Eyepiece cheat codes: Observing galaxies in small telescopes

When it comes to faint fuzzies, you either get it or you don't. A lot of people don't understand what the point is to look at these things that all just look like very faint grayish white blobs. Why not just look at images? If I have to answer that question for you, you probably should stick to imaging or stay on the sofa. 

Smaller telescopes, those about 10 inches or less, excel on open star clusters and some of the brighter objects in the sky, including some of the larger galaxies like M31, M81 and M82, and some of the brighter nebulas, like M42, the Orion Nebula, M8, the Lagoon Nebula, and M17, the Swan or Omega Nebula. But most galaxies tend to be faint fuzzies in the eyepiece, like my sketch of NGC 4762 below. 

The joy of searching for faint fuzzies 

A big part of the fun of starhopping is the hunt. Winding your way from a bright star through an interesting star field usually yields new discoveries that you wouldn't get if you just punched in an NGC number and your scope slewed right to the object. 

While I often jump from one object to another object in a different part of the sky, sometimes I like to relax a little bit and just get to know a specific area of the sky. I find little clusters, double stars, interesting asterisms, and other objects that I wouldn't otherwise observe. 

Push the limits

Usually where there's one galaxy, there are others. Many are out of reach of small telescopes, but there's a surprising number that can be seen, especially in a good sky. While there are calculated limits to what you can see in a particular aperture and sky, I recommend you take these only as guidelines. I've often seen objects that were supposedly beyond the limits of my telescope's capability. It's fun to push these limits. In my experience, the galaxies and details listed here can be seen with a 10-inch telescope and often smaller apertures in a reasonably dark, transparent sky with decent seeing and no Moon in the sky. (Image: A gravitationally lensed galaxy cluster imaged in the infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Vicente Estrada-Carpenter-Saint Mary's University.)

When I was much younger and I only had a 4.5 inch reflector, I spent some time looking for really faint objects. I saw some of them and others I could never find. But I learned about my telescope's capabilities and my own. I also began learning the sky, and I'm still learning and relearning it.

I remember seeing all five members of Stephan's Quintet, a tight group of very faint galaxies ranging from 12.6 to 14.0 magnitude near the larger galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus, with my 4.5 inch. Back then my eyes were better, and in a larger scope nowadays I have trouble seeing even a couple of the members. That helps me to understand how my eyesight has changed, and how the sky is getting brighter.

Above: Difficult but not impossible for small telescopes: Stephan's Quintet in Pegasus. (Fort Lewis College Observatory, CC-by-NC-SA 4.0)

Even looking at brighter galaxies, if you spend some time on them, not just taking a casual glance but spending 10 to 30 minutes, or even more, really examining them, you might surprise yourself how much detail you can actually see. 

Things to look for

When you first look at a galaxy, you might think to yourself, well, it is indeed just a faint fuzzy blob. Nine times out of ten, though, if you spend some time really looking at it, you'll start to notice there is more to it than first meets the eye. This is when you become a true observer. 

(Image: Astronomer Vera Rubin in her last year as an astronomy major at Vassar College, 1948. Rubin later found the first evidence to support the theory of dark matter through her study of the rotation of galaxies. Vassar College Archives and Special Collections)

Here are a few things to look for that will help you discern details you never thought possible to detect. 

• What shape do you see? Round, oblong, oval, thin, cigar-shaped, pointed ends, etc.
• What is the directional orientation of an elongated galaxy (for example, northwest to southeast)?
• What is the core of the galaxy like: stellar, slightly brighter, dramatically brighter, diffuse, etc.?
• Is there a central bulge?
• Do the arms taper to a point or are they stubby?
• Which points are likely foreground stars and which might be brighter parts of the galaxy (or even a supernova)? Good seeing and sharp focus can help you sort them out.
• What are the edges like: do they fade out slowly, are they ragged, sharply defined, etc.?
• Do you see any mottling, clumpiness, or variations in brightness across the galaxy?
• Any dark lanes or sudden cutoffs of brightness?
• Is one side of the galaxy different from the other or is it symmetrical?
• Can you detect any hint of spiral structure?
• Any nearby galaxies or other interesting objects in the neighborhood?

