The Horsehead Nebula is one of a handful of select deep-sky objects that down the decades have acquired legendary, almost mystic status within the deep-sky community.
NGC 2403 (Caldwell 7) is a large, bright galaxy that serves up good views for small telescopes but it’s position in the rather obscure northern constellation of Camelopardalis has stunted its popularity.
The outline of the Hyades open star cluster in Taurus is one of the best naked-eye landmarks in the winter sky. It’s brightest stars form into a ‘V’- or wedge-shaped-asterism, or star pattern that’s an easy spot around 25 degrees to the upper-right (north-west) of Orion’s famous ‘Belt’.
It’s perhaps a surprising but definitely disappointing fact that no person alive has seen the titanic explosion of a star as a supernova in our own Milky Way Galaxy.
A pretty rare observational event visible across the whole of the UK, a planet occulted by the Moon, occurs on the early-evening of 5 December when the Moon moves over Uranus.