How to See Kemble’s Cascade With A Telescope?

Kemble’s Cascade is an asterism in the constellation Camelopardalis featuring more than 20 stars, with the open cluster NGC 1502 at one end. This star pattern is an unofficial arrangement of stars known as an asterism and is not one of the recognized constellations in the night sky. HIP 18505 is the star in the…

How to See the Winter Hexagon With A Telescope?

Finding the Winter Hexagon will give you a fresh viewpoint on the winter night sky. It is made up of six brilliant stars that surround the constellation of Orion in the southeast (as seen from the northern hemisphere). The Winter Hexagon is an excellent naked-eye target in January and February. Going clockwise in the hexagon,…

How to See the Variable Stars With A Telescope?

Variable stars are crucial for testing our theories of stellar development, from bloated red giants nearing the end of their lives to binary stars engaged in deadly gravitational dances. They play a significant role in stellar astrophysics.  However, extrinsic variables and intrinsic variables are the two basic categories of variable stars. Intrinsic variables are stars…

How to See the Pleiades With A Telescope?

The Pleiades or the Seven Sisters (M45) is an open star cluster that originated from a huge cloud of dust and gas around 125 million years ago. The stars of M45 are so bright for the high rate of fusion at the cores. However, they are located in the constellation Taurus having a distance of…

How to See the Hyades Star Cluster With A Telescope?

The Hyades Star Cluster is the closest cluster to the solar system containing myriads of stars some of which can be observed with the unaided eye. It is located at a distance of 150 light-years away from us. The four brightest stars Gamma Tauri, Delta 1 Tauri, Epsilon Tauri, and Theta Taur makes a V…

How to See The Total Eclipse of the Moon With A Telescope?

Imagine when Earth comes between the sun and the moon and the shadow of the earth falls on the moon. This darkens the moon and it happens only when the moon is full. The outer lighter shadow is called the penumbra, and the darker core is called the umbra. Penumbral shadow is hard to detect…

How to See the Summer Triangle With A Telescope?

Sometimes stargazing does not need to memorize all the constellations because like the Summer Triangle, the best star patterns to observe are not always constellations but asterisms. An asterism is a pattern of stars not included in the official 88 constellations.  The Summer Triangle is an asterism, made of 3 bright stars Vega, Deneb, and…

How to See the North Star (Polaris) With A Telescope?

Polaris, the North star is located in the constellation named Ursa Minor. It is very close to the north celestial pole of the earth. It is very easy to identify from the northern horizon using the little dipper as a reference. It seems like all the stars and constellation orbits Polaris throughout the year. But…

How to See the Big Dipper With A Telescope?

The Big Dipper is a group of stars belonging to the constellation Ursa Major or the Big Bear. It is easy to spot on any dark night in the Northern Hemisphere. The Big Dipper with its neighbor the Little Dipper can be seen rotating around the North star Polaris throughout the year. In summer and…

How to See a Lagoon Nebula With A Telescope?

The Lagoon Nebula is an emission nebula with an active area of star formation full of gas and dust. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius around 5000 light years away. We can see the glow of the embedded star cluster NGC 6530. It has a luminosity of magnitude 6 that makes it a nice…

How to See The Ring Nebula With a Telescope?

M57 (The Ring Nebula) is a planetary nebula located in the Lyra constellation at a distance of 2,300 light years from the earth. The shell of gas was produced by a red giant that has to evolve away. The expansion rate of this nebula indicates that it is 10,000 years old.  What is Ring Nebula?…

How to See The ISS With A Telescope?

The International Space Station (ISS) is a space laboratory where astronauts stay for a period of time and do experiments. It moves around the Earth at around 300 miles up and at 17,000 mph. It has several parts like the solar array wings working as power stations, rooms and laboratories for the astronauts, and all…

How to See Comets With A Telescope?

Comets are a mixture of ice, frozen gasses, dust, and rocks. Scientists think that comets are the debris from materials that formed the solar system initially around 4.6 billion years ago. Comets follow elliptical orbits around the sun. The more it gets closer to the sun, the faster it is pulled in. Some comets fall…

How to See Binary Stars With A Telescope?

Telescope has revealed the interesting fact that all stars are not alone. Sometimes they are accompanied by one or other multiple stars and form star systems. Double stars that are bound gravitationally are called binary star systems. According to the research around 85% of the stars of the Milky Way are in binary pairs unlike…

How to See the Orion Nebula With A Telescope?

The Orion Nebula, also familiar as M 42 is easy to spot and visible to unaided eyes. It is one of the brightest Nebula in the night sky with a magnitude of 4. It is located in the Orion constellation and includes stars, ionized gas, and dust. This diffuse nebula extends across a 1° region…

How to See Andromeda With A Telescope?

The Andromeda galaxy is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way located at 7.7° northwest of Mirach. This is the only galaxy you can see with bare eyes without any optical aid. However, it appears as a faint misty patch on a moonless night at a short distance from the band of the Milky Way….