Tips and Tricks

• Most galaxies within range of small telescopes cannot be seen at all without using averted vision.
• Only the brightest central part of a galaxy may appear in the telescope compared to images, which aggregate the faint light of the outer arms or halo that is invisible to the eye. Features such as star clouds or supernovae may appear to be well outside the boundaries of the visible galaxy.
• Make a note of which direction is west, which will always be the direction an object drifts without tracking. This helps you orient yourself and describe a galaxy through sketching or taking notes, if you keep an observing log.
• Large, bright galaxies do well with lower power, but don't be afraid to try higher power for additional detail—it dims the galaxy but increases the contrast, similar to using a filter.
• Small, dim galaxies may not even be visible until you increase power, but tracking them can be difficult in high power if you are tracking manually, especially with a sparse star foreground. 
• Get a good look at the star field in low power and make a mental note of certain star patterns that you can use as markers if you get lost or you bump the scope. Pay special attention to those east of your target, which will come into view as your target drifts out of the field of view to the west. Use them like breadcrumbs to find your way back. Also make note where your finderscope is pointed.
• A zoom eyepiece is great for finding just the right power to see a galaxy best.
• Try sketching a few galaxies until you get a feel for how to make note of the visible features and can assemble them to form a complete picture in your mind.
• Some galaxies have a pretty bright listed magnitude, but have low surface brightness, in other words the brightness is spread over a larger area, so they may not be as easy as the magnitude would indicate.

The character of a galaxy 

The "tuning fork" diagram of galaxy morphology devised by Edwin Hubble and refined by Gérard de Vaucouleurs (Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo, CC BY 3.0):

Galaxies are classified by shape and activity. I've never really gotten into all the specifics of this, but in general, there are spiral galaxies, which include barred spirals like the Milky Way, there are lenticular galaxies, there are elliptical galaxies, there are irregular galaxies, and there are galaxies with active nuclei that can take any shape. 

Now do some observing

The following are some representative galaxies that show up well and often show some detail in 4 to 10 inch telescopes. Aperture is king when observing galaxies, so use the largest telescope you have access to. Even in very small apertures, just trying to spot as many of these as possible is an interesting observing project. These are visible at different times of the year. The darker and more transparent the sky, and the better the seeing (steady air), the more you will see. The images are included to give you an idea of the type of galaxy and features you can try to look for, but imaging chips and computer processing tremendously exaggerate all the features, color, brightness, etc.

Link to a Sky Safari Observing List for the galaxies listed below:

Astronomerica-Galaxies for Small Telescopes

This is in the Sky Safari .skylist format. Download to your phone or tablet and import into Sky Safari Pro or Plus. (See The Lumpy Darkness Blog for an explanation of how to do it.)

Spirals 

Spiral galaxies, the most common type of galaxy, can take on many different appearances, based on the angle from which we're viewing the galaxy. Because these are generally flattened discs with central bulges, the viewpoint can really affect their character, as well as how easy or difficult they are to see. 

Interesting edge-ons

I love thin edge-on spiral galaxies, as do many observers. There's something fascinating about seeing that thin slash against the darker background. Small telescopes can be used to see many of them well and appreciate their character. Here are a few.

M104, the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo; look for a stellar core, the sharp edge of the dark lane on the southern edge of bright central area and the much dimmer glow on the other side of the dark lane (8.0 mag)

(NASA/Hubble Team/Hubble Heritage/Keith Noll/Kevin M. Gil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 4565, in Coma Berenices; look for the central bulge and the thin dark lane using high power; can you determine where the tips of the arms end? (10.4 mag)

(Brucewaters, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the lower left.

NGC 891, a large but surprisingly dim and ghostly edge-on in Andromeda; look for the full needle shape and vague clumpiness, which may only come to you after extended observation, south-southwest arm easier; a 12th mag star just on the other side of the core complicates the observation; the dark lane requires larger apertures (10.8 mag but very low surface brightness)

(C.Howk (JHU), B.Savage (U. Wisconsin), N.A.Sharp (NOAO)/WIYN/NOIRLab/NSF, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the upper left.

NGC 5907, a large, thin splinter in Draco; look for subtle detail in the center area in larger scopes; if you have a wide field eyepiece, see if you can fit spindle-shaped galaxy M102, to the west-southwest about 1.4 degrees, in the same field (11.1 mag)

(KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Brad Ehrhorn/Adam Block, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the right.

NGC 4216, nearly edge-on, within the Virgo Cluster (11.0 mag)

(Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona, CC BY-SA 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons) (NGC 4222, 13.9 mag, upper left, and NGC 4206, 12.8 mag, lower right) North is to the upper left.

