ABSTRACT
This chapter provides us with the astronomical foundations necessary for successful landscape astrophotography. It briefly reviews the structure of the universe and how it relates to the most common night sky objects we will see. The chapter also provides a brief review of the cause and effects of the seasons. It focuses on the category of objects, specifically, stars, and constellations. It introduces conceptual models that will help us construct our own understanding of how objects move across the night sky. The benefits of the celestial sphere model are that it allows us to understand the movements and how the compass direction we are facing governs the movement we see of the stars and other objects. The planetarium is well worth considering since it provides an immediate, three-dimensional model for understanding the spatial configuration of the stars within their constellations as well as the direction of movement during the night.
