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What Objects to Observe?

Objects for the naked eye

Observing the nightsky does not require expensive equipment. You can observe lots of interesting things using only your bare eyes! Not many realize that. Here follows a list of some objects that can be rewarding for naked-eye observing:

• The Moon is full of features that can be viewed without any aid. Get hold of a good map of the Moon and see if you can spot some of the features in real life. Now you have something to do even if the Moon is spoiling any other observing.
• Large Open Clusters like the Pleiades (Messier 45) in Taurus (image), the Double Cluster in Perseus or the Beehive Cluster in Cancer are rather easy to spot, but there are others that recuires a very dark site to be spottable. Cluster brighter than mag 6 or maybe down to mag 6.5 are possibly spottable with no more than your bare eyes. Most of these are nothing more than a patch of light, but beeing able to see them without a telescope is very rewarding.
• The Planets dance across the sky most of the time. They sometimes even almost "collide" in what is called conjunctions. The different planets show different colors and apparent magnitudes. Try plotting the motion of the planets in the sky, and maybe you'll see that they not allways move in a straight line. Because earth also moves, the planets sometimes "loop back". All the planets move in just about the same plane, also the same plane that the Moon encircles the earth in. Therefore from time to time the brighter planets can be seen moving behind the Moon in what is called occultations. Great fun to watch, but you might nead binoculars.
• Aurora (Northern or Southern lights) makes a fantastic display of different colors and activity. When you realize that the colors represent different gases in the atmosphere, it might be more than just "nice" to look at aurorae. You can see what particles react just by looking at the colors.
• Comets graze the heavens from time to time. Some are very bright, but most others require a telescope. But the really bright comets are magnificent. When observing, try to find the length of the comets tail (in degrees across the sky) and maybe note if you see some colors.
• Dark bands of gas in the Milky Way block out light from a lot of stars in the bright band of stars the run across the sky at night. You can see places where the abundance of stars is a lot less than elsewere in the Milky Way. These dark patches is made of dust, molecular hydrogen and other molecules. These dark nebulae will sometimes collapse by pressure from a nearby supernova or something like that, and start the prosess of making stars. Therefore, these dark gasbands are vital for the production of stars in a galaxy. We were all stardust like that sometime.
• Meteors can be seen every night. Some are brighter than the full moon, while most are very small. During meteor showers like the Leonids or Geminids, if you are lucky, it will seem the sky is falling down.
• Zodiacal lights
• ... and so on, the possibilities are close to endless!

Objects for binoculars

If you want to see more than can be seen visually, then binoculars are recommended. In fact, binoculars is a must for anyone interested in astronomy. They are great for eg. comets, and lots of large objects on the hemisphere like open clusters and great nebulae. Why not try some of these objects:

• The North America Nebula (NGC7000) in Cygnus with its caracteristic shape can be observed under a very dark sky. "Mexico" is one of the brightest parts.
• Dark Nebulae like Barnard's E in Aquila are fun to observe, and they are actually often quite easy to observe.
• Lesser known open clusters like Stock 2 in Cassiopeia can actually be quite easy to spot. Just above the Double Cluster, which is itself a very nice object in binoculars, lies a very loose group of stars designated Stock 2.
• Many of the Messier objects are visible in binoculars, and can be quite rewarding. You can start with Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and maybe you can spot Messier 32 and NGC 205 on each side of M 31.
• There are many more, just take out your map and start observing!

Objects for telescopes

When you want to see even more objects that are out of reach for your binoculars, you can use a telescope. They come in all sizes, and I'm not going to tell you what kind of telescope you should use. But if you are a beginner, you should use something like a small refractor (like I have) or a 6-8" Newton-reflector.

• For small telescopes, you should begin with the Messier objects. They are mostly bright, and many of them are visible in binoculars too. A small telescope (60mm - 80mm refractor) will show you some detail in many of the objects. Larger telescopes will for most objects give you a greater view.
• More advanced observers can move on to the Herschel 400 list. These objects range from easy, even naked-eye objects to barely visible objects in medium-sized telescopes (like an 8" reflector).
• The previous lists will keep you occupied for quite a long time, especially if you make drawings of them (like you should!). But if you want even more challenging lists, you can try the PK- planetaries, or even the entire NGC- and IC-catalogs. These and more lists can be found in the Deep Sky Browser. Then you should have enough to last a lifetime!