NGC 3501, a tough one for the larger apertures in Leo not far from NGC 3507; a very faint slash in a sparse field that gives your eye a better chance of picking it up in averted vision now and then (13.6 mag)

(ANAKLO, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 2683, in Lynx, nearly edge-on; look for a flattened nucleus, almost double-lobed, faster dropoff in brightness on the northeast arm (10.6 mag)

(ESA/Hubble & NASA, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the lower right.

NGC 4631, the Whale or Herring in Canes Venatici; try around 110x, look for much smaller and dimmer dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 4627 (The Calf, or Pup), and while you're in the area, find the Hockey Stick, NGC 4656/7, a 9.6 mag disturbed barred spiral (9.8 mag)

(Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona, CC BY-SA 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 4244, in Canes Venatici; enjoy the thinness, you won't make out much else, check out NGC 4214 nearby (see below) (10.2 mag)

(Ole Nielsen, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

Face-on or nearly face-on spirals 

Some brighter face-on spirals offer the challenge of getting hints of the spiral structure and knots of star formation and nebulosity in darker skies with good transparency and seeing. A 10-inch will show the following details, but you may be able to pick them out with smaller apertures, depending on your sky.

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici; look for the smaller galaxy, NGC 5195, as well as hints of spiral structure (8.4 mag)

(Todd Boroson/NOIRLab/
NSF/AURA/, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the left.

M61, a barred spiral in Virgo; look for a stellar nucleus and a semicircular dark lane just east of the nucleus, as well as a bright knot on the north side (9.7 mag)

(KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/
Adam Block, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the left.

M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major; large with low surface brightness; look for a condensed core and non-uniformity to the surrounding glow; you may be able to pick out some of the brighter emission knots such as NGC 5455 out near the south edge of the galaxy, looking starlike in lower power, NGC 5447 and NGC 5450, which are right next to each other about the same distance from the core as NGC 5455, but toward the southwest (7.9 mag)

(NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - KBR Wyle Services, LLC/Scott Wiessinger, University of Maryland College Park/Jeanette Kazmierczak, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 3184, in Ursa Major; look for a brighter but non-stellar core, with hints of structure in the galaxy's outer glow (10.4 mag)

(Sloan Digital Sky Survey, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

M83, in Hydra; best framed in low power; look for a very bright core that dominates the galaxy and hints of shading and structure in the arms; outer area suffers greatly from light pollution, 10.7/11.7 mag double star (8" separation), Herschel 4599, just on the southeast edge of the outer arms of the galaxy (7.6 mag)

(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Greenbelt, MD, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

Oblique-view spirals

M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is a classic obliquely-viewed galaxy, tilted somewhat from edge-on, northwest to southeast; look for the two satellite galaxies, M32 and M110, a dark lane on the west side of the nucleus, and possibly a fainter dark lane outside of that, as well as NGC 206, a knot of nebulosity far out on the southwest arm (3.4 mag)

(Steve Fung, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the right.

M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum, very large; spiral structure not discernible, but look for many clumpy areas, including the HII region NGC 604, which looks like a very faint galaxy way off to the northeast of the core, seemingly outside the galaxy (5.7 mag)

(Alexander Meleg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the left.

NGC 2903, barred spiral in Leo, oddly not a Messier object; look for north-northwest to south-southeast elongation, impression of a bar, nucleus area somewhat broken up, mottling and clumping, including star cloud NGC 2905 just outside a slightly dark lane to the northeast. (9.0 mag)

(Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona, CC BY-SA 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the upper left.

M81, in Ursa Major; look for oval shape, stellar core, and possibly hints of a soft spiral structure including darker lane southwest of the core (6.9 mag). Also check out nearby M82 (see below) while you're in the area.

(KeithSteffens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the lower left about 7:00.

Lenticulars

Lenticular galaxies occupy a spot in between ellipticals and spirals.

NGC 4026, edge-on lenticular in Ursa Major; look for a big bright central bulge that houses a supermassive black hole and well defined pointy ends to the arms, especially the southern arm (10.7 mag)

(Sloan Digital Sky Survey, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 1023, edge-on barred lenticular in Perseus; look for nearly stellar round core (that also houses a supermassive black hole) (10.4 mag)

(NASA, ESA, and G. Sivakoff (University of Alberta); Image processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard/Catholic University of America), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 4762, edge-on lenticular in Virgo, look for a stellar core within an elongated central area (11.1 mag)

(ESA/Hubble & NASA, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons). North is to the upper left.

Irregulars, Peculiars, etc.

