With the naked eye

  • The Moon: the dark "seas" of basalt and, with a bit of attention, the earthshine on the dark part of a crescent Moon.
  • The planets: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars look like bright stars that do not twinkle. Mercury can be seen low on the horizon after sunset or before sunrise.
  • The Milky Way: under a dark sky (Bortle class 4 or better) it crosses the whole sky, especially on summer nights.
  • Star clusters and nebulae: the Pleiades, the Hyades and, as a small fuzzy patch, the Orion Nebula.
  • The Andromeda Galaxy: about 2.5 million light years away, it is the farthest object most people can see with the naked eye, as an elongated glow under a dark sky.
  • The International Space Station and satellites, which cross the sky in a few minutes.
  • Meteor showers: the Perseids around 12–13 August and the Geminids around 13–14 December are the richest.

With binoculars

A pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars is the best first instrument: easy to use, wide field and bright image.

  • the craters and mountains along the edge of the Moon's shadow;
  • the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, which change position night after night;
  • open star clusters such as the Double Cluster in Perseus and the Beehive in Cancer;
  • the core of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Orion Nebula, brighter and larger;
  • the star clouds of the Milky Way, full of stars invisible to the naked eye.

With a small telescope

With a telescope of 70–130 mm aperture the planets come to life:

  • the rings of Saturn and its largest moon, Titan;
  • the cloud belts of Jupiter and, at times, the Great Red Spot;
  • the phases of Venus, like a small Moon;
  • double stars with contrasting colours, such as Albireo in Cygnus;
  • brighter galaxies, globular clusters and nebulae as gray glows.

Through the eyepiece nebulae and galaxies look gray: the eye does not see colour in faint light. The colorful images you see online are long-exposure photographs. Observing is different, but seeing the light that left a galaxy millions of years ago with your own eyes has its own magic.

Never look at the Sun with binoculars or a telescope without a certified solar filter placed in front of the instrument: it causes permanent eye damage in an instant.

How to start

  1. Learn a few bright constellations with the naked eye.
  2. Follow the Moon through its phases: observing along the terminator, the line between light and shadow, shows the best relief.
  3. Get binoculars before a telescope.
  4. Find a dark place: read our guide to the Bortle scale and dark skies.
  5. Join a community: sharing observations with others is the fastest way to learn.

Plan your nights with Starlyze

Starlyze shows the live Moon phase and an astronomical calendar of the year's main events, each with the best instrument to observe it: naked eye, binoculars or telescope. You can find dark sky spots on the Bortle map and share your observations with the community.

Frequently asked questions

Binoculars. They are cheaper, easier to use and help you learn the sky; many objects look better with binoculars than with a small telescope.

Not clearly. Most binoculars only show an elongated shape; a small telescope at about 25x or more shows the rings.

In faint light the eye relies on cells that do not perceive colour. Colorful images are long-exposure photographs.