Where to start
The best Messier objects for beginners are the bright, large ones that show up even from suburbs: the Pleiades (M45), the Orion Nebula (M42), the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Beehive Cluster (M44), the Hercules Cluster (M13) and the Lagoon Nebula (M8). Several are visible to the naked eye under reasonable skies, and all are good in binoculars. Which ones you can see on a given night depends on the season, your latitude and how dark your sky is.
Below is a short, practical list, what to expect from each, and how to go about finding them.
What the Messier catalog is
Charles Messier was an 18th-century French astronomer who hunted comets. To avoid confusing them with fuzzy objects that never move, he compiled a list of those objects. The standard list used today has 110 entries, numbered M1 to M110 (the last few were added by later astronomers), and includes star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Because Messier observed from France with small telescopes, the list favors objects that are bright and visible from mid-northern latitudes, which is exactly why it is such a good starting point today.
You can browse all of them on the deep-sky pages.
Twelve beginner favorites
| Object | Type | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| M45 Pleiades | Open cluster | Naked-eye group of blue-white stars; superb in binoculars |
| M42 Orion Nebula | Nebula | Fuzzy “star” by eye; glowing cloud in binoculars; Trapezium stars in a telescope |
| M31 Andromeda Galaxy | Galaxy | Faint smudge by eye from dark sites; elongated glow in binoculars |
| M44 Beehive Cluster | Open cluster | Misty patch by eye under dark skies; a swarm of stars in binoculars |
| M13 Hercules Cluster | Globular cluster | Fuzzy ball in binoculars; starts to resolve into stars in larger telescopes |
| M8 Lagoon Nebula | Nebula | Glow with an embedded cluster; lovely in binoculars from darker sites |
| M22 | Globular cluster | Large, bright globular; better placed from southern and lower latitudes |
| M7 Ptolemy Cluster | Open cluster | Bright scattering of stars near Scorpius’s tail; low from northern sites |
| M11 Wild Duck Cluster | Open cluster | Rich, compact cluster; a small telescope shows many stars |
| M57 Ring Nebula | Planetary nebula | Tiny gray smoke ring in a small telescope; too small for binoculars |
| M27 Dumbbell Nebula | Planetary nebula | Faint patch in binoculars; “apple core” shape in a telescope |
| M81 and M82 | Galaxies | Pair of galaxies in one low-power field; needs a darker sky |
The Ring Nebula is a rewarding first telescope target because its shape is so distinctive, even though it is small. The pair M81 and M82 is a good step up once the brighter objects feel easy: one an oval glow, the other a thin streak.
Which ones are up when
Deep-sky objects are fixed among the stars, so they come round at the same season every year. For mid-northern observers in the evening:
- Autumn: Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and the Pleiades rising later in the evening.
- Winter: Pleiades (M45), Orion Nebula (M42), and the clusters of Auriga and Gemini, such as M35.
- Spring: Beehive Cluster (M44), M81 and M82, and the galaxies of Leo and Virgo for larger telescopes.
- Summer: Hercules Cluster (M13), Ring Nebula (M57), Dumbbell (M27), Wild Duck (M11), and the rich Milky Way objects of Sagittarius and Scorpius: M8, M22 and M7.
From the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed and the southern objects, such as M7, M8 and M22, ride much higher. Check Tonight for what is above your horizon after dark.
Setting expectations
Most deep-sky objects look very different through an eyepiece than in photos. Long-exposure images gather light for minutes or hours and show rich color; the eye sees soft gray glows, star-like points and subtle shapes. That isn’t a disappointment once you know it: you are seeing light that has traveled thousands or millions of years, with your own eyes.
Sky darkness matters more for deep-sky objects than for anything else. Bright clusters like the Pleiades and the Beehive cope well with suburban skies; faint galaxies need dark ones. Our guide to dark adaptation and light pollution explains why.
Tips for success
- Start with binoculars. Their wide field makes it easy to find clusters and bright nebulae; see what you can see with binoculars.
- Use low power. Most Messier objects are best at low magnification, which keeps them bright and makes them easier to find.
- Use averted vision. Looking slightly to one side of a faint object uses the more light-sensitive part of your eye.
- Avoid the Moon. Plan around the Moon phase calendar; the week around new Moon is best for faint objects.
- Keep a list. Ticking off objects is half the fun, and many observers eventually try to see all 110.