We're celebrating Space.com's 25th birthday this week, and instead of pinning a tail on a donkey, we're staying on brand by pinning our telescopes to a bunch of cosmic marvels. If you'd like to follow along, here is our list of 25 tantalizing targets to wonder at in the night sky.
Be sure to check out our guide on the best stargazing apps to help you locate the cosmic wonders on this list. And if you want an up close look, don't miss our lists of the best binoculars and best telescopes to get you started.
(1) The moon
The most obvious celestial marvel, and of course the easiest to admire, is none other than our very own moon. Dutifully showing up in the sky almost every night, Earth's reflective friend can certainly be witnessed with the unaided eye. However, if you're interested in more than just lunar phases, a telescope can allow lunar mare (large plains formed by lava) to come into focus and the moon's many impact craters to pop out.
More powerful (and more expensive) scopes can really reintroduce to the orb you thought you knew. The moon isn't merely a white sphere; it's a textured gray globe shaped by billions of years of impacts.
Check out a list of Space.com's special 25th anniversary week stories in our hub linked here!
(2) Jupiter
I remember the first time I realized it's possible to see Jupiter without a telescope. I'd often spot a star in the sky at night and say: "Wow, that one is so bright!" Then, eventually, I used one of those cosmic-object-tracking apps to discern what star I was looking at. It wasn't a star — it was Jupiter. I started doing this every time I saw a particularly bright star.
It was always Jupiter.
But to check out some of the details on this gas giant, a telescope will be able to help you out. Nearly any optics, even binoculars, will allow you to see Jupiter's four largest moons, known as the Galilean moons, under most circumstances. In 2024, Jupiter is expected to be at its brightest between Nov. 14 and Dec. 28. It'll also be visible in the sky during mornings from now until Dec. 8; after Dec. 8, though, evening viewing is probably best.
(3) Mars
The Red Planet in 2024, unfortunately, isn't going to take center-stage. Due to the shape of its orbit which brings it far away from our planet for long periods of time, it's a dim year for Mars, literally, but there are definitely ways to catch it if you're keen. The next best opportunity falls during late night hours on Halloween, after which it should start brightening up as a reddish-orange orb in the sky. It'll be at its brightest this year on New Year's Eve, though, so an outdoor champagne popping might be the way to go for skywatchers.
(4) Saturn
Last year, there was a lovely commotion in New York City because an 82-year-old astronomer had placed a telescope in the middle of the street, pointed it toward Saturn, and invited passersby to have a look through his eyepiece. "I can show them the heavens," he told The Guardian.
I've often heard that seeing Saturn through a telescope for the first time is one of the most profound experiences you can have; the rings are really just right there in the night sky.
To get those rings in focus, however, you'll absolutely need a decently-powered telescope. To the unaided eye, Saturn looks kind of like a barely yellow-ish star. Thankfully, from our perspective on Earth, Saturn's brightest points this year aren't too far away. The best time for viewing the gas world is between Aug. 25 to Oct. 1.
(5) Venus
On July 16, NASA announced that a Missy Elliot song has officially been sent to Venus. Not to anyone (or anything) in particular, just to Venus as a whole. I think it brought this hellish twin of Earth to the forefront of our minds — perhaps a rarity as Mars or Saturn usually capture the limelight for planetary visuals.
But, as our resident skywatching expert Joe Rao says, Venus is "always brilliant, and shining with a bright, steady light." It's just waiting for someone to pay attention to it. In 2024, you can catch Venus in the western sky during evenings in the western sky during July 30 to Dec. 31. Look for an orb shining with a steady, silvery light, brighter than the stars around it.
(6) Neptune
My favorite James Webb Space Telescope image is, hands down, its portrait of Neptune in a dark, sparkling sky. It's gorgeous to see the planet's often forgotten rings, and equally incredible to see them against the backdrop of space we're so used to seeing speckled with incomprehensible galaxies alone.
For your own view of Neptune, you'll need either binoculars or a telescope; its brightest moments will occur from July 23 to Nov. 19. Due to its distance, most telescopes with a diameter of 4 inches (100mm) or larger will only present Neptune as a blue-green dot around the same brightness as the surrounding stars. Neptune can make for an elusive target depending on the seeing conditions in your area, but catching a glimpse of the distant ice giant is worth it when possible.
(7) Uranus
Last but not least of the solar system's planets, distant Uranus can be spotted with binoculars or a telescope during mornings until Nov. 16, and then during evenings between Nov. 17 and Dec. 31. Its brightest will be between Oct. 15 to Dec. 21 — if you're lucky, you may even be able to identify the greenish disk of this planet. If you're really lucky (and have great dark sky access) you might be able to spot the world with just your eyes.
