There are some quite good apps for the smartphone. Star Walk (2) should be a very nice one and also free of use with some adds. It allows you to turn on the phone's gyroscope, which helps a lot finding some stuff in the sky.
Sometimes it is very hard to find some constellations, even when they are big and should be conspicuous. There are always some stars, that makes it look different :-)
In the image on this site there are also small and big dipper, which makes it maybe a little bit easier to find it whith drawing imaginary lines between the stars.
http://www.astronomytrek.com/star-constellation-facts-cygnus/
Yes, there are some very spectacular photos out there. These are the reason why I started this astrophotography stuff a few years ago.
https://volskiy.smugmug.com/Nebulas/i-8dZ6DdL/A
This one was the "hobby initiator" and it is still one of the best I ever saw. An exposure time of 212 hours is just crazy.
Wow! Thank you. What fantastic pictures. I will have great fun with these. You know, Steemit has a lot of issues, but where else can I find this kind of blog, and this kind of interaction?
Thanks again...I'm a sky tourist now :))
You're welcome :-)
Yes, steem(it) has a lot of problems. But there are also great users and things here. It's up to us to keep/make the chain good and useful :-)
I'm glad to hear I got you interested in the night sky. Enjoy it, there is a lot to "see" above our heads.