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Small Telescope Targets for Fall 2024

 Star hopping home
These are a few of many good targets for small scopes. To help you find the deep-sky objects, click on the name of the object for a star-hop chart, or get a printer-friendly version. For a longer, searchable list of star hops for deep-sky objects, click here. For a beginner's introduction to the technique of star hopping, click here.

Object

Printable Chart

Type

Magnitude

Distance (approx.)

Notes
Moon     About -3 (crescent) to -12.7 (full) 240,000 miles The Moon is always fascinating, and it changes night by night.  Look for craters, mountains, plains, ridges, etc. The best views are those at the edge between day and night (the “terminator”) where the long shadows show more details.
Venus   Planet -4 110 million miles (varies) Venus will be low in the western sky after sunset, the brightest object in the night sky besides the Moon. Through the fall it will have an oval shape, growing larger as it moves closer to the Earth.
Jupiter   Planet -2.5 400 million miles (varies) Jupiter will rise in mid-evening in October, and by December it will be rising around sunset. Its four brightest moons are easy to see with a small telescope. On its disk, look for cloud bands and other surface details.
Saturn   Planet 0.5 900 million miles (varies) This fall, Saturn is in Aquarius, and it will be in a good position for observation through most of the night. Its rings are gradually closing up from our viewpoint, giving a very different look compared to what we have seen in the last few years
Achird (Eta Cassiopeiae) pdf Double star 3.4, 7.5 19.4 light years Use high power to see that this is a double star, with contrasting colors. The brighter star of this pair is about the same size and brightness as our Sun.
Almach (Gamma Andromedae) pdf Double star 2.2, 5.0 390 light years Almach, or Gamma Andromedae, is a pretty double star. The brighter of the pair is a yellow star of magnitude 2.2, and the dimmer is a blue star of magnitude 5.0. Use medium to high magnification to clearly separate the two stars.
Messier 52 pdf Open cluster 6.9 4600 light years This is a rich open cluster of some 200 stars covering an area about 1/3 the size of the full Moon. A few of its stars can be seen with binoculars, but the best view is through a telescope at low power.
Messier 45, the Pleiades pdf Open cluster 3.3 430 light years Also known as the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades are probably the best-known star cluster, easily visible to the naked eye. Through binoculars or a telescope, the brightest stars are dazzling, and many dimmer stars in the cluster are visible.
Perseus Double Cluster pdf Open clusters 4.3, 4.4 6800 light years These two open clusters, side by side, are among the most impressive in the entire sky. Each contains several hundred blue-white stars, plus a few red giants that can be identified by their red-orange color. They are visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch.
Messier 15 pdf Globular cluster 6.1 33,000 light years Messier 15 is one of the brightest globular clusters, and it has a very dense core. The cluster is estimated to contain over 100,000 stars. It is a nice sight through telescopes of small or medium aperture, and the view through a large scope is spectacular
Messier 27, the Dumbbell Nebula pdf Planetary nebula 7.5 1360 light years This is a large and bright planetary nebula. Through a small telescope, its dumbbell or hourglass shape is not difficult to discern.
Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy pdf Galaxy 4.2 2.2 milllion light years This is the nearest spiral galaxy to us, and it can be seen with the naked eye on a dark night as a hazy oval. Through a telescope at low power, look for its two smaller companion galaxies, Messier 32 and Messier 110.