Maps

You'll probably need maps to find all of these objects and be able to locate them with your binocs, your telescope, your eye, or all three together. We provide them. This database easily replaces a Planisphere. Open the Maps Database

Ideas

In this section is a fairly complete list of objects that can easily be seen in the night, for those of you who are still looking for objects to view during winter, summer, spring, and fall.

M stands for Messier, a French Astronomer who catalogued all the blurry spots he could see, called at the time nebulas (now, nebulas are defined as clouds of gas). He hunted comets, and made this catalogue to avoid mixing comets with deep sky objects

List: Click to Toogle

Objects: Click to Toogle

NGC 2024 Back to Top

Visibility: Telescope
Point your telescope on the star Alnitak, in Orion's belt. You will then see NGC 2024, or the flame nebula, appear. It helps a lot to get Alnitak out of the field of view

NGC 6826 Back to Top

Visibility: Telescope
Constellation: Orion
This is the Blink Nebula. If you observe it in direct vision, you will only see the central
star. However with lateral vision that star disappears and the nebula is revealed! If you do it quickly, you will have the impression the nebula is blinking.

NGC 2392 Back to Top

Visibility: Binoculars
Constellation: Gemini
This is the famous clown nebula in Gemini.

Visibility: Binoculars
Constellation: Taurus (The Bull)
This is the first object to be catalogued in Messier's. It is quite bright in an 8 inch reflector but lacks details.

NGC 7635 Back to Top

Visibility: Large Telescope, Photography
Constellation: Cassiopeia
Bubble Nebula

Jupiter Satellite Ballet Back to Top

Visibility: Binoculars
Constellation: Any of the Zodiac Constellations
You can check out, if you have the possibility to observe Jupiter for a whole week,
the satellites going round the planet.
All you do is mark the position of each satellite every night

NGC 4565 Back to Top

Visibility: Telescope
Constellation: Coma Berenices
This is really a superb galaxy. Very bright in an 8 inch Reflector,
I really do suggest you observe it. We can see the dust
band going through the bulb.

Visibility: Telescope
Constellation: Triangulum
NGC 604 is a huge Nebula. Nothing exceptional. Except that you'll find it...in another galaxy! It is located in M33.

Visibility: Telescope
Constellation: Coma Berenices
This is the awesome black eye galaxy. You will however need at least a 10 inch reflector to be able to see the black eye at the center of the galaxy.

Visibility: Binoculars
Constellation: Virgo

This is commonly known as the sombrero galaxy. This huge one is located in the Virgo constellation.

Perseus Double Cluster Back to Top

Visibility: Naked Eye
Constellation: Perseus
Nothing to say. Simply one of the greatest objects you will ever observe.

M 81-M 82 Back to Top

Visibility: Binoculars
Constellation: Ursa Major
This galaxy couple, located in the big dipper, is composed of two very different galaxies. Use small magnification in order to see both of them in the same field of view.

Visibility: Binoculars
Constellation: Perseus
M76 is not a very bright object. When Herschel added it in his catalog, he thought that this nebula was actually a double nebula. She is nicknamed Little Dumb bell because her looks are quite similar to M27.

The Veil Nebula Back to Top

Visibility: Telescope with OIII filter
Constellation: Cygnus
This is a supernova remnant, whose explosion occurred about 10 000 years ago. It is a vast complex of nebulae who cover a 10 degree square surface of the sky. You need an 8 inch reflector with an O-III filter in order to see it

Visibility: Naked Eye-Binoculars
Constellation:Sagittarius
M17 is nothing but the Omega Nebula, in Sagittarius. It is a superb, large, and bright nebula in an 8 inch Dobsonian.

Visibility: Naked Eye-Binoculars
Constellation: Sagittarius
100 000 stars that seem to be only one: that's the aspect of this beautiful cluster. In reality, it's very close, one of the closest (10 400 light-years.) It occupies o spher of 88 light-years in diameter, which gives it a rather medium size. To find it, just look at Kaus Borealis, the star that materializes the teapot's lid (check out the picture, you can see where M22 is.) It's a difficult object to see with no instrument except for your eyes, you'll need a pair of binocs to see some detail on it's surface. With a telescope, it's one of the most rewarding objects you can observe.

Visibility: Naked Eye
Constellation: Sagittarius
This was already noted in 130 AD by the romans, as a globular nebula (at the time, verything that looked blurry was called a nebula). 1000 light years away from us we can find this open cluster that regoups around 100 very young 250 million year-old stars. You can see it just in front of where the tea should be pouring out (Sagittarius does indeed look like a tea pot.)