SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012
objects visible without aid
Amateur astronomers are often asked by the public, what can be seen with or
through telescope. Short answer: everything.
It is more important to know what can be seen with just your eyes, unaided,
without special equipment!
You just might be surprised...
- Sun, Moon, air,
terrestrial phenomena
- meteors, fireballs, etc.
- aurora borealis
- noctilucent clouds (if you live at medium to high latitudes)
- rainbows
- moonbows (look for them at night near big waterfalls)
- crepuscular rays
- Earth's shadow at twilight
- sun dog(s) or parhelia
- haloes (rings of light around Sun or Moon)
- coronas (circular glow around Sun)
- glories (circular glow opposite Sun)
- sun pillars
- and if you're lucky, the "green flash!"
- near the Earth
- artificial satellites, including Iridium comm sats (up to 100 per night!)
- International Space Station (ISS)
- the Space Shuttle, and other space craft or equipment
- the Moon
- each month 14 times at night, 14 times in daylight
- very young, 24 to 48 hours
- very old, 27 to 28 days
- Earthshine or planetshine
- in our solar system
- the Sun (of course), the nearest "star" to us
- sunspots (through proper filters)
- lunar eclipses
- solar eclipses (with proper eye protection!)
- zodiacal light *
- Gegenschein (oval glow opposite the sun) *
- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn (some of these planets can be spotted
in daylight)
- Uranus *
- occultations by Moon of stars, planets, asteroids
- the occasional asteroid *
- the occasional very bright comet!
- outside our solar system
- nearest stellar neighbour (Proxima Centauri)
- bright stars (e.g. Vega, Arcturus, Altair, Rigel)
- the brightest star, Sirius
- the third largest star, V V Cephei A (aka HIP 108317)
- about 3,000 stars (you'd see twice as many if the planet was invisible) *
- stars with exoplanets (e.g. Fomalhaut or ε Tauri)
- constellations and asterisms
- a few double stars, visually separated (e.g. Mizar and Alcor)
- multiple-star patterns (e.g. The Coathanger) *
- novas, supernovas
- variable stars (e.g. Algol, β Lyra)
- "star clouds" (e.g. in Sagittarius)
- bright open star clusters (e.g. Pleiades / M45)
- dark nebula (e.g. Great Rift in Cygnus, Northern Coal Sack in Ophiuchus) *
- globular star clusters (e.g. Great Hercules Cluster / M13) *
- diffuse emission nebulae (e.g. Great Orion Nebula / M42) *
- our galaxy (the Milky Way) *
- and beyond
- the Andromeda galaxy (a.k.a. M31)
- the Triangulum galaxy (a.k.a. M33) *
- Large Magellanic Cloud
- Small Magellanic Cloud
- Omega Centauri
Yes, you can see all these things with just your eyes!
* Some of these objects require extremely dark and clear skies. For example,
moonlight or light pollution will block out zodiacal light...
Finally, if you are fortunate to experience extremely dark skies, then the bonus super challenge is to detect the faintest stars that you can see. Can you spot, 6, 7, or magnitude 8 stars?!
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