I had a small handheld telescope when I was a kid, but I never saw anything worth seeing, not even the moon (I suspect I only ever looked when it was full where I could see just the flat disk). I had no road map to figuring out how to learn about astronomy, didn’t even know there were likely guides at the library. And I didn’t know anyone to ask. Not surprisingly, my interest didn’t proceed very far.

However, in 2014, I bought my first real scope using inheritance money from my mother’s estate. It is a Celestron NexStar 8SE, one of the so-called GoTo Scopes, and I thought the heavens would open and all would be revealed automatically. Instead, I struggled with some setup issues for quite some time, and I read a LOT of other resources on the internet and in paper to figure out what I needed to know. But regularly, I found myself wanting a bit of “this book” and a bit from “that book”. Or that an article over there did a good job of explaining this bit.

From time to time, I would wade into deeper waters to try and answer someone’s question in an online forum based on what I had gleaned from others during my own quest to learn. On a regular basis, I have had not only the thought that I would explain something quite differently from the way that someone else had, but also the arrogance to think my way might be a bit clearer to novices. Too often, I feel that the explanations of others make assumptions about the interests, knowledge or abilities of the novice that could lead them astray.

Hence, I’ve been thinking about a PolyWogg Guide to Astronomy (PWGA) and for now, I have organized my website with some of my previous material as a start. But I have plans for a full book, and based on an exchange I had earlier with someone, I’ve decided to populate my full Table of Contents, and I welcome any and all comments.

• Introduction to the Universe
  1. Earth
  2. The Solar System
  3. The Galaxy
  4. The Universe
• Introduction to Astronomy
  1. Short history of astronomy
  2. How to learn about astronomy
  3. Instruments
     1. Naked Eye
     2. Binoculars
     3. Telescopes
        1. Dobsonian
        2. Refractor
        3. Reflector
        4. Schmidt Cassegrain
        5. Maksutov
     4. Tripods
        1. Barn door trackers
        2. Ground-based
        3. Alt-Azimuth / Camera-style
        4. Alt-Azimuth / Fork mounts
        5. Equatorial
     5. Cameras
  4. Choosing a beginner instrument
  5. Other equipment and accessories
     1. Diagonals
     2. Eyepieces
     3. Reducers / Barlows
     4. Filters (Coloured, Bands)
     5. Finderscopes
     6. Wedges
  6. Non-astronomy necessities
  7. Spotlight on observatories
• Practical Astronomy
  1. Setting up your viewing instrument
  2. Aligning your finder tool to your instrument
  3. Aligning your viewing instrument to the sky
  4. Navigating the sky (Star Finder)
  5. Special Focus: Alignment of computerized GoTo scopes
     1. No-fail alignment process
     2. Best two-stars by season
  6. Special Focus: Polar alignment
• Planning your night
  1. Pre-setup
  2. Location selection
  3. Weather planning
  4. Spotlight on light pollution
  5. Choosing objects
  6. Finding objects
  7. Logbooks
  8. Sketching
• Spotlight: The Solar System
  1. Earth-based phenomenon
     1. Sunrise / sunset
     2. Man-made satellites
     3. Nightscapes
     4. Aurorae
     5. Halo, sundogs, or clouds
     6. Zodiacal light
  2. The Sun
     1. Sunspots
     2. Ejections
     3. Eclipse
  3. The Moon
     1. Phases
     2. Craters
     3. Ridges
     4. Eclipse
  4. The Planets
  5. Other system objects
     1. Comets
     2. Asteroids
     3. Meteors and showers
     4. Dwarf planets
• Spotlight: The Stars
  1. Star trails
  2. Constellations
     1. Western models
     2. Indigenous models
     3. Other models
  3. Popular asterisms
  4. 150 Brightest Stars
  5. Double and triple stars
  6. Variable stars
• Spotlight: Galaxies
  1. The Milky Way
  2. Spiral
  3. Planetary
• Spotlight: Clusters
  1. Open clusters
  2. Globular clusters
• Spotlight: Nebulae
  1. Types of nebulae
  2. Emission or reflection
  3. Dark or comet
• Introduction to Astrophotography
  1. Instruments
     1. Smartphone
     2. Point and shoot
     3. DSLR
     4. Webcam
  2. Image capture
     1. Android
     2. iOS
     3. DSLR and DSLR+
     4. Laptop/desktop
  3. Processing
     1. PIPP
     2. AST
     3. Registax
     4. GIMP
     5. Photoshop
     6. PixInsight
     7. Nebulosity
  4. Production
     1. Recreation
     2. Science
     3. Art
• Further Adventures in Astronomy
  1. Astro resources for amateurs
  2. Astronomy clubs and institutions
  3. Certificate programs
  4. Special events
  5. Landmarks
  6. Academic disciplines
  7. Maker activities
  8. Advanced EAA