Famous Deep Sky Objects

NGC 604

The Great Orion Nebula

This is by far my favorite object. It is actually a vast gas cluster that covers most of the Orion constellation. It can be seen with the unaided eye in very good conditions. In an 8” newtonian, this is one of the most astonishing and amazing objects you will ever see. It reveals its swirly gas and its beautiful core.

The Hercules Cluster
The great Hercules Cluster is a globular cluster. It is very bright since it has a visual magnitude of about 5,8. It’s towards this cluster that was sent the Arecibo message in 1974, destined to aliens and whose goal was to discover a potential alien civilization. This is also one of the oldest objects known, as its age lies between 12 and 14 billion years old.

The Dumb-Bell Nebula
The Dumb Bell nebula is nothing else than number 27 in Messier’s catalog. It does look like a Bell. Personally I did have problems finding it even though this is a bright nebula. Don’t forget that you need at least a 16” telescope to see colors when observing. This is a planetary nebula, with an 8” telescope you can see the central star, which is all is left from the former explosion that created the nebula.

The Andromeda galaxy
Andromeda galaxy is one of the brightest galaxies known. We often say it is the brightest galaxy: this is totally false, because we forget to mention our own galaxy and the large and small magellanic clouds. Its visual magnitude is of 4,5, which means it can be observed with the naked eye. This spiral galaxy, situated at 2,4 millions light-years away from us, is our twin sister.

The Ring Nebula
This is a supernova remnant. It is fairly large and lies next to one of the brightest stars of the sky: Vega. It is very easy to locate, as it lies exactly at the middle of the line joining the two bottom stars of the Lyra constellation.

The Whirlpool Galaxy
This isn’t one galaxy but a couple of two interacting galaxies! A large spiral galaxy and a smaller, irregular one. Both galaxies are bonded with a hydrogen bridge, so both galaxies exchange matter. This magnificent couple is located in the Canis Venitaci constellation, near the big dipper. With an 8” you can start seeing the “arms” of the larger galaxy.

The Pleiades
This is one of the brightest clusters of the sky. It had been remarked by the ancient greeks. Currently this is the logo of the Subaru car brand.

The Lagoon Nebula
This vast nebula is visible with binoculars. Sagittarius region of the sky is very rich in deep sky objects because it is the direction of the center of our galaxy. We can also find in the same region M22 (a cluster) as well as M20 (Triffid Nebula). Sadly, it is extremely difficult to observe the center of the galaxy, because of the presence of vast dust clouds that block the light from the galaxy’s center. You need a very powerful telescope equipped with infrared cameras in order to hope to see something.

The Triangulum galaxy
M33 is theoretically visible with the unaided eye. Not far from the Andromeda galaxy, this object can be very difficult to find even though it has a weak visual magnitude. It is a great target astrophotographically speaking.

The Virgo Cluster
This galaxy cluster is actually our own galaxy cluster. Our cluster, called the “local cluster” counts a large number of galaxies. What we are actually observing as the Virgo cluster is the direction of the center of the cluster, and therefore the part where there is the largest galactic concentration. The greatest galaxy of the cluster is called M87, at the center of which resides a supermassive black hole. To find the cluster, trace a line going from Denebola to Spica. Take the half of the segment closest to Denebola, and point your telescope!

The Owl Nebula
Superb but tiny, the owl nebula is situated in the big dipper constellation. It is called like that because of its apparent “head” and also because of its “eyes” caused by darker areas of the surface of the planetary nebula (watch the picture...). It is quite well defined in an 8” reflector equipped with an OIII filter. Enlarge the image as much as possible until you obtain the right sized image.

The Tarantula Nebula
This is a huge nebula, one of the largest known, situated in the large
magellanic cloud (LMC.) It is therefore situated in the southern
hemisphere and you will have to take a plane and organize a trip for you
to be able to observe the great nebula. This nebula, if I recall, is visible
with the unaided eye, but is so vast that you won’t be able to observe it
in totality.