November is one of the best months to start stargazing, for a simple reason: darkness arrives early. By early evening the sky is already dark enough to explore, so you do not need to stay up late. The autumn constellations are high, the summer stars are setting in the west, and the winter sky is beginning to rise in the east. A single evening can show you three seasons of sky.

Look west just after sunset for the brightest 'star' in that part of the sky. Planets do not twinkle the way stars do, which is the quickest way to tell them apart: a steady, unwavering light is almost always a planet. Venus, when it is an evening object, dominates the western sky and is so bright that beginners often mistake it for an aircraft. Jupiter, higher and later in the evening, is the other easy win, a brilliant steady point that rewards a look through binoculars with its four largest moons.

Give your eyes ten to twenty minutes to adapt to the dark before judging what you can see. Phone screens and porch lights reset that adaptation instantly, so use a red light or your phone's lowest brightness if you need to check a star chart. Your eyes are your best instrument, and dark adaptation is free.