Summer is the best time for future scientists to start astronomy as a hobby. Not just because the weather is warmer, but because many of the most interesting and easiest object to view happen to be in the summer sky. The downfall of summer viewing is humidity which reflects light and obscures viewing. So try to go out on less humid evenings when the moon is in the New Moon phase. You don't need a powerful or expensive telescope to view some amazingly beautiful objects, and even semi-powerful binoculars will give you a nice view of our celestial neighbors! Check out our article on starting astronomy as a hobby for tips, as well as information on choosing a telescope.

Some of the most interesting objects to look at were mapped by the 18th century French astronomer Charles Messier, and are called Messier objects. One of the most famous astronomers of all time. Messier spent his evenings looking for comets. Comets are faint and fuzzy-looking objects, even through strong telescopes. When comets have tails they are easily identifiable, but they don't always have tails. Once a comet gets close enough to the sun the solar wind burns ice and tiny particles off the comet's nucleus and a tail forms. So the way to distinguish a comet is to look for a faint and fuzzy object and see if it moves across the sky, relative to the stars which don't move (Well, they do move, but it's only noticeable over thousands of years). In the 1700s, when Messier was hard at work, many objects looked faint and fuzzy not only to the naked eye but to the primitive telescopes at the time. Unless you're looking through a nice quality modern telescope or good pair of binoculars, nebulae, clusters, galaxies, and comets can all look very similar. As he found objects that looked like comets but weren't, Messier mapped them so they would not be mistaken for comets by himself or other astronomers. Messier mapped 110 of these faint and fuzzy objects. If you are our stargazing and looking for M3, that means it's the 3rd object that Messier recorded as not being a comet. Why not try an astronomy science fair project?

What to look for:
Let's start with 2 or 3 of each type of object. Our astronomy science kits and science books will help expand on these when you're ready. There is so much to know that it's better to start out with some easy and interesting objects. First, learn to locate the constellations that contain the objects you want to see. This will help you locate the objects more easily. Can you locate the teapot asterism in Sagittarius just by looking up in the sky? It's actually very easy, once you know what to look for. When you find the object with your telescope, study it over and over again, and try to notice the subtle details through your telescope. Don't bother going out when the moon is anything more than a crescent, it casts too much light and will either drown out the object, or reduce the amount of detail you can see. You have a window of 4 or 5 good days of viewing per moon cycle, the best being when it's a new moon (no reflection of the sun). Draw a picture of the object you see through your telescope, just like Messier, Halley and other astronomers did!

The following objects can be located on our Star Wheel star-finder to help you find stars and constellations all year round. Take it outside with you, it's easy to use. As the Earth changes seasons, constellations come and go throughout the year.

Globular Clusters: A globular cluster is about the most beautiful object in the sky and they are often described as snow balls. It's the retirement home of the Milky Way galaxy, consisting of a dense cluster of stars that are thought to be about as old as the Milky Way galaxy itself! A globular cluster is a collection of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of very old dying stars, such as red giants and white dwarfs. The stars you can see through your telescope are mostly red giants. Red giants are much larger than our sun and much older. Billions of years from now, our sun will turn into a red giant as it uses up its nuclear fuel.

• M 15 - Messier 15 is a great globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus, the winged horse. It's a high concentration of very bright, very large, and very well resolved stars about 50,000 light years from Earth. It's a noble cluster, and not exactly round. Can you draw it and determine the shape?
• M 13 - Messier 13, the Hercules Cluster, the best globular cluster north of the celestial equator, a naked ,eye object under very dark skies. 500,000 stars extending 150 light years and a distance of 26,000 light years from Earth. Discovered by Edmond Halley (of Halley's comet) in 1714. While Messier never saw its individual stars, even a small telescope brings out the details in this magnificent mass of stars. This globular cluster is about 14 billion years old! Three dark rifts radiate outward from near the center, like a dark "propeller". Can you see the pattern?
• M 22 - Messier 22. This is a medium concentration of stars in Sagittarius, just above the teapot asterism. It's very bright and large, rich, round, and well resolved. A dark gash runs SW to NE across the core. It contains about 70,000 stars and is about 7800 light years away from us. Can you make out the details and see some of the individual stars?

Open Clusters: These contain dozens to thousands of stars, are located in the disc of the Milky Way, and have no particular shape. They aren't densely packed together like globular clusters are, and contain much younger stars.

• The Double Cluster - This is comprised of 2 open clusters in between the constellations Perseus and Casseopeia. They are very bright and each one consists of well over 100 stars. They were described, over 2000 years ago, as a misty star in Ptolemy's Almagest. It's also been described as 2 swarms of bees encountering in midair. Great as viewed through a low powered telescope.
• M 11 - Messier 11. The Wild Duck cluster is a detached, strong concentration of about 200 stars. It resembles a flight of wild ducks in shape. It's about 22 light years across and about 5500 light years from us. The beautiful open cluster is about 220 million years old!
  

