Follow the stars
Let’s start in the constellation Cygnus. The Swan is full of wonderful objects, including two fascinating double stars. One is 61 Cygni, an easy target for a small telescope. To find it, draw a line from the tail of the Swan, Deneb, to the tip of its right wing, Zeta (ζ) Cygni. 61 Cygni lies about halfway between these two stars. You will need a dark sky to see the primary, at magnitude 5.2, with the unaided eye. A good pair of binoculars will split the two widely separated stars. The companion shines at about 6th magnitude.
In 1804, the astronomer priest Giuseppe Piazzi showed, based on repeated observations, that 61 Cygni was moving noticeably against the background of the other stars in the Swan. Because of its high proper motion, he christened it the Flying Star. Three decades later, Friedrich Bessel reasoned that 61 Cygni must be relatively close to Earth. After years of observations, he was able to make the first measurement of stellar parallax, using the double star’s motion against the more distant, stationary background to determine it is only 10.4 light-years away. Modern observations place it just 1 light-year farther.