STARGAZER
SUMMER DEEP-SKY DELIGHTS
The lighter, warmer months are the perfect time for tracking down some of the most fascinating objects
Written by Stuart Atkinson
Choose a good place to stargaze
Somewhere with no lights, no passing traffic and no large obstructions on the horizon – trees, buildings or hills – is the best place to stargaze from.
Many astronomers and sky-watchers go into a reverse hibernation during the summer months because they think there’s nothing to see… they’re wrong. Although the summer sky never gets anywhere near as dark as the winter sky, it gets just dark enough for many beautiful objects to be seen – clouds of gas called nebulae, sparkling star clusters and beautiful spiral galaxies. .
Nebulae are fascinating places where new stars are being born or where old stars are illuminating gas around them. Star clusters are groups of stars all flying through space together. Spiral galaxies are vast collections of billions of stars in winding arms. Although you might see the brightest of these so-called ‘deepsky objects’ through your telescope from your garden, they’ll look so much more beautiful if you go into the countryside to somewhere properly dark, unspoiled by light pollution. There you’ll see the Milky Way in all its glory, airbrushed across the sky, and will be able to find lots of deep-sky objects too.