In this list we present some of the best observing targets in the Milky Way. For many observers, however, the Milky Way itself is difficult or impossible to see because of light pollution. Even when an object can be viewed through binoculars or a telescope, it may therefore not be obvious that it lies within our home galaxy.
From Earth, we see the Milky Way from inside its disk, so the familiar band of stars across the night sky represents our view through some of the galaxy’s most densely populated regions. Along that band are vast star fields, dark nebulae, glowing star-forming regions, and numerous star clusters.
The Milky Way contains an enormous number of possible observing targets, which makes choosing the “Best Milky Way Targets for Stargazers” a difficult task. The objects below include some particularly bright, impressive, or scientifically interesting examples found within the galaxy’s disk or surrounding halo.
NGC 869 and NGC 884 (The Double Cluster)
There are many examples of objects that appear close together in the night sky simply because they happen to lie along the same line of sight. The Double Cluster is different: NGC 869 and NGC 884 are genuinely associated young open clusters and are both members of the Perseus OB1 association.
Located roughly 7,000 to 8,000 light-years away between the constellations of Perseus and Cassiopeia, the two clusters can be seen without optical aid from a sufficiently dark location as a hazy patch of light.
Binoculars transform the view, showing two neighboring concentrations of stars spanning more than half a degree of sky. A small telescope begins to resolve dozens of individual stars, while larger apertures reveal rich fields containing hot blue-white stars together with several conspicuous red supergiants.
NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri)
Although Omega Centauri is best seen from the Southern Hemisphere, its status as the Milky Way’s most massive globular cluster ensures its place on this list. Located about 16,000 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, it contains around 10 million stars and measures roughly 150 light-years across.
Omega Centauri is one of the few globular clusters easily visible to the naked eye. From a dark site it appears as a hazy patch, while binoculars reveal a large, bright glow. Through a telescope, increasing aperture begins to resolve huge numbers of individual stars around its densely populated center.
One of Omega Centauri’s most unusual characteristics is that its stars do not all share the same age and chemical composition. Instead, the cluster contains multiple stellar populations, suggesting a more complicated history than that of a typical globular cluster. One leading explanation is that Omega Centauri may be the surviving nuclear region of a dwarf galaxy that was disrupted and absorbed by the Milky Way.
The possibility of an intermediate-mass black hole in its center has also been investigated extensively. Evidence for the exact nature and mass of any central dark object has evolved as observations have improved, so it is safer to regard the cluster’s central black-hole population as an active area of astronomical research rather than a settled question.
Messier 17 (Omega Nebula)
Also known as the Swan Nebula and Horseshoe Nebula, M17 lies about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius, in the direction of some of the richest star fields in the Milky Way.
The Omega Nebula is a vast emission nebula and one of the galaxy’s prominent regions of active star formation. Massive young stars embedded within the region produce intense ultraviolet radiation that ionizes the surrounding gas and causes it to glow.
M17 also contains the young open cluster NGC 6618. Its massive stars are sculpting the surrounding clouds through powerful radiation and stellar winds, while dense pockets of gas and dust continue to provide material for further star formation.
With an apparent magnitude of about +6, M17 lies close to the naked-eye limit under very dark skies but is much easier to find with binoculars. A small telescope reveals its bright elongated central region, while larger apertures show increasingly complex extensions and dark lanes.
NGC 4755 (Jewel Box)
The Jewel Box is best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere because it lies in the constellation Crux, close to the Southern Cross. It is a young open cluster located about one degree southeast of the bright star Beta Crucis and has a combined apparent magnitude of about +4.2.
NGC 4755 contains more than 100 stars and is particularly striking because of the contrasting colors of its bright blue-white and red stars. Binoculars show the cluster as a compact concentration of stars, while a small telescope begins to reveal the colorful stellar arrangement that inspired its popular name.
This spectacular star cluster was first recorded by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille while observing from the Cape of Good Hope in 1751–1752. John Herschel later gave it the name “Jewel Box” after being struck by the contrasting colors of its stars.
NGC 6397
NGC 6397 in the constellation Ara is one of the closest globular clusters to Earth, at a distance of about 7,200 light-years. It contains hundreds of thousands of stars and is also a core-collapsed globular cluster, meaning that stars have become particularly densely concentrated toward its center.
The cluster is extremely old. Studies of ancient globular clusters such as NGC 6397 help astronomers investigate the early history of the Milky Way because their oldest stars formed relatively soon after the galaxy itself began taking shape.
NGC 6397 has also played an important role in research into the faintest, lowest-mass stars. Such observations help astronomers investigate the lower mass limit at which an object can sustain hydrogen fusion and therefore qualify as a true star rather than a brown dwarf.
NGC 6357 (Lobster Nebula)
NGC 6357, also known as the Lobster Nebula, is a large star-forming region in the constellation Scorpius. It contains several young star clusters, including Pismis 24, whose massive stars illuminate and sculpt the surrounding gas.
One of its most famous members is Pismis 24-1. Early estimates suggested that this object might have a mass of 200 to 300 times that of the Sun, which would have made it an exceptionally massive individual star. Higher-resolution observations with the Hubble Space Telescope subsequently showed that Pismis 24-1 consists of multiple massive stars rather than one extraordinarily massive object.
Hubble resolved Pismis 24-1 into two visible components, while spectroscopic observations indicate that one of those components is itself a close binary. The system therefore contains at least three stars, each still exceptionally massive but far below the original estimate for a single star.