NGC 55, in Sculptor; look for a fat slash, trailing off more on the eastern end, giving it a comet-like or minnow-shaped (without the tail) appearance, clumpiness and mottling toward the center, especially on the southern edge (7.9 mag)

(ESO, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 4214, a dwarf barred irregular in Canes Venatici; the bright northwest to southeast bar makes it look a bit like an edge-on with a halo around it (10.2 mag)

(Ole Nielsen, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 4449, an irregular starburst galaxy in Canes Venatici; look for a brighter elongated mass in the center but no real core, splotchy mottling and a bump off the south end, fainter outer rectangular glow as if it were a fat edge-on that someone snipped the ends off (10.0 mag)

(KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/John and Christie Connors/Adam Block, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the upper right.

M82, starburst galaxy in Ursa Major, close to M81; look for a pinched dark intrusion or lane cutting laterally, or diagonally through the center, brighter pinpricks in the central area, and irregular, mottled arms on both sides (8.4 mag)

(N.A.Sharp/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is up.

NGC 5128, in Centaurus, if you are far enough south to see it well, closest radio galaxy, also designated Centaurus A; look for a dramatic thick dark lane separating the glow into two lobes, making it look like a tall, skinny hamburger, much brighter southern lobe (6.8 mag)

(ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen & S. Guisard (ESO), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the upper right.

NGC 4490, Cocoon Galaxy in Canes Venatici, starburst galaxy just finishing an interaction with the smaller NGC 4485 (the pair designated Arp 269); look for a fat, elongated oval with pointy ends, well condensed but mottled core, small round satellite galaxy NGC 4485 to the north (9.8 mag)

(Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona, CC BY-SA 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the upper right.

Ellipticals

In terms of visible detail, ellipticals are the plainest. Other than shape and degree of condensation to the core, there's not much to see. I recommend doing some research before you observe them so you can just appreciate what they are. I've only included two here that have a little more to offer, being in close proximity to another galaxy and a bright star, respectively. Have at it.

M60, in Virgo; look for the smaller and much dimmer spiral galaxy NGC 4647 just off the northwestern edge of it (8.8 mag)

(Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona, CC BY-SA 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the upper left.

NGC 404, "Mirach's Ghost" in Andromeda; challenging observation because it is so close to the 2nd magnitude star Mirach, Beta And, hence the name; look for it about 7 arcminutes to the northwest by putting Mirach just outside the field of view (11.2 mag)

(Ole Nielsen, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons) Mirach is the bright star below center, NGC 404 is the much smaller object up and right from Mirach. North is up.

Active galaxies (Seyferts, Quasars)

NGC 3079, an edge-on Seyfert in Ursa Major, showing a fat cigar shape; look for subtle mottling and asymmetry in larger apertures (11.5 mag)

(KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Jeff Hapeman/Adam Block, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the lower right.

M77, a barred spiral, the prototype Seyfert in Cetus; look for the bright active nucleus and compare it to the nearby 11th magnitude star just to the east-southeast (8.9 mag)

(KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Francois and Shelley Pelletier/Adam Block, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) North is to the lower right.

3C 273, first quasar identified and the brightest, in Virgo; just look for it, you won't see any detail, just a starlike point, but you'll be looking at probably the farthest object you may ever see in your small telescope, at 2.4 billion light years (12.9 mag)

(Giuseppe Donatiello, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.) The quasar is indicated by horizontal tick marks. North is up.

Markarian’s Chain of Galaxies in 3D

Markarian's Chain of Galaxies image by PJ Singh (paramsach). (CC)

Markarian’s Chain is a curved line of galaxies starting in the constellation Virgo and straying into Coma Berenices. Many of them can be seen in backyard telescopes, including the Messier galaxies M84, M86, and M87, as well as the interacting galaxies known as “The Eyes,” NGC 4435 and NGC 4438. The group is a favorite target for amateur astronomers venturing into the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.

The group was named after Benjamin Markarian, an Armenian astrophysicist who discovered that at least seven of the galaxies have a common motion through space. This chain is part of the Virgo Cluster, which is the closest galaxy cluster to our own Local Group, centered about 50 to 70 million light years away. The Virgo Cluster contains at least 2,000 galaxies.

See this Sky & Telescope article for a chart and directions for navigating to Markarian’s Chain.

See Messier-objects.com for more information on the individual galaxies and close up images.

The following stereoscopic pairs, derived from the images above, illustrate the relative distances of the various galaxies in the chain. INSTRUCTIONS on how to see the depth in these images. South is up.

