Finding constellations in night photos

A selection of beautiful night photos with annotated constellations and their brightest stars

Stargazing is one of my recent favorite past time activities but it’s not easily accessible when living in a cloudy city with heavy light pollution (Bortle scale 7, see image below). Fortunately, I also love night photography so decided to engage in virtual stargazing until a trip to a dark sky site shows up on the horizon. Additionally, virtual stargazing enables observing sky from different locations, in different seasons and various light pollution levels.

Test

It’s best to start with images which span a wide area of the sky so that multiple constellations and other interesting celestial objects (Milky Way, Messier Objects, planets) can be found. I tend to look for bright stars which form one of 88 constellations and then use a star hopping technique to localize fainter constellations.

Star hopping. How to find other constellations using the Big Dipper. Source: https://youtu.be/grAOh38clHI?t=366

Without further ado, scroll down to test your knowledge of constellations in the starry skies of the Northern Hemisphere.

Distinct shapes of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor with Polaris (the North Star). Fainter constellations can be found by star hopping technique. Source: Unsplash.

Orion’s belt is a very well known asterism in the winter sky. Source: author’s photo, shot using Pixel 4 XL.

Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash

Milky Way, Antares in Scorpius and Teapot asterism are the most well known celestial objects in this photo.

Photo by brandon siu on Unsplash

Northern summer sky. With a clear sky it becomes challenging to find constellations.

Aurora Borealis (northern lights) and a characteristic shape of Corona Borealis (Northern Crown). Photo by Vincent Guth on Unsplash.