Saturday, December 12, 2009
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...
- terrestrial phenomena
- meteors, fireballs, etc.
- aurora borealis
- noctilucent clouds (if you live at high latitudes)
- Sun, Moon, and air
- 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
- 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)
- 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 very bright comet!
- and if you're lucky, the "green flash!"
- outside our solar system
- nearest stellar neighbour (Proxima Centauri)
- bright stars (e.g. Vega, Arcturus, Altair, Rigel)
- 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
- a few double stars (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) *
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...
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