Explore the Night Sky

Hubble is famous for its detailed images of distant wonders, but with the benefit of a dark, clear sky, anyone with a telescope, binoculars, or sometimes even the unaided eye can see some of the same objects Hubble has observed. These catalogs of backyard-friendly cosmic targets give information about each object and help you locate it in the night sky. Break out your telescope or binoculars and compare your observations with those of Hubble.

Quick Facts

The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57, is tilted toward Earth so that we see the ring face-on.

Ring Nebula

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also called Messier 51, is 31 million light-years from Earth.

Hubble_the_whirlpool_galaxy_and_companion_galaxy

Messier 16, the Eagle Nebula, provided Hubble with one of its most iconic images.

Hubble image of "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle nebula, 1995

Caldwell 104 is just one of about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy.

A spherical mass of stars fills the scene. Bright-white stars are concentrated at image center. They taper off as you move toward the image's edge. Yellow and blue-white stars dot the region beyond the core.

Hubble's image of Caldwell 6, better known as the Cat’s Eye Nebula, reveals intricate shells of gas and dust.

c6-1

Celebrating 35 Years of Discovery

Hubble's Night Sky Observing Challenge

Celebrate 35 years of Hubble observations with our year-long stargazing adventure!

Each month in 2025, the Hubble team will release a new set of objects for you to explore. Compare your view to Hubble’s, then submit your observations to the Astronomical League to earn recognition for your achievement.

Join the celebration
Dark blue starry night sky. People looking through a telescope and at the sky silhouetted against the starry backdrop.
Gather your family and friends and explore the night sky with Hubble!
NASA
To explore the Skymap, scroll, double click, or pinch/swipe to zoom. Roll over an icon to see the object, click to zero in, and click again for a detailed view. Drag the map to navigate.
Background Image: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Acknowledgement: A. Moitinho
View full screen Skymap

Hubble's Messier Catalog

The objects in Charles Messier’s catalog are nice targets for backyard astronomers with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope and a relatively dark sky.

The Messier catalog, begun by astronomer Charles Messier in the 18th Century and revised over the years, includes some of the most fascinating astronomical objects that can be observed from Earth’s Northern Hemisphere.

Explore the Messier Catalog
A white band of stars that cuts across a black background, from the lower left to the upper right, is the galaxy M82. Reddish brown gas and dust overlays the galaxy concentrated in the center of the image and fanning out above and below the white band of the galaxy. Black background is dotted with stars.
M82, or the Cigar galaxy, shines brightly at infrared wavelengths and is remarkable for its star formation activity.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI), and P. Puxley (National Science Foundation)

Hubble’s Messier Catalog

112 Images
An oval of colorful tendrils of gas and dust stretching from lower-left to upper right. Ova's outer ring is rusty-red tendrils, followed by a yellow/lime-green ring of tendrils. Oval's center is bright turquoise with white tendrils bisecting it. All set on a black background.
The core of the Crab Nebula - M1 showing ripples in the gas and dust.
moving black and white image of supernova like ripples in pond
A Hubble image of a ball of thousands of stars
Hubble view of M3 - a ball of thousands of stars.
Hubble view of M4, a colorful ball of thousands of stars
white dwarfs in M4
Hubble view of M5, a collection of thousands of stars of different colors.
A black background is filled with small, reddish-orange stars. Larger blue-white stars are scattered across the image, with a slightly higher concentration at upper left.
An open cluster of stars, with many small stars in the background and several larger white and yellow in the foreground.
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Hubble's Caldwell Catalog

The Caldwell Catalog goes beyond the work of Charles Messier, offering backyard astronomers more cosmic wonders to explore.

In the 1980s, an Englishman named Sir Patrick Moore produced an additional list to highlight more cosmic wonders visible to amateur astronomers. Unlike the Messier catalog, which only features objects that were visible from Charles Messier’s viewing location in Europe, Moore’s Caldwell catalog includes celestial bodies that are found in both the northern and southern skies.

Explore the Caldwell Catalog
Caldwell 11
The Bubble Nebula (Caldwell 11, NGC 7635) is the result of an extremely bright, massive, and short-lived star that shed most of its outer hydrogen and is now fusing helium into heavier elements. The star is about 4 million years old, and in 10 million to 20 million years, it will likely detonate as a supernova.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Hubble’s Caldwell Catalog

144 Images
Stars with four diffraction spikes dot the scene against a black backdrop.
Three images of Caldwell 1. Upper-left is a wide-field image that shows the locations of the other two Hubble images. Bottom-left and bottom-right are Hubble images of a scattering of stars against a black backdrop. Stars in left image are bluish. Stars in right image are reddish.
Red cloud of dust with a bright white star in the center of it. Lots of reddish and orangish stars in the background.
Bright blue star with diffraction spikes in front of a dusty background
Large grouping of bright white, blue and red stars. Lightly colored blue dust surrounds the stars.
Large cloud of dark purple dust and gas with a few orange stars peppered throughout.
Bright central region with many bright, white stars creating a glowing section of dust and gas. Around that center there are darker clouds of dark orange with stars.
On the left side of the image is a spiral galaxy, on the right the inset shows a zoom in with dark red stars and dust and gas.
Large clouds of white dust and gas surrounding a bright white star in the center.
Bright red clouds of dust and gas surround a bright white star in the center of the image.
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Observing the Night Sky

What's Up

Your monthly video guide to the night sky from NASA

Each month, NASA's skywatching video series shares highlights to help you prepare for your stargazing adventures and feel more connected to the real places NASA explores.

Learn More
A stylized logo graphic showing silhouettes of an adult pointing toward the sky, while a child holding a telescope looks on.
NASA's Night Sky Network
NASA

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