Astronomy and sky orientation?

Question

last week i was in a forest area trying to make out the night sky where "all" the stars were visible. I was trying to find some specific constellations to get my orientation but was blinded to much of the sky by the dense tree lines

what have you used to gain orientation of the sky, compass, map ect, to find the stars you can see.

i though i was looking south, turns out i find out i was looking east.....geez, no wonder i could not find my stars

so what do you do to find stars where you see very few.

thanks in advance

Answer 1

Start by locating the Big Dipper.  It's bright, distinctive, and always visible in the US at night.  The two end stars of the cup point to Polaris, the north star.  That always gets me oriented.

Answer 2

in the top of mountains the sky is so clear. its better to get your orientation there.

Answer 3

Bright objects -- helps to have a mental picture of what bright obejects there are in the sky right then --

Moon

Planets (Venus, then Jupiter, are the brightest)

Then, the brightest stars and their colors,

finally, the shapes of constellations and parts of constellations -- e.g., the "dipper" in the big dipper, or the Pleiades, etc. that you might glimpse between the trees.