I'm new to astronomy and I really enjoy seeing all different kinds of stuff in space. So far I've viewed the moon, saturn, jupiter, pleiades, and the orion nebula. Seeing conditions have been terrible recently though so I haven't been able to observe or play with my telescope nearly as much as I'd like to.
What are your favourite things to observe and which objects do you find the most exciting or fulfilling?

What are your favourite celestial objects to observe?
#1
Posted 05 March 2024 - 06:12 PM
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#2
Posted 05 March 2024 - 06:15 PM
Double Cluster, Hercules Cluster. And I don't see it in much detail with my 6" scope, but I get a thrill every time I view Andromeda.
- Singularian likes this
#3
Posted 05 March 2024 - 06:17 PM
The moon is super cool. Seems like you can get close enough to almost touch it. Andromeda is awesome just because it's 2.5M LY away! Love the contrast of the Almach and Albeiro doubles. Of course Saturn's rings and Jupiter's cloud bands are amazing to see.
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#4
Posted 05 March 2024 - 06:23 PM
Double Cluster, Hercules Cluster. And I don't see it in much detail with my 6" scope, but I get a thrill every time I view Andromeda.
Andromeda is very high up on my list of stuff to view. Being able to see something that spans 260,000+ light years across in one place is just insane to me.
edit: clarification on what i meant by 260k lightyears and corrected the number too
The moon is super cool. Seems like you can get close enough to almost touch it. Andromeda is awesome just because it's 2.5M LY away! Love the contrast of the Almach and Albeiro doubles. Of course Saturn's rings and Jupiter's cloud bands are amazing to see.
I love looking at the moon! It's fun to see the details and other people who aren't normally into astronomy tend to be super interested in it so it makes it easy to share the hobby. Seeing the rings of saturn and jupiters cloud bands is really exciting as well.
I'll definitely check out Almach and Albeiro. I should probably look at more stars in general. I love seeing all the different little stars through my eyepiece that normally arent visible from the ground.
Edited by Singularian, 05 March 2024 - 08:30 PM.
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#5
Posted 05 March 2024 - 06:37 PM
galaxies and extragalactic features like arms, dust lanes, star clouds, H-II star forming regions, halos, cores, and supernovae
________
edit:
see https://www.google.c...chrome&ie=UTF-8
Edited by havasman, 06 March 2024 - 11:30 AM.
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#7
Posted 05 March 2024 - 07:15 PM
My favorites change with time... and in the past several years, I have taken to observing dark nebulae particularly within the MW, during summer.
The 3D effect of the dark dust blocking the starlight has been really enjoyable to me, especially closer to the center of the MW core because the MW is brighter there, which contrasts the dark nebulae better.
What is especially interesting, is what appears to be star patterns, particularly star chains. Which are in fact, not really patterns at all, but the blocking dust creates that illusion.
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#8
Posted 05 March 2024 - 07:39 PM
I’m an ‘equal opportunity’ observer. Living in the Southern Hemisphere I have a smorgasbord of spectacular things to see,
but enjoy moon and planets, and often just panning around.
The only thing I don’t really do, apart from the occasional projection with the 80mm, is solar.
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#9
Posted 05 March 2024 - 07:47 PM
What are your favourite things to observe and which objects do you find the most exciting or fulfilling?
I'm fairly new to astronomy as well but for me, the moon, hands down. Even when seeing isn't perfect, Luna is there beckoning for you to gaze upon her.
What I love about the moon is, every night you will see something different along the terminator, and it doesn't really matter (within reason) how low power your telescope is, you can pick up neat details. And as you grow into the hobby and get higher end scopes, you will of course be rewarded with more/finer details. This can be said for nearly everything in the sky.
Don't have 37 hours to image a nebula? The moon is good to go as soon as you get it in focus 😅 And I'm not knocking the artists who pull amazing details out with astrophotography. The time and effort that goes into their work is definitely appreciated!
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#10
Posted 05 March 2024 - 08:05 PM
I'm new to astronomy and I really enjoy seeing all different kinds of stuff in space. So far I've viewed the moon, saturn, jupiter, pleiades, and the orion nebula. Seeing conditions have been terrible recently though so I haven't been able to observe or play with my telescope nearly as much as I'd like to.
What are your favourite things to observe and which objects do you find the most exciting or fulfilling?
I hate to say it, but my five favorite objects are probably the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Pleaides, and the Orion Nebula. The Sun's pretty great too, if you have a proper solar filter or (better) an H-alpha scope.
Besides that -- well, there's all the other planets, especially Mars and Venus when they're closest. Comets when they happen to come around, all the other Messier objects (only 108 left after M42 and M45!), plus the hundred or so most spectacular non-Messier clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.
After that you can roll up your sleeves and start to get to work on the rest of the universe. It's a big place.
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#11
Posted 05 March 2024 - 09:26 PM
I am still in awe of the first non solar system object I saw, the Pleiades. I really enjoy to see it in my telescope, and it is completely amazing in my binoculars. The main stars just stand out so well in a 10x50.
The moon is spectacular to observe too, its awesome to have something so close to earth to observe with such interesting details to see. And being new to the hobby, its easy to find!
Edited by Bulldawg54, 05 March 2024 - 09:31 PM.
#12
Posted 05 March 2024 - 09:27 PM
I've read that we are almost into galaxy season and I've heard a rumor that Virgo has a boatload of galaxies to view. I wouldn't know first-hand because I haven't seen the sky in a long time. But you might want to give it a look.