(8) Milky Way
Alright, now that we're finished with the planets, we can turn to some unique and more difficult skywatching targets. It only gets harder from here.
It feels paradoxical, but we can indeed see the Milky Way despite living within the Milky Way. For example, during summer months, we can look at the Milky Way's heart, otherwise known as The Galactic Center. This is what you typically see in those spectacular photos taken in official dark sky regions on Earth; the images that depict the silhouette of a forest under an impossibly starry sky with a glowing splotchy structure ripping through its center. The beauty of this target is you don't need a telescope to catch it — but the negative is that you do need to get to an extremely dark area on, preferably, a moonless night.
(9) Orion's Belt
For whatever reason, the Orion's Belt constellation was a major part of my childhood. I'd actively look for it every night, and every time I'd successfully locate it, I'd scream "Orion's Belt!" the way everyone screams "Horses!" while driving past a bunch of horses on the freeway. I didn't care about The Big Dipper, or even the moon now that I'm thinking about it. I just cared about Orion and his Belt.
This is all to say that Orion's Belt is a very (very) easy spot.
Dare I say you can just look up at the sky and search for three bright stars in a tight line?
(10) Merak and Dubhe
Though Merak, or Beta Ursae Majoris, and Dubhe, Alpha Ursae Majoris, sound mysterious, they're both part of something I'm sure you have heard of. These are two blue-white stars that make up the outer bowl of The Big Dipper! And, of course, The Big Dipper, an asterism (grouping of stars) within the Ursa Major Great Bear constellation, or Great Bear, is something that can be seen with the unaided eye — so the task of finding Merak and Dubhe shouldn't be terribly hard.
As EarthSky notes, if you drew an imaginary line between the two sparkling objects, you'd find yourself pointing in the direction of The North Star: Polaris. In The Little Dipper, Polaris is part of the handle.
(11) Polaris (Ursae Minoris)
This brings us to Polaris, also known as the North Star. For skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere, Polaris will always point due north. That's because the star is closely aligned with Earth's polar axis, meaning it's almost directly above the North Pole. For that reason, Polaris appears 'fixed' in the night sky as the other stars appear to rotate around it due to our planet's spin.
But where exactly the star appears in the night sky depends on where you are. From New York City in the U.S., for example, you'll see Polaris shine brightly about 41 degrees above the northern horizon. For context, 10 degrees is roughly equal to your clenched fist held at arm's length, so you can think of this as Polaris appearing four "fists" above the horizon in NYC. The farther north you go from this latitude, the higher Polaris appears in the sky; the lower you go, the lower Polaris gets.
(12) Andromeda Galaxy
Ah, Andromeda, our galactic neighbor. Incredibly, you should be able to see this galaxy without the help of a telescope if you're in a sufficiently dark region on Earth. Per BBC Sky at Night, it's actually the farthest object you can see with your eyes only. It'll look like a misty patch in the sky and is best viewed in the autumn months.
However, for anyone with a telescope, you're in for a treat. It'll look like a silvery sliver of diffuse light shining just beside the bent knee of Andromeda, the queen of Greek mythology for whom the Andromeda constellation is named.
(13, 14) LMC and SMC
The Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud, or LMC and SMC, are two satellite galaxies of the Milky Way galaxy.
Like with Andromeda, you should be able to spot both with just your eyes from a very dark region on Earth. For the LMC, its brightest region should show up in the sky as a bar about 10 times as long and twice as wide as the full moon, according to Astronomy.com. The rest of the LMC shows up as an extremely hazy oval around this bar.
The SMC should look similar, but it's smaller as its name suggests. As Jonathon Nally writes for Sky and Telescope, "when you first spot them, you really would think that they are just two wispy clouds."
When looking at the LMC and SMC, some nebulas and star clusters may come into view, depending on what kind of tool you're working with.
(15, 16) Bode's Galaxy and The Cigar Galaxy
In the constellation of Ursa Major lie two galactic friends: Messier 81 and Messier 82. They're also known as Bode's Galaxy and The Cigar Galaxy, respectively. They're pretty popular objects among astrophotographers because not only are they very striking, but they're also not considered incredibly difficult to image. Bode's galaxy, which sits about 11.5 million light-years away, can even be seen as a fuzzy blob through binoculars, according to BBC Sky at Night. With a telescope, you might even be able to see some blueish stars in its spiral arms.
The Cigar Galaxy, on the other hand, literally looks like a long "cigar" in space because we see it edge-on from our perspective on Earth. Unfortunately, both M81 and M82 are best viewed in the springtime — which has passed — but it's certainly worth a shot locating the duo despite that.
You can check out our tips on how to shoot the night sky, as well as our guides to the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.
