Author John A. Read is the host of the YouTube channel Learn to Stargaze, and is currently earning his master’s degree in space systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University. His forthcoming book, A Kid’s Guide to the Night Sky, provides step-by-step instructions for exploring and appreciating our solar system. Here, Read shares how he first fell in love with astronomy after viewing Saturn through a small telescope.

Around 2009, when I was 27 years old, I saw a small telescope at the pharmacy near our apartment in California. It was listed for just $14, so I bought it just for fun. One night, I noticed a bright yellow star above the BART station (BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco). I set up the telescope and pointed it at this mysterious object. When I looked through the eyepiece and brought the telescope into focus, I saw the most beautiful sight. It was Saturn, rings and all, in perfect focus.

It was small in my field of view, but I was struck by its perfection: a ringed oasis in an inky black sea. I had used the most meager of equipment, but I knew I had to share this view with others.

I joined the Mount Diablo Astronomical Society and started volunteering as many as four nights per week, going from school to school, park to park, libraries, and even UC Berkeley, teaching students and the public how to use a telescope.

But then I realized something: many of the students I worked with actually had a telescope at home—they just didn’t know where to point it! And the astronomy books that were on the market were intimidating, even for me.

I knew I had to solve this problem, so I self-published a simple book called 50 Things to See with a Small Telescope, with about 10 targets visible in each season, plus the moon and planets. My plan was to simply give this to people who I thought it might help. To my surprise, the book sold quite well. Apparently, it was helping a lot of people.

At this point, I knew I wanted to do astronomy full-time, but I was stuck. I had two kids, a mortgage, and two cars. But I knew deep in my gut that a career switch to astronomy was the right thing to do. The very thought of leaving my old life as a corporate accountant behind filled me with excitement.

In 2016, I put the house up for sale, turned in my resignation, sold one of my cars, and moved to Canada, where I could afford to raise a family and get a four-year astrophysics degree at the same time.

During the pandemic, I started the YouTube channel Learn to Stargaze with the goal of helping homeschooled students learn astronomy. This channel quickly grew to tens of thousands of regular viewers. We purchased our own dark-sky site, which we named Stargaze Nova Scotia, and acquired the Abbey Ridge Observatory, a telescope accessible remotely from anywhere in the world.

I’m now at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, pursuing a Master of Science in Space Systems Engineering—yes, I’m still a student.

Even after all these years, with the observatory almost complete, I still keep a shed filled with small telescopes. I bring them out for my kids so they can experience the magic of the night sky just as I did that night 15 years ago. Soon, I’ll be able to share these awe-inspiring views with others, through telescopes of all shapes and sizes. I hope that some, like me, will find themselves gazing into the cosmos and embarking on their own journey of self-discovery. And from that view through the eyepiece, I hope they’ll find the courage to reach for the stars.

I’m extremely excited for the release of A Kid’s Guide to the Night Sky. While my previous books focused mostly on telescopes, I’ve realized that some of the most memorable stargazing experiences, especially with kids, don’t require a telescope at all. Whether it’s learning the constellations, watching a meteor shower, or even viewing the Northern Lights, it’s important to get people looking up, and I think a book like A Kid’s Guide to the Night Sky is just the thing to get more people doing just that.

A Kid’s Guide to the Night Sky: Simple Ways to Explore the Universe by John A. Read. Sourcebooks Explore, $16.99 Oct. 1 ISBN 978-1-4642-3107-0; $12.99 paper ISBN 978-1-72829-228-1