The night sky has it's seasons. As the earth travels around the
sun, the portion of sky in the night side of the earth changes.
Each night a star will rise 4 minutes later than the night before,
2 hours later than the month before, and 24 hours later, or rather
the same time as the year before.
While some objects are listed for one season, if you stay out late
enough you can see them in the previous season. For example even
though the constellation Orion is considered a winter constellation,
if you stay up until 2AM you can see it in September. It is listed
a winter since it is overhead at a reasonable hour. In fact toward
the end of March if you stay out all night it is possible to see
all 110 Messier objects. Clubs often hold Messier Marathons in March.
Clicking on the name will bring up an image. Keep in mind that
through a small telescope the images of nebulae will have less detail
and almost no color, and galaxies look like fuzzy
patches. |