How to See the Milky Way With A Telescope?

The Milky Way is a common spiral galaxy with a visible diameter of 100-200 thousand light years. It has 4 main spiral arms having 100-400 billion stars in each of them and our solar system is located in Orion’s arm. You can see the other side of the Milky Way even with unaided eyes. From…

How to See Galaxies With A Telescope?

A galaxy is referred to as the collection of dust, gas, hundreds of billions of stars, and their planets which are held together by gravity. A galaxy is the most distant object you can see with your telescope. They appear with different shapes and colors and we can see the combined glare of all the…

How to see a Nebula With A Telescope?

A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust composed of Helium, Hydrogen, and other ionized gasses. They become visible from Earth due to the interaction of gas with other materials or supernova explosions. However, it is possible to see a nebula with a telescope. Typically a nebula looks gray though the view improves with…

How to See Sirius With A Telescope?

Photo: The Dogstar (Sirius A) and its Pup (Sirius B)  Sirius, also known as the Dog star, is the brightest star in the sky found in late winter and spring. It has a tiny companion named Sirius B known as Pup which is basically a white dwarf star. Both of them make a binary star…

How to see The Sun With A Telescope?

Planets and the moons are not the only things astronomers intend to observe in the sky. Stars are always mysterious that can reveal dramatic detail even with a 4-inch telescope. The sun is the nearest star to us and also the only night sky object that may cause harm to our eyes. Observing the Sun…

How to See Titan With A Telescope?

Titan is the largest among 83 moons of Saturn and the second largest natural satellite in the solar system. Titan is the only moon that has a dense atmosphere. This is also known as the only object in space that has surface liquid. A small beginner telescope can spot them easily.  What is Titan? Titan…

How to See Asteroids With A Telescope?

We see night sky objects through a telescope because they reflect sunlight. Asteroids do the same thing which means it is possible to view them from the earth through a suitable telescope. In fact, sometimes it becomes indistinguishable from the stars though the distances between the asteroid and stars from the earth are different. Asteroids…

How to See Pluto With A Telescope?

Pluto is mostly known as a dwarf planet. You cannot see Pluto with a small or low-powered telescope. Only a large aperture telescope with high magnifications and show you its appearance. It is situated at the very edge of the solar system. It is not a shiny object having a magnitude of 14.4. To observe…

How to See Neptune With A Telescope?

Neptune is the eighth and the last official planet from the sun. A Neptunian day is only 16 hours, but it orbits around the sun in about 165 earth years.  Neptune is an icy gas giant composed of hot icy materials like water, ammonia, and methane. It has 14 moons. It also has five main…

How to See Uranus With A Telescope?

Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system. It takes 82 earth years to orbit the sun once. The most interesting fact about Uranus is its axial tilt at about 98 degrees which means Uranus orbits the sun on its side. Uranus has two sets of rings just like Saturn. It also has 27…

How to See Saturn With a Telescope?

Saturn is a gas giant and 6th in position among all planets from the sun. It is well known for its rings made of ice particles and rocky debris and dust. Amazingly, Saturn has 80 moons among which Titan is the largest. Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system and it takes…

How to See Jupiter With A Telescope?

The biggest gas giant in the solar system, Jupiter is 319 times more massive than earth. The part we see through a telescope is mostly its clouds composed of ammonium hydrosulfide (brown) and ammonia (white). The appearance of Jupiter changes over time due to the growth in storms, changes in the color of cloud belts,…

How to See Meteor Shower With A Telescope?

Meteors are basically dust and rocks that float at thousands of miles per hour through our solar system. On their way, if they strike the earth’s atmosphere, they burn up and make a long streak across the sky. Sometimes earth encounters them in large numbers making Meteor showers. Meteor showers are formed by debris from…

How to See Mars With A Telescope?

Mars is the only planet that reveals the surface details to us while most of the other planets are either covered in clouds or very small and blurry to show much. Mars glows with a reddish color due to the presence of iron oxide in its soil.  Mars can be seen with bare eyes throughout…

How to See Venus With A Telescope?

Venus is known as the sister of Earth as they are of the same size and proximity ignoring the extreme temperature of Venus. However, two-thirds of the planet is covered in thick clouds. With the telescope, it is impossible to see the surface features of Venus. The thick clouds reflect the light so brightly that…

How to See Mercury With A Telescope?

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It orbits the sun every 88 days which means we get several short viewing windows a year. Most of the time it is too close to the sun to observe it. Though it is difficult, you can get an opportunity to view it if you know exactly…

How to See The Moon With A Telescope?

A telescope, no matter how small it is, can reveal a whole new world to you. The moon is always observable whether you are in a town or a village with even the smallest telescope and it always looks spectacular. You will also be able to see other planets of the solar system, the arm…