15 AUTUMN STARGAZING TARGETS

Go on a night-sky treasure hunt as the brighter evenings give way to the cooler months

- Stuart Atkinson

After the long, light, star-starved nights of summer, when many astronomers and skywatchers go into hibernation, autumn is finally here, and the sky is once again dark enough to see lots of amazing and beautiful things in the sky after the Sun has set. Here is a selection of some of the many star patterns, glittering star clusters and misty, faraway galaxies that can be seen in the sky at this time of year with the naked eye or binoculars. Wrap up warm and go and find them!

1 MESSIER 31: THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY

Look to the upper left of the Great Square of Pegasus on a dark, Moon-free autumn night and you'll see a misty smudge of light. This is actually Messier 31, a galaxy of around a trillion stars, making it twice as large as our Milky Way. 2.5 million light years away, it's the most distant object visible to the naked eye and a lovely sight in binoculars and telescopes.

2 MESSIER 33: THE TRIANGULUM GALAXY

Around a hand's width below Messier 31 is another galaxy, but Messier 33 is too faint to be seen with the naked eye. Binoculars will show it as a small, round, hazy spot. Only half the size of our Milky Way, it's a spiral galaxy we see face on. It's the third-largest galaxy in the Local Group of galaxies.

3 MESSIER 15: GLOBULAR CLUSTER IN PEGASUS

Messier 15 is a huge, spherical cluster of around 360,000 stars. The naked eye can make it out as a hazy spot, but binoculars give a clearer view. 35,700 light years away, Messier 15 is around 13.2 billion years old, making it one of the oldest known star clusters.

4 THE DOUBLE CLUSTER

Look just beneath the W of Cassiopeia and you'll see a large, hazy area. This is a pair of star clusters side by side known as the Double Cluster. Through binoculars these young clusters, only 3 to 5 million years old, look like two small piles of salt.

5 SATURN