although a sky map can be very useful, and a good telescope or binoculars will enhance some experiences and bring some otherwise invisible objects into view. You can also use astronomy accessories ...

Below the Pleiades is Uranus. At magnitude 5.8, it is an easy binocular object in a dark sky, though you’ll want to look for it in the hour or two after sunset, when it is still relatively high ...

Astronomers measure the apparent brightness of a night sky object by its magnitude. The lower this value is, the brighter an associated object is in the night sky. Under good night sky viewing ...

And there were other surprises when I started comparing overall brightnesses of deep-sky objects. For instance, you might ...