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Watching the sky

You do not need a telescope to get started. Many nebulae, star clusters and even another galaxy can be seen with the naked eye or binoculars, if you know where to look.

Finding nebulae, star clusters and galaxies

Andromeda Galaxy

Type: Galaxy
Distance: 2.5 million light-years
Brightness: 3.4 mag
Visible with: the naked eye

Look for the Great Square of Pegasus. From its corner by the constellation Andromeda (Alpheratz), go two bright stars along to Mirach. From there, go two faint stars towards the W of Cassiopeia – right next to them lies an elongated, faint misty patch. With the naked eye only far from city lights; easy in binoculars. Best from September to January.

Triangulum Galaxy

Type: Galaxy
Distance: 2.7 million light-years
Brightness: 5.7 mag
Visible with: binoculars

About as far from Mirach as the Andromeda Galaxy, but on the opposite side. Very faint and spread out – only with binoculars under a really dark sky, for example in the mountains.

Orion Nebula

Type: Gas nebula where stars are forming
Distance: 1,340 light-years
Brightness: 4 mag
Visible with: the naked eye

Below the three stars of Orion's Belt hangs a short row of fainter stars – the Sword. The middle “star” in it looks fuzzy: that is the nebula. In binoculars, a grey veil. Best from December to February, in the south in the evening.

Pleiades (Seven Sisters)

Type: Star cluster
Distance: 440 light-years
Brightness: 1.6 mag
Visible with: the naked eye

Extend the line of the three stars of Orion's Belt up and to the right, past reddish Aldebaran in Taurus – beyond it sparkles a little group of stars like a miniature Plough. With the naked eye you can see 6 to 7 stars, in binoculars dozens. From October to March.

Beehive Cluster (Praesepe)

Type: Star cluster
Distance: 580 light-years
Brightness: 3.7 mag
Visible with: the naked eye

About halfway between Pollux in Gemini and Regulus in Leo, in the inconspicuous constellation Cancer. Under a dark sky a faint misty patch, in binoculars a swarm of dozens of stars. From January to April.

Double Cluster in Perseus

Type: two star clusters
Distance: 7,500 light-years
Brightness: 4.3 mag
Visible with: binoculars

Between the W of Cassiopeia and the constellation Perseus. With the naked eye a bright patch in the Milky Way, in binoculars two sparkling star clusters close together. Visible almost all year round, best in autumn and winter.

Globular cluster M13

Type: Globular clusters
Distance: 22,200 light-years
Brightness: 5.8 mag
Visible with: binoculars

Between the bright stars Vega and Arcturus lies the constellation Hercules with a square of four stars. On the side facing Arcturus, about a third of the way from the upper star: a round, fuzzy patch made up of around 300,000 stars. High in the sky in summer.

Towards the centre of the Milky Way

Type: brightest part of the Milky Way
Distance: 26,000 light-years
Brightness: 4 mag
Visible with: the naked eye

In July and August around midnight, low in the south above the constellation Sagittarius. There the band of the Milky Way is at its widest and brightest – but only far away from city lights, for example in the mountains. Seen from Switzerland, it never climbs higher than about 14 degrees.

The sky tonight

Which planets are visible right now, when the Moon rises and where the International Space Station is flying: the 3D model works it out for this evening under “Explore”.