just your eyes for a while, get a pair of binoculars at a discount or department store and go out and lean back in a chair and look at how many more stars you can see! Binoculars not only enlarge sky objects, but also allow you to see dimmer stars, by gathering more light than your eyes can alone. Binoculars are measured with two numbers, such as 7x30 or 8x40. The best binoculars to get are ones where the first number is a 7 or an 8. Don't spend too much money for binoculars initially, as you will eventually probably want to upgrade them. With your binoculars, also look at the moon. Notice how much more detail you can see. If it's only partly lit, you may be able to see a few craters along the ragged edge! Spend time too finding little clusters of stars and learning the star patterns. The Pleiades are seen best in binoculars. You may even find the planet Jupiter with your binoculars. It looks like a disk. One caution: Do NOT look at the sun with binoculars or it will blind you!
ADVANCED
After using binoculars for a while and learning the star patterns, you may want a telescope. It will enable you to see much fainter stars and even some "deep-sky" objects (clusters, nebula, and galaxies), but telescopes are more difficult to use. Therefore, be careful in what telescope you buy. (See my telescope recommendations on another page.) Once you have a telescope, look first at the moon. You should see considerable detail! Look at Jupiter and Saturn if they are out. Jupiter will show two lines on its surface and some of its moons. Saturn will reveal its wonderful rings. Get a star chart and locate some of the star clusters, nebulas, or galaxies labeled with the letter "M" and then a number. I recommend particularly M13 in the constellation Hercules, M31 in Andromeda, M35 in Gemini, M42 in Orion, or M44 in Cancer. Don't be frustrated if it takes you a while to find them. As you search, look for double stars, stars with a twin! The most famous is the star second from the end in the handle of the Big Dipper. Don't look at the sun with a telescope, however, unless you have a special solar filter! Finally, as you improve, consider doing some useful amateur astronomy research! More on this in other pages.
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