On the other hand, the northern hemisphere has M31 and M33, the two nearest spiral galaxies. We also have M81/M82, the brightest galaxy duo in the whole sky, as well as the two brightest planetary nebulae, M27 and M57. And the Pleiades...
M27 and the Pleiades are cosmopolitan; they rise reasonably high from every permanently populated place on our planet. (Note that there are a ton of people north of latitude 55N, but essentially none south of 55S.)
To my mind the M81/M82 pair and the Double Cluster are the true gems of the far-northern sky, the part that's permanently invisible for a substantial number of people in the southern hemisphere. There's really nothing at all like either pairing anywhere else in the sky.
And yes, of course, there's M31, which barely scrapes the horizon in southernmost Australia and Africa, and is permanently invisible in a good chunk of Chile and Argentina. M33 is considerably farther south, and so visible almost everywhere. But I'm sure much of its magnificence is lost due to its low altitude as seen from the southern hemisphere. I wouldn't know; I had much better things to look at the only time I was in the southern hemisphere at the appropriate time of year.
But truth be told, the Large Magellanic Cloud alone balances all of the above; its unbelievably dense with magnificent clusters and nebulae. And we have nothing to compare to the Milky Way in and around Carina. And Alpha and Beta Centauri, together with the Southern Cross, is by far the densest concentration of ultrabright stars in the sky, more breath-taking even than Orion and Canis Major.
And there are several far-southern globulars that are at least a match to M13 or M5, not even counting Omega Cen and my own personal favorite, 47 Tuc -- the Eye of God globular.
But best of all is seeing the center of the Milky Way directly overhead, and tapering off on either side, just as a spiral galaxy is supposed to do.
Edited by Tony Flanders, 01 April 2025 - 07:19 PM.