Nebulae: A nebula is a cloud of gas and microscopic dust in space. The easiest and biggest are the H II regions which are nebulae that contain hydrogen gas which is ionized (the hydrogen atom loses its electron). The gas in these nebulae are hot, ionized, and glowing due to the ultra-violet radiation from nearby stars. Nebulae are spectacular and best seen from dark sky locations.

• M 20 - The Trifid nebula. (overlaps with M8 on star chart) This is a very large and bright nebula in Sagittarius and very close to the Lagoon nebula. In fact, both can be viewed at the same time in the same field of vision with a low power eyepiece. It has prominent dark lanes and contains an open cluster of about 60 stars. This is easy to find and a most remarkable object!
• M 8 - The Lagoon nebula. (overlaps with M20 on star chart) This H II object is just below the Trifid nebula. The Lagoon nebula is also a large bright nebula and contains an open cluster of stars. It appears as a large, floating nebulous patch crossed by a great, curving dark lane. See how much detail you can make out!
• The Veil Nebula - Located in the constellation Cygnus, the swan, this is the remnant of a supernova explosion between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. Our ancestors would have been amazed at this site in their dark skies. What remains from the super-massive star explosion is the Veil Nebula. It is a pretty faint nebula, but very large. The size is unbelievable and is nearly 6 times the apparent diameter of the moon! It's not listed on our star chart. But the way to find it is to look in the left wing of the swan. Look between the last 2 stars in the left wing. Remember, it's faint, so take your time! If you want to try a couple more in this area, go back to Deneb, the brightest star in this constellation. Right next to it are the American nebula and the Pelican nebula, both faint but very large!

Planets: The only planets that will reveal any amount of detail are Jupiter and Saturn. Everything else looks like a point of light or a blurry dot. However, it's still cool to be able to say you've located Venus and Mercury in the morning sky, or Uranus and Neptune which looked just like any another star in the sky. Even our strongest consumer telescopes will not see Pluto due to its small size and distance! When viewing Jupiter try to identify the colored bands, or if you have a really good eye - the Great Red Spot. But unless you are in very dark, dry skies and have a good sized telescope, don't expect to see lots of detail. Saturn is a real treat. It will look smaller than Jupiter through your scope, but you should see the rings. Saturn is quite possibly the most amazing site in the heavens. Planets move very quickly across the sky, so you'll have to adjust your telescope as you view the planets to keep them in your field of vision.

Galaxies: Galaxies are very hard to see unless you are under extremely dark skies and have a relatively large telescope. The only galaxy you should expect to see in the Northern Hemisphere with ease is the Andromeda galaxy, because it's so close to us at a mere 2.6 million light years away. Late August and September it will rise high enough to be viewed. It's the most distant object easily spotted by the naked eye. In fact, it's heading right towards us and will collide with the Milky Way galaxy. But don't worry about that, it will be many billions of years from now! There are different types of galaxies. The most beautiful are spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way or the Andromeda galaxy. There are also Dwarf, Elliptical, Irregular, and other types of galaxies, but are much fainter and harder to see unless you are under very dark skies and have a powerful telescope.

The Moon: Our closest celestial neighbor holds lots of wonderful mysteries. Use a moon filter, which is basically like putting sunglasses on your telescope. The moon is so bright it will literally hurt your eyes. Our telescopes come with moon filters! And the best time to view the moon is during a crescent or half moon. The reason is that the angle of the light brings out the craters, hills, and valleys and gives them real contrast and depth. A full moon washes out your view because it casts no shadows. There are lots of great things to look at on the moon. There's even a challenge called the Lunar 100, consisting of 100 named areas and objects on the lunar surface which you must try to see.

Constellations: A constellation is one of 88 regions in the sky created by modern astronomers to set boundaries for the constellations so astronomers could agree on which star is in which constellation. So instead of different astronomers using different star maps, everyone can agree. So if you're looking for the Andromeda galaxy, everyone can agree that it's in the constellation Andromeda. They are typically named after an animal, object, or ancient deity. Ancient astronomers divided the sky into these 88 imaginary figures based on recognizable star patterns. An asterism is a part of a constellation that's easier to recognize than the constellation itself. The big dipper in Ursa Major is an asterism, as is the Tea Pot in Sagittarius. You wont use your telescope to view the constellations, but learning to identify them makes astronomy easier and more fun.

The constellations highest in the sky from August to October are:

• Aquarius - the water bearer
• Aquila - the eagle
• Aries - the ram
• Bootes - the herdsman (contains the asterism The Kite)
• Capricornus - the goat
• Cassiopeia - the queen
• Cygnus - the swan
• Draco - the dragon
• Hercules - the mythical character
• Lyra - the lyre or harp
• Ophiuchus - the serpent bearer
• Pegasus - the winged horse
• Sagittarius - the archer (contains the asterism The Tea Pot)
• Scutum - the shield
• Taurus - the bull
• Ursa Minor - the small bear (contains the asterism Small Dipper and Polaris - the North Star)

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