星を眺める (Hoshi o nagameru, to gaze at the stars), 天体観測 (tentai kansoku, astronomical observation) — while stars are the same everywhere, the words used to describe them are very different.

There are so many things to see up there in the 夜空 (yozora, night sky), also known as 宇宙 (uchū, outer space) in Japanese, that if you’d like to take part in a good stargazing session, you’ll need a few basic tools — and, of course, some space-related vocabulary.

Most importantly, we have 星 (hoshi, star). Then, 惑星 (wakusei, planet), 月 (tsuki, moon), 流星 (ryūsei, meteor), 彗星 (suisei, comet) and 星座 (seiza, constellation).