M1, Crab
The remnant of a supernova that blew up on July fourth in the year 1054.
M2
Resolvable, fair size and brightness,
M3
Physically distant, but still large and bright. One of the best globulars.
M4
A large loose globular.
M5
One of the better globulars
M6, Butterfly
Rather close to us, low in the sky
M7, Ptolemy's
Close, big, bright open cluster.
M8, Lagoon
The lagoon, the Hourglass, an open cluster
M9
Small but nice, resolvable, with a dark nebula to the lower right.
M10
Nice globular, big, resolvable
M11, Wild Duck
A young closely grouped set of stars, could be mistaken for a globular
M12
Similar to M10 but dimmer
M13, Hercules
One of the best northern globulars
M14
Visually faint, photographs nicely.
M15
A dense bright core
M16, Eagle
At the heart of this nebula is the famous Hubble image of the "pillars of creation"
M17, Swan
If the ancients could have seen this, I wonder what kind of story they would have had for this beauty?
A small close cluster
A nice globular, visible with binoculars and resolvable in a telescope
M20, Trifid
A beautiful combination of dark, reflection, and emission nebula
An very young cluster, with a distinctive "ring" and "jewel" stars
One of the best globular clusters that can be seen from northern climes.
A small loose cluster above the Trifid
A region of the Milky Way visible through a break in the clouds of interstellar dust
A rather blah but bright cluster below and left of M17, the swan.
A great sight in a telescope, because it's close, big, and bright.
Not much in binocular view, but nice with a modest scope
M31, Andromeda
Our neighbor and sister galaxy
It's the little galaxy to the lower right, sometimes call the Andromeda nebula
M33 in Triangulum
The third major member of our local group of galaxies
Good binocular cluster with several doubles
Very nice nearly circular open cluster near the feet of the Gemini twins
The middle cluster of the M36, 37, 38 group
The largest and lower left cluster of the M36, 37, 38 group
The smallest and upper right cluster of the M36, 37, 38 group
A loose, sparse, but bright cluster just north of Deneb.
No DSO, just a faint star pair
A bright cluster, an easy binocular object, 4 deg below Sirius
M42, 43, Orion
The biggest, brightest nebula of them all
Close-up of the separate nebulosity to the upper right of M42
A large easily visible cluster, known since prehistoric times
A reflection nebula surrounding possibly the best known naked-eye cluster
Rich in stars, & has faint planetary nebula too
A small set of bright stars
A nice binocular Cluster
An uninteresting fuzz ball, but it's the way or shape many many galaxies are
A cluster in the Milky Way, to the east of Orion
.M51, Whirlpool
At one time this galaxy was thought to be a developing solar system within our galaxy
A nice small open cluster, easily found near Cassiopeia, and 1/2deg from the bubble nebula
One of the most distant and oldest globulars
A small blah globular cluster? No! It's the core remnant of a galaxy.
An unusually large and loose globular cluster
A faint but nice globular out near Vega
M57, Ring
In a telescope, this is small, but it hovers like a smoke ring among the stars
A relatively bright but small barred spiral galaxy
A very near neighbor of M60
A fairly bright elliptical with a faint interesting companion
M61
A nice barred spiral galaxy, similar to our own Milky Way
Low in the summer sky, similar to M19
M63, Sunflower
The spiral arms have organized themselves in a fashion reminiscent of a sunflower's seed head
M64 the Black eye
Got it's name from what it looks like on film negatives
The lower right member of the Leo Triplet
M66
The larger and more interesting of the M65-66 pair of galaxies
At 4 billion years old, one of the oldest open clusters in our galaxy
A small difficult to see and photograph low to the horizon cluster
A small difficult to see and photograph low to the horizon cluster
A small difficult to see and photograph low to the horizon cluster
A very loose, but nice sized globular cluster, between Altair and Deneb
A very distant loose globular
A simple small asterism
M74
A dim but nice sized classically shaped spiral galaxy
A small, very distant globular, similar to M54
A tiny version of it's bigger cousin M27
M77
A bright reflection nebula above the "Flame" nebula in Orion
A rare globular that may be from a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way
M81, Bode's Neb.
One of two big bright galaxies up near the handle of the big dipper
A great example of a starburst galaxy
M83, Southern Pinwheel
Very low in the sky, but a great photographic object
M87
The uninspiring fuzzy little blob at center/left is an example of how big things come in little packages.
One of the larger and prettier members of the Virgo Cluster
M95
M96
M97, Owl
Near the handle of the big dipper
M100
M101, Pinwheel
A beautiful face on classically shaped spiral galaxy
An interesting edge on galaxy whose bisecting dark dust band give it a look that gives it it's name
M105
Three for the price of one, with several galaxy styles in one view
M106
A large bright galaxy with a lot of different things going on with it
M108
M109
The little elliptical galaxy just above Andromeda