Cosmic Pursuits

Basic astronomy and night sky information

A Treasure Trove of Deep-Sky Sights for a Small Telescope

By Brian Ventrudo, Publisher, CosmicPursuits.com

As publisher of CosmicPursuits, I’m often asked for advice about what to see in a small telescope.

“Show me something good!”, someone will say to me at a star party. Or, “What else can I see in my little telescope”?

What else can you see? Quite a bit, it turns out. In fact, I’ve shown many stargazers how to observe things in a small telescope most people never even dream of seeing, and that “armchair astronomers” only read about in books.

In the next few minutes, I’ll reveal to you my favorite deep-sky objects in both the northern AND southern hemispheres.

When you finally see these celestial treasures for yourself, it’s like being let in on a closely guarded secret… and you won’t think of the world (or the universe) quite the same way again.

I’m talking about spectacular deep-sky sights like…

  • Bloated dying stars so large that, if they took the place of our sun, they would fill our solar system out to the orbit of Saturn
  • A dizzying collection of lovely star clusters set in the most exquisitely beautiful section of the southern Milky Way…
  • The dazzling “Ophiuchus Double Cluster”, two distinct open clusters that make the must-see list of many experienced stargazers
  • A wedge-shaped nebula in the constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn, that varies in brightness like a match flickering in the wind
  • A crimson star in the constellation Lepus, a star so red it looks like blood dripping from a vampire’s fang
  • The glittering Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, a small patch of millions of stars in an inner arm of the Milky Way that harbors two dark nebulae easily seen in a small telescope
  • Dozens of colorful double and multiple star systems you can see with any telescope, even from hazy and light-polluted city skies
  • More than a dozen forgotten jewels in the constellation Orion, including a little-known nebula just above the “club” of the great celestial hunter
  • The ghostly remembrance of two exploded stars in the constellation Cygnus that looks like delicate silver lacework against the velvet blackness of space

… and more than 400 more astonishing sights in the deep sky throughout the year.

When you finally see these celestial treasures for yourself, it’s like being let in on a closely guarded secret… and you won’t think of the world (or the universe) quite the same way again.

The Finest Celestial Sights of the Deep-Sky

NGC 7009, the Saturn Nebula (Image credit: www.astrosurf.com)

To help you find and enjoy the finest sights the deep sky has to offer, I’ve released a series of four guides called “What To See in a Small Telescope”. Each of these four guides shows you hundreds of deep-sky objects with a small telescope throughout the year.

To create these carefully-crafted guides, I’ve dipped into my personal observing notebooks to select my favorite deep-sky targets. After more than three decades of stargazing I’ve seen them all many times, yet never tire of their subtle beauty, even in my smallest scopes. And most are easy to find and enjoy, even from light-polluted skies.

These guides cover the most famous showpiece sights, for sure, like the Dumbbell Nebula, Wild Duck Cluster, the Orion Nebula, and the Andromeda Galaxy.

But many of the objects are forgotten jewels that never make the observing lists of most stargazers. Which is a shame, because most are not particularly hard to find. Seeing these deep-sky sights is like finding charming attractions only the locals know about in a hidden corner of an old European city.

The tours in the guide take you to clusters of brand-new stars just emerging from their birth nebulae… blue-green planetary nebulae thrown off by dying stars like our Sun… ancient star clusters nearly as old as the universe itself… even a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that’s lost in the star clouds of Sagittarius and wasn’t even discovered until just over a hundred years ago.

Complete Self-Contained Tours for Backyard Stargazers

Each of the four volumes of “What To See in a Small Telescope” is arranged into ten complete tours of the sky you can take throughout the year. From Draco and Ursa Major in the far north to Scorpius and Centaurus and Tucana in the far south, you get all the maps and information you need to find interesting stars, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies using nothing more than a 3-inch or 4-inch telescope. Each tour includes…

  • Maps and instructions to find each deep-sky object using well-known reference points in the night sky
  • Tips on how to observe each object to extract maximum detail, including which magnification work best, what structure and color to look for, and which (if any) filters to use
  • Whole-sky maps to help you get oriented to the more detailed maps in each tour
  • Names and celestial coordinates for every object listed in the tours so you can find them on your own star maps or punch them into your telescope’s “go-to” computer (if you have one)
  • A little science to give you insight into what you’re seeing (it’s amazing how much more interesting even the faintest smudge of an object can be when you understand what you’re looking at)
  • A set of enlarged maps from the tours to help you find each object when you’re out with your telescope. You can print out these maps, even have them laminated if you like, and take them along on your observing sessions

The guide also includes a bonus “observing checklist” with all objects listed in each of the sky tours, and room for your own observing notes as you locate and enjoy each object.

And to save you the trouble of juggling notes in the dark, you also get a free audio version of each volume of “What To See in a Small Telescope”. You can load each audio file onto your smart phone and follow along during your observing sessions. Or you can listen to the audio notes in your car, on the bus, or while going for a walk. It’s an easy way to plan your next observing session!

Build Your “Life List” of Deep-Sky Wonders

So is this course for you?

If you understand the basic layout of the night sky, and you can locate the major constellations, and you’re tired of observing the “same old” objects again and again and want to see something new, then this guide is definitely for you.

And while you don’t need a telescope to enjoy reading through or listening to the course, you’ll need access to a small scope to see most of the sights in the tours. A 4 to 6 inch reflector or a 3 to 4-inch refractor with a solid mount is enough to see every one of the 400+ objects outlined.

If you have a bigger scope, is this course still for you? Absolutely! What you can see in a small scope almost always looks better in an 8-inch or larger telescope. And I make careful notes about what you can see with larger optics.

But what if you live in the city or the suburbs. Is this course for you? Again, absolutely. By using higher magnification on some objects, and special optical filters on others, you can get still get excellent views of every one of the deep-sky sights listed in the course.

And if you’re lucky enough to have a computerized scope, or a “go-to” mount, that’s even better. Select a named object in the course (like an NGC or Messier object, or a star), punch it into your computer, and let the telescope do the work to find it. For the more obscure sights without “names”, the coordinates of the object are listed in the course, so again, you just have to punch them into your computer and away you go.

Guides to the Best Sights in the Deep Sky Each Season

If you want to see more deep-sky sights with your telescope, if you’re wondering “what else is out there”, now is your chance to find out. All four volumes of “What To See In A Small Telescope” show you exactly what you need to expand your realm of deep-sky sights and help you enjoy hundreds of beautiful deep sky objects in the night sky from throughout the year.

Each volume provides full details on how to find each object, detailed maps for each of the ten tours in each guide, and tips on how best to see each sight in a small scope.

You get an observer’s checklist with each object listed along with room for your own observing notes.

And you get the full course notes in audio format, to help you follow along during your observing sessions.

Each volume of “What To See In A Small Telescope” is available for immediate download in PDF and MP3 format from Cosmic Pursuits. You can buy one guide for just $17. Or you can get all four guides—notes, maps, audio, checklists for all four seasons—for $49 (and save yourself nearly 30%). And as always, you have a full guarantee of satisfaction. If the guides don’t meet your expectations, just let me know anytime and you get a full refund.

So why not give the “What To See In A Small Telescope” series of guides a try? Click here to get started, then wander outside on the next clear night to see something extraordinary!

Sincerely,

Brian Ventrudo, Ph.D.
Publisher, Cosmic Pursuits