(17) The Whirlpool Galaxy
Messier 51, or The Whirlpool Galaxy is actually part of BBC Sky at Night's "best galaxies to observe in the night sky" list — that's likely because you can see it even with a relatively inexpensive, small telescope. Even to the unaided eye in a dark area on Earth, it'd look like a sort of smudge among the background stars.
This galaxy is about 31 million light-years away from us and has been imaged time and again by various professional astronomers and amateur dabblers alike. I mean, take The James Webb Space Telescope's view of M51. Hypnotic.
(18) Pleiades
About 410 light-years away lies an open star cluster called the Pleiades, or Messier 45, one of the most popular night sky sights. In this cluster, more than a thousand stars shine the brightest they can, in turn offering skywatchers an exciting place to visit with their telescopes to gaze upon a cosmic light show. The best time to catch sight of it is between October and April from, wonderfully, anywhere in the world (except perhaps Antarctica).
With the unaided eye, you should be able to see six of the stars in this cluster; in a very dark area, you should be able to see 14; and with a telescope, you'll be able to see up to hundreds.
(19) International Space Station
The International Space Station is one of two inorganic objects on this skywatching target list. And it's so far down because it puts forth a complicated situation. On one hand, the ISS is pretty simple to spot with just your eyes — all you have to do is get NASA's "Spot the Station" app, which tells you when the station is about to pass over you, then you can go outside and watch it zip across the sky. On the other hand, however, if you're interested in getting a closer look, it is an immensely challenging feat.
The station orbits Earth at about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour, meaning your telescope will have to track the station as it literally zooms across your view. Even the best astrophotographers have struggled getting a clear image of the ISS.
(20) Starlink satellite train
The second inorganic object on this list is SpaceX's Starlink satellite train. Depending on your perspective, the fact that you can easily see a fleet of internet satellites streaking across the sky can either be good or bad.
On one hand, astronomers are worried satellite constellations such as Starlink are ruining astronomy observations (and these constellations are only going to increase in number) but, on the other, it's a pretty cool sight to see dozens of satellites moving as one across the night sky.
Here's a guide to satellite-watching for your Starlink fix.
(21) Orion Nebula
Remember Orion's Belt? We're back to that.
Hidden in the full version of this constellation, which includes Orion's general body and a sword he wields, there is a nebula!
First, find the Belt's three stars. Then, near the belt, there are three fainter stars. This is the sword. The Orion Nebula is right in the middle of this sword — to get a good look, though, you're going to want to grab a telescope. Under dark skies, you can even make out a fuzzy gray smudge with your naked eyes. That smudge is made up of pillars of cosmic gas and dust that are home to baby stars.
(22) Trapezium Cluster
The Trapezium cluster is an open cluster of stars within the Orion Nebula (which sits within Orion's Belt as we discussed) and, through a telescope, is a stunning sight to behold.
Its four bright stars should be visible through a relatively small telescope; a medium-sized 6-inch (150mm) one should tack on two more stars. However, if you ever find yourself with access to a large amateur telescope, according to Sky and Telescope, you'll be able to add even more sparkle to the scene.
(23) Beehive Cluster
The Beehive Cluster is named as such because it encapsulates a swarm of about 1,000 stars looking like busy bees buzzing around a hive. Though the cluster has disappeared from view for the rest of the month, it should return to the sky around late August, according to EarthSky.
You should be able to see this cluster with the unaided eye, as a sort of fuzzy blob from the darkest of the darkest regions on Earth, but I'd recommend chasing the hive with a telescope. Even binoculars might do.
(24) The Great Cluster in Hercules
In the constellation Hercules, or M13, a famous cluster is simply known as "The Great Cluster."
It honestly looks like precisely what you'd imagine a cluster of stars to look like, and viewing it through a large telescope would take your breath away as hundreds of stars come into focus. From mid-northern latitudes, EarthSky says, this cluster should be visible during most of the year. Through binoculars, it would look like an out-of-focus star.
(25) The Horsehead Nebula
We've arrived at our final destination.
Notoriously known as one of the most difficult cosmic objects to spot with an amateur telescope, The Horsehead Nebula truly earns boss-level status on this list. You've probably seen the James Webb Space Telescope's remarkable images of this hooked structure in a vast expanse of gaseous tendrils; but, of course the JWST is a multi-billion dollar machine in space that's quite literally built to access such corners of the universe.
To get a glimpse of this celestial horse, we return once again to Orion's Belt. Point your telescopes just to the south of the easternmost star in the Belt, and you'll locate the general vicinity of the nebula. However, even to the best of telescopic tools, the Horsehead is more like a deep space ghost.
Editor's note: A correction was made on July 18, 2024, to the Bode's Galaxy entry stating that it is about 11.5 million light-years away not 11.5 light-years away.