#13
Posted 05 March 2024 - 09:42 PM
Galaxies: Sombrero Galaxy, and any others when they have a supernova in them
Nebulae: Homunculus, Horsehead, Veil
Stars: Sun, Antares
Planets: Venus
Events: Total Solar Eclipses
#14
Posted 05 March 2024 - 10:20 PM
Maybe globular clusters. I mean, it’s not a slam dunk, but I was just thinking while out during the last new moon that those are my favorites — and then I spent most of the [very late] night/early morning looking at galaxies, so galaxies (Messier and the bigger brighter NGC ones) are high on my list, too. Not that I can see much detail, but galaxies are just amazing for what they are and their remoteness in space and time.
But otherwise, the classics (of various categories) of the season, and then the anticipation for those of the coming season. And the season’s constellations themselves (naked eye). Of course Saturn, Jupiter and (at opposition) Mars…
The other thing is the hunt. I love star hopping and finding, then observing my quarry, regardless of type
#15
Posted 05 March 2024 - 10:22 PM
What are your favorite things to observe and which objects do you find the most exciting or fulfilling?
Open clusters. And the asterisk around them. Seeing, just the depth and diversity, the scope/optics allow that can not be seen with naked eye.
I can drift for hours in the milky way without having to find a "nebula" or "messier" object to define my viewing.
#16
Posted 05 March 2024 - 11:17 PM
Depends on which scope I take out but the Double Cluster using my Dob and ES 28/68 takes my breath away...every time
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#17
Posted 06 March 2024 - 12:33 AM
Although there are some open and globular star clusters to be seen, the spring is the time of year when galaxies predominate. A short list of objects not mentioned so far would include M3, M5, M44, M51, M63, M64, M65, M66, M67, M81, M82, M87, NGC 2403, NGC 4244, NGC 4565, and NGC 4631.
Lists of noteworthy binary and carbon stars and deep sky objects, along with much more, can be found in my post (#22) at https://www.cloudyni...mers/?p=5184287
#18
Posted 06 March 2024 - 12:43 AM
I am closing in on one full year in Amateur Astronomy and I am closing in on 500 objects observed. I am fascinated by Galaxies and have observed many of them but Globular Clusters are still my favorite. There is something about those tight Clusters of stars that has me seeking them out and observing them for hours.
Aloha and Clear Skies.
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#19
Posted 06 March 2024 - 02:44 AM
The Moon is always a thrill. But mostly I just like getting out under the stars. Maybe cruising the Milky Way or just a certain constellation at low power. Or just sitting next to a telescope, leaning back and looking up.
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#20
Posted 06 March 2024 - 03:05 AM
In no particular order, any globular cluster or open cluster, expansion nebulae, planet, comet, and good ol' Luna. Any Messier object is likely to be spotted in even a small scope of decent quality in decent seeing, so I'm working on those. They include galaxies which are, as far as I know without delving deeply into the areas of sky, are the most distant things I can see.
You can spend hours on the Moon. Clusters as well, and you can make videos of the moons of Jupiter and of its rotation. I haven't done that yet, but I plan to tackle it some time before I TX. (Time Expired).
#21
Posted 06 March 2024 - 03:30 AM
Adding to just getting out....
HII regions are particularly interesting to me. Most are hard to see much of unless you have a huge telescope. You can see lots of nebula. But none so well as the Orion Nebula. It's cool to see the whole of it. But digging around inside, around the stellar nursery, the Trapezium is terrific.
And certain stars. Sirius, the dog star, and brightest star in the sky, east of Orion, is an amazing at high power. The purity of it is incomparable.
And while you might not be able to see much if any detail in the galaxies in Virgo, the rotating ellipsoidal variable and southwesterly star of the Spring Triangle, Spica, is a beautiful and fascinating star to me at high power.
M44, the Beehive, will be coming along very soon. Actually it's just coming up, east by southeast here, at 2:30 am.
It'll be better in the coming months.
It's a fairly big and dense open cluster with dozens of stars visible in binoculars or a small telescope.
I can't see it naked eye from here. I normally use binocolars to locate it quickly before aiming a telescope at it.
Honestly, I use binoculars as a finder of many deep sky objects.
Edited by Echolight, 06 March 2024 - 03:38 AM.
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#22
Posted 06 March 2024 - 07:42 AM
Galaxies, nebulae, the Milky Way and globular clusters. In a few words, all the objects that are barely visible or just invisible from my backyard.
From my backyard :
Solar System, open clusters, carbon stars and doubles.
Since the last 4-5 years, night weather worsened a lot,
much more cloudy nights (pun not intended) than usual.
So, reality forced me to adopt morning solar observation, and -when clear nights arrive- I observe whatever is available.
Night weather is not the only problem around here.
Light pollution worsened a lot, my sky went from B5-B6 on 2012 to B9 now. Binoculars were enjoyable five years ago, now they’re useless for astronomy purposes (I obviously use them during vacations or for nature contemplation).
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#23
Posted 06 March 2024 - 08:24 AM
Open clusters, globular clusters and brighter nebula. Planets are OK but I dont have the best scope for them.
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#24
Posted 06 March 2024 - 11:12 AM
- Moon -- target rich environment, evades light pollution, can use a small scope, with varying seeing and varying phase, there is always a different view.
- Open clusters -- evade light pollution, the bright ones are so beautiful.
- Jupiter, Saturn, Mars.
- Globs.
- Galaxies and nebulas. Only a few are detetible for me. The thrill is detectecting it, there is no detail.
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#25
Posted 06 March 2024 - 11:25 AM
Open and globular clusters are my go-to targets. Galaxies and planetary nebulae are tied for second place
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