Growing up in San Francisco, with parents who thought "roughing it" meant going to Opera in the Park, I never really had a chance to see the billions of stars that inhabit the night sky in areas with less light pollution, let alone learn the constellations or individual stars. When I started camping and backpacking in my teens, I could only look up in ingnorant awe and enjoy the beauty without really knowing anything about what I was seeing.

If you're in the same boat, here's a great website that will teach you to identify some of the better known constellations and stars. It is somewhat basic -- I suspect it is intended for upper elementary and junior high school kids, rather than adults -- but the information is good and is presented in a way that is straight-forward and memorable. Once you get past that, the same company offers more information, including detailed star charts for 88 constellations and a virtual starship that lets your travel around our celestial neighborhood.

So, if you've got kids who are interested in the night sky, or you just want to look cool by being able to casually point upwards and remark "oh, look, there's Betelgeuse!", then this site is worth a look. The whole lesson takes about 15 minutes, so it's not something that requires a huge time commitment. I will warn you, however, you may find yourself outside at night a lot more and may even feel the need to take up camping to get away from the city lights.