I hope you’ll find my personal observations helpful, regardless if you’re a budding or seasoned backyard astronomer.
About the Garden Astronomer
The Garden Astronomer celebrates urban visual astronomy by showing what one can expect to see using smaller to intermediate-sized telescopes under light-polluted skies.
Great finds for winter
Messier 34 (NGC 1039): A Robust Cluster with Attractive Pairs of Stars
Messier 34 is a treasure chest of 80-100 viewable stars in the winter constellation Perseus.
NGC 457: The Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia
An owl hides out in Cassiopeia, so on autumn and winter nights, turn your scope toward the constellation and look for cluster and its two bright stars that make up…
Messier 38 (NGC 1912): A Starfish Floating in an Ocean of Sky
Messier 38 is one of several beautiful and bright star clusters in the constellation Auriga. It’s also know as the Starfish Cluster as lines of brighter stars stretch out from…
Delta Geminorum (Wasat): A Star With a Unique History
Wasat is the primary star in a triple star system in the constellation Gemini. It’s best viewed in the winter. At magnitude +3.5, Wasat is not difficult to find under…
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A majority of the astronomical objects on this site have alternative names. For instance, the star Miriam is also named Eta Persei. If you don’t find an object by browsing, try searching below by other classifications, such as SAO, HD, IC, or NGC numbers.