Astronomy Merit Badge

Nine parts of this badge need a clear night

The requirements never mention cloud, and the badge cannot be planned honestly without it. Everything here is at least as long as the calendar suggests and often twice as long.

6(b) is the tightest window, and it reads like the mildest line

Sketch the phase and position of the Moon, at the same hour and place, for four nights (or days) within a one-week period.

Four nights inside seven. Same hour. Same place. Horizon landmarks (hills, trees, buildings) drawn each time, so the position is measurable against something.

Three cloudy evenings in a row and that week is gone; the count starts again from a new week. Begin it as early in the badge as you can, and expect to need two goes.

The phrase (or days) is the escape hatch: the Moon is visible in daylight for much of its cycle, and a daytime sketch is explicitly allowed.

Two requirements name others by number

• 5(b) works from *the five most visible planets that you identified in requirement 5(a)*. Straightforward: 5(a) then 5(b).
• 8(b) asks for ten celestial objects beyond those observed in requirement 4. That second one matters. If you choose 8(b), requirement 4 becomes a prerequisite of requirement 8, and the two cannot be done on the same night, because 8(b)'s objects are defined as the ones requirement 4 did not cover.

Requirement 8 is agreed, not chosen

With your counselor's approval and guidance, do ONE of the following.

Both words. And two of the six routes need other people: 8(c) hosts a star party for your troop or your class, and 8(d) helps an astronomy club run one open to the public. Those are dates in somebody else's diary, and the club may hold two a year.

Settle this choice early. It is the only decision on the badge that changes what order the rest of it happens in.

A planetarium is not the sky

Requirement 4 carries its own parenthesis: if instruction is done in a planetarium, Scouts must still identify the required stars and constellations outside under the natural night sky.

A planetarium visit is a good way to learn the constellations and it satisfies requirement 8(a). It does not satisfy requirement 4.

What this page is

The Astronomy merit badge, drawn so the clear-night parts are visible as a group and the one-week window is visible before it is missed. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.