[1] The book explains and corrects many ideas relating to space that, according to Plait, are mistaken but nevertheless often portrayed in popular movies.

"[3] Reviewing Bad Astronomy for the National Science Teachers Association, Deborah Teuscher, Director of Pike Planetarium, praised the work as "interesting, accurate, and fun to read," recommending the book as a resource for science teachers, scientifically interested lay persons, and high school and college students as a supplement to an astronomy unit.

[8] "Idiom's Delight", the chapter dealing with scientific inaccuracies that appear in everyday expressions, such as the phrase "light years ahead".

[6] Part III, "Skies at Night are Big and Bright", concentrates on the viewing of objects farther away than the radius of the Moon's orbit around Earth, including the optical "twinkle" effect when viewing some stars, the brightness and color of stars, observation of meteors and asteroids, and using astronomical observations to study the beginning of the universe.

"[6] Part IV, "Artificial Intelligence", attempts to tackle various conspiracy theories and alternate worldviews, including the so-called Moon Landing Hoax, Young-Earth Creationism, Immanuel Velikovsky's book Worlds in Collision (which asserts that a relatively young Venus was once a part of Jupiter), extraterrestrial claims regarding unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and astrology.