Lesson 9: Be a citizen scientist

Citizen scientists are volunteers who help with research. Astronomers rely on them, because the sky is too big for professional scientists to watch on their own.

Measure your sky with Globe at Night

Outdoor lights make the night sky glow, and the glow hides stars. Scientists call it light pollution. Globe at Night, a project run by NSF NOIRLab, asks people everywhere to look at one constellation and report how many stars they can see.

Night skies from the countryside (top) and near a city (bottom).

Image: Jeremy Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · Source

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Scientists used more than 50,000 Globe at Night reports, sent in from 2011 to 2022, to measure how fast night skies are brightening. The glow grew by about 10 percent each year.

1. Go outside at least an hour after sunset, on a night when the Moon isn't up.
2. Give your eyes time to adjust, like you learned in Lesson 5.
3. On the Globe at Night website, find the constellation they're asking about this month.
4. Compare your sky to their star charts and pick the one that matches best.
5. With an adult, send in your report with your location and the date.

A Globe at Night guide from NSF NOIRLab.

Image: NOIRLab, CC BY 4.0 · Source

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More ways to help

Webb's First Deep Field. Almost every speck of light in it is a galaxy.

Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI · Source

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Zooniverse

Zooniverse hosts hundreds of research projects that anyone can join online. In its space projects, volunteers sort galaxies by shape and search telescope images for new discoveries.

Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

An artist's illustration of a brown dwarf, a ball of gas too small to shine like a star.

Photo: Artwork NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI) · Source

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NASA citizen science

NASA's list includes projects like Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, where volunteers search for brown dwarfs and new worlds near our solar system.

Photo: Artwork NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

Families look through telescopes at a Full Moon Festival hosted by Joshua Tree National Park.

Photo: Joshua Tree National Park · Source

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Astronomy clubs

Clubs hold star parties where members share their telescopes and help with yours. NASA's Night Sky Network has a map of clubs across the country.

Photo: Joshua Tree National Park

Keep an observing log

Scientists write everything down, and you can too. Keep a notebook for the sky. For each night, write the date, the time, where you were, what you looked at, which eyepiece you used, and what you saw. Drawings count. Over time your log becomes your own record of the sky.

When you finish all nine lessons, your certificate is waiting on the academy page. Clear skies!