things not in the solar system
A list by heav · 33 items
- Messier 13
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★very cool object for the northern hemisphere. visible to the eye in good enough conditions. the other two stars it's near make a fun shape with it.
- Messier 56
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★a real let-down.
- Andromeda Galaxy
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★takes up a shockingly large area of the night sky for something so far away. i like how unfathomable it is (moreso a property of galaxies in general, but still). and it's even coming over here and everything. also its satellite galaxies are neat i guess.
- Messier 32
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★not a lot going for it on its own but it is neat to point out to people that the slightly fuzzy star they see by M31 is actually an entire galaxy.
- Triangulum Galaxy
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★tricky one. apparently some people can see this with their eyes. not me. it kind of reminds me of M31 but it's much dimmer.
- Messier 35
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★neat cluster with some neat surrounding stars. it's also bright enough for peoples' phone cameras to pick up sometimes, and is easy to find from surrounding stars, so it's fun to point out in pictures.
- Orion Nebula
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★i'm almost tempted to say 'overrated' but honestly it's just rated. very cool nebula; the most readily visible of its kind to me. maybe i'd prefer M8 if only i could see it.
- Ring Nebula
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★decent planetary nebula. iconic and gets very high up at mid-northern latitudes.
- Messier 81
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★this and M82 are iconic. it's nice to see two galaxies in roughly the same area.
- Messier 82
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★my thoughts on this are not overly distinct from that of M81. it's a little trickier to see under worse conditions or with binoculars, but my rating is the same.
- Messier 92
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★you can go look at this if you get bored of M13.
- Messier 110
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★it sure is there, i guess. at least it has a bigger angular size than M32.
- NGC 6229
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★the Triangle. (the wikipedia image does not really do its surrounding context justice.)
- NGC 6633
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★i like this one for its position and naked eye visibility. i think there's some injustice in it only having a NGC designation. messier, is this not also a non-comet?
- Great Rift (astronomy)
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★iconic, glorious.
- Brocchi's Cluster
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★coathanger. love this. i can resolve this as a dim haze naked eye and as the coathanger with a bit of magnification on top of that.
- Coma Star Cluster
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★dim but large; one of my favourite naked eye visible star clusters next to the hyades.
- Orion's Belt
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★rated 3 stars not because i think it's mediocre but because it's really funny. this joins the plough/big dipper and pleiades as one of the few asterisms probably known by people.
- Alpha Centauri
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★our closest star (system), and it even has exoplanets. i'm not in the southern hemisphere and can't see this star but it's cool in principle.
- Sirius
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★a little tricky for me to see so far north but the horizon proximity makes it flicker a lot which is very neat. it gets 5 stars for being the brightest.
- Arcturus
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★great name and one of the more distinctly visibly colourful ones.
- Vega
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★the only star i could readily visibly call 'blue', probably. (i'm not very good at seeing blue stars as such.)
- Capella
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★a very nicely positioned bright star. i like the triangle next to it.
- Procyon
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★it gets points for having a cool name and being part of a cool triangle.
- Algol
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★my review for this goes down to 2 stars every 3 days. (not really.)
- Vulpecula
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★huge constellation "L". it has the coathanger which i honestly feel like sagitta should have instead.
- Polaris
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★it's okay as a star. its position is very important of course. i want justice for the southern hemisphere though; they don't have a good pole star.
- Castor (star)
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★a six star system. pollux and castor are of course an iconic duo. despite the presence of 6 stars, sadly i can only rate at most 5 stars.
- Theta Tauri
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★really fun double star to look at with the eye.
- 1 Geminorumheav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★
i only love you for your vague proximity to M35.
- T Coronae Borealis
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★my review will increase when its magnitude does.
- Hercules (constellation)
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★it's a bit confusable with its surroundings but it has some prominent globular clusters in easily findable locations. it's very fun to see clearly when it's high up.
- Delphinus
heav's latest · 2026-11-07★★★★★dolphin🐬. excellent constellation. i think it deserves M15.
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