Click on images for larger scale to read labels.

PARALLEL VIEW:

With labels:

CROSS VIEW:

With labels:

Data:

Markarian's Chain

Galaxy      Dist. (MLY)    Mag

NGC4479       60            12.6

NGC4388       57            10.9

NGC4387       56            12.0

NGC4478       55            11.3

NGC4477       55            10.3

NGC4476       55            12.3

NGC4425       55            11.9

M84                55              9.0

NGC4458       54            12.0

M87                53              8.7

NGC4486A     52            12.1

NGC4438       52            10.0

NGC4435       52            10.6

M86                52              8.8

NGC4413       51            12.1

NGC4506       50            12.7

NGC4473       50            10.1

NGC4461       50            10.9

NGC4459       50            10.3

NGC4402       50            11.9

Galaxies viewed from intergalactic space

When we look out into the universe from Earth, from within our Milky Way galaxy, we are looking through a lot of static. This static is all the stars, clusters, nebulae, and dust in our own galaxy. When we look outward through the plane of the galaxy we see more static (the Milky Way in our night sky), somewhat less when we look above or below the plane.

Look at any image of a galaxy and you’ll see lots of stars. But except for some high-powered images of very close galaxies, these are all Milky Way stars just getting in the way. Sure, it makes a pretty picture, but the reality of it is that we are looking at a very distant object, the galaxy, through a screen of very close objects, all of the Milky Way stars and objects.

At outreach events, I try to give people a sense of this by describing it as looking out of a car windshield in the rain at another car way down the road. The raindrops on the windshield are the stars in our own galaxy, and the car is another galaxy.

If we took away all the foreground stars and objects—wiping the windshield, as it were—we would get a better picture of what specific galaxies look like from intergalactic space. When looking in a telescope, foreground stars often distort the view of the faint galaxy and we even get used to foreground star patterns as if they are part of the galaxy. But they aren’t.

This is just another way of looking at our universe from a different perspective. In this case, a perspective we will never have the chance to actually experience. But we can simulate that experience as if we were in an intergalactic spacecraft, traveling through the universe as we pass galaxy after galaxy. There isn’t a whole lot of anything visible between galaxies. We might pass the occasional intergalactic star close enough to see it, but mostly we would be passing through very rarified ionized hydrogen gas with some other elements thrown in—essentially a pristine view through a clean windshield.

Here are some examples of what we might see from the window of our intergalactic spacecraft:

M31, The Andromeda Galaxy

At 2.5 million light years from Earth, M31 is a member of our local group of galaxies. Larger telescopes can make out several dust lanes, many of the galaxy’s globular clusters, as well as larger nebulae. It has two satellite galaxies, M32 (above) and M110 (below), seen in these images with south up.

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of M31 by Hypatia Alexandria (CC). Starless version created with StarNet.

NGC 2403

Farther away at 8 million light years is the spiral galaxy NGC 2403. The galaxy is about 50,000 light years in diameter. It contains a huge HII star-forming region, NGC 2404, almost 1,000 light years in diameter itself, visible as a pink spot on the right side of the center of the galaxy in this image with south up. Notice the distant galaxy in the upper left.

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of NGC 2403 by Carsten Frenzl (CC). Starless version created with StarNet.

NGC 4038 and 4039 (The Antennae)

NGC 4038 and 4039 are colliding and merging galaxies also known as The Antennae or Ring Tail Galaxies (ARP 244). The tidal tails looking like insect antennae are a result of this interaction, and can be seen better without the intervening Milky Way star screen. The galaxies are about 45 million light years away.

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of Antennae galaxies by Nicholas Jones (CC). Starless version created with StarNet and Paint.net.

Supernova in M101

One of the few times we can ever see a star in another galaxy in our backyard telescopes is when it explodes as a supernova, sometimes outshining its entire galaxy. The images below show the recent Supernova 2023ixf in one of the outer arms of the large spiral galaxy M101, 21 million light years away. The supernova is below and left of the center of the galaxy, apparently embedded in the HII region NGC 5461. The detached blue spot to the left of the galaxy is NGC 5471, a massive star-forming HII region in its outer arm, about 200 times the size of the Orion Nebula, M42. That's a distant galaxy, PGC 49919 at about 100 million light years distant, on the right edge of the image. 

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of M101 and SN2023ixf by Jason Allread (CC). Starless version created with StarNet and Paint.net.