The disk of the Milky Way makes a blue bowl-shaped arc over the land and trees.
The Milky Way above Devil's Tower National Monument.
NPS / Damon Joyce

Helpful Tips

  • Some objects may be visible from most locations on Earth, while others are only visible at specific latitudes and may not be accessible for those in other parts of the world. This page has two lists of recommended targets: one for the Northern Hemisphere and another for the Southern Hemisphere. For best results, we recommend using the list that corresponds to the part of the world you live in.
  • If the name of the object starts with an "M," it's part of the Messier catalog; names that start with "C" are part of the Caldwell catalog.
  • A difficulty scale of 1-3 denotes how easy an object is to find: 1 is the easiest and 3 the hardest. The easiest targets for each hemisphere are listed first, and the most difficult ones are listed last.

Northern Hemisphere Objects

These night sky objects are visible to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere.

An intense cloud of red, purple, brown and similar color gas that is the Orion Nebula that includes pockets of starbirth.

M42: Orion Nebula

Object Type: Diffuse Nebula
Difficulty: 1

Hubble image of the Crab Nebula

M1: Crab Nebula

Object Type: Supernova Remnant
Difficulty: 2

Purple, red, brown and similar color gas with a bright star in the middle.

M43: DeMairan's Nebula

Object Type: Diffuse Nebula
Difficulty: 2

A hazy, cloudy region mostly in blue in the upper left diagonal half of the image, and mostly brown and yellow near the lower right diagonal.

M78

Object Type: Diffuse Nebula
Difficulty: 2

star cluster

M79

Object Type: Globular Cluster
Difficulty: 2

This nebula is shaped like a fan, with the star glowing white in the bottom left. Trailing upwards away from it, like a veil, the gas and dust is bluish-white closest to the star, then turns to a light blue farther away, and then to a deep turquoise at the ends, which are on the top right.

C46: Hubble's Variable Nebula

Object Type: Nebula
Difficulty: 3

Southern Hemisphere Objects

These night sky objects are visible to viewers in the Southern Hemisphere.

An intense cloud of red, purple, brown and similar color gas that is the Orion Nebula that includes pockets of starbirth.

M42: The Orion Nebula

Object Type: Diffuse Nebula
Difficulty: 1

Hubble image of the Crab Nebula

M1: Crab Nebula

Object Type: Supernova Remnant
Difficulty: 2

Purple, red, brown and similar color gas with a bright star in the middle.

M43: DeMairan's Nebula

Object Type: Diffuse Nebula
Difficulty: 2

A hazy, cloudy region mostly in blue in the upper left diagonal half of the image, and mostly brown and yellow near the lower right diagonal.

M78

Object Type: Diffuse Nebula
Difficulty: 2

star cluster

M79

Object Type: Globular Cluster
Difficulty: 2

This is a globular cluster, a sphere of tens of thousands of stars. Most of them are a whitish color, but there are many bright red, yellow, and blue stars mixed in. The stars are more concentrated in the center of the sphere. As you move farther from the center, there are fewer stars.

C73

Object Type: Globular Cluster
Difficulty: 2

C103-1b

C103: Tarantula Nebula, 30 Doradus

Object Type: Open Cluster + Nebula
Difficulty: 2

This nebula is shaped like a fan, with the star glowing white in the bottom left. Trailing upwards away from it, like a veil, the gas and dust is bluish-white closest to the star, then turns to a light blue farther away, and then to a deep turquoise at the ends, which are on the top right.

C46: Hubble's Variable Nebula

Object Type: Nebula
Difficulty: 3