Everything you can actually see

With nothing but your eyes

Some of these need a properly dark sky and eyes that have had twenty minutes to adjust — which is the single most-skipped step in astronomy. The Sun is here only by projection or through a proper solar filter: never look at it directly.

The SunstarNaked eyeMercuryplanetNaked eyeVenusplanetNaked eyeMarsplanetNaked eyeJupiterplanetNaked eyeSaturnplanetNaked eyeThe MoonmoonNaked eyeThe Milky Wayspiral galaxyNaked eyeAlpha Centauri A & Bbinary star systemNaked eyeSiriusstarNaked eyeVegastarNaked eyeArcturusstarNaked eyeBeta PictorisstarNaked eyePolarisstarNaked eyeThe Pleiades (Seven Sisters)open star clusterNaked eyeThe Scorpius-Centaurus OB AssociationOB associationNaked eyeThe Beehive Cluster (Praesepe)open star clusterNaked eyeThe Coalsack Nebuladark nebulaNaked eyeDelta CepheistarNaked eyeAlgoleclipsing binaryNaked eyeMiraMira variableNaked eyeThe Orion Nebulaemission nebulaNaked eyeThe galactic bar and bulgepart of the galaxyNaked eyeThe Andromeda Galaxy (M31)spiral galaxyNaked eyeThe Large Magellanic Cloudirregular galaxyNaked eye

With binoculars

Binoculars held steady against a fence reach all of these — and so does any telescope. This is where the surprises live: Saturn as an oval, Jupiter’s moons rearranging themselves overnight, and the Orion Nebula resolving from a smudge into a shape.

VestaasteroidBinocularsUranusplanetBinocularsNeptuneplanetBinocularsIomoonBinocularsEuropamoonBinocularsGanymedemoonBinocularsCallistomoonBinocularsTitanmoonBinocularsCeresdwarf planetBinoculars51 PegasistarBinocularsSS Cygnicataclysmic variableBinocularsRR LyraeRR Lyrae variableBinocularsThe Dumbbell Nebulaplanetary nebulaBinocularsThe Lagoon Nebulaemission nebulaBinocularsThe Hercules Cluster (M13)globular star clusterBinocularsThe Triangulum Galaxy (M33)spiral galaxyBinocularsBode’s Galaxy (M81)spiral galaxyBinocularsThe Sombrero Galaxy (M104)spiral galaxyBinocularsCentaurus A (NGC 5128)elliptical galaxyBinocularsThe Cigar Galaxy (M82)starburst galaxyBinoculars

With a 150 mm telescope, on a good night, if you are patient

A 150 mm telescope is one whose mirror is 150 mm (six inches) across. These are hard: dark sky, no Moon, and knowing exactly where to point.

Psycheasteroid150 mm telescopeProxima Centauristar150 mm telescopeThe Helix Nebulaplanetary nebula150 mm telescopeThe Ring Nebulaplanetary nebula150 mm telescopeThe Crab Nebulasupernova remnant150 mm telescopeThe Eagle Nebulaemission nebula150 mm telescopeSco X-1X-ray binary150 mm telescopeThe Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)spiral galaxy150 mm telescopeThe Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)spiral galaxy150 mm telescopeM87 / Virgo Aelliptical galaxy150 mm telescopeThe Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039)colliding galaxies150 mm telescope3C 273quasar150 mm telescopeThe Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946)spiral galaxy150 mm telescope

What is best when

The Earth goes round the Sun, so the night side faces a different direction in each season. That is the whole reason some things are “winter objects” (the seasons here are the northern ones; south of the equator, swap winter for summer):

What you will not see

Colour, mostly. And the arms of galaxies, and the shapes in the famous photographs. Those pictures are hours of exposure through telescopes the size of a house, and colour that your eye cannot collect at low light. The eyepiece views on this site are drawn as things really look through a small telescope, on purpose, so that what you find outside is a surprise rather than a disappointment.

🌙 Plan an evening outsideEvery object, one by one