The Observation Challenges Archive

See Galaxies That You Never Thought You Would

Have you been pointing your telescope skywards but always coming back to the Moon and planets because you didn't know how to find anything fainter?

Have you seen one or two brighter nebulae but don't know where to look next?

Do you stand outside in an evening with no idea what's visible overhead?

Well, you can rest assured that we have all been there!

It is a frustration of many a backyard astronomer that the most exciting objects to track down, such as spiral galaxies, emission nebulae, and globular clusters, are also the hardest to find.

But they are absolutely worth the effort!

That's why I created the Virtual Astronomy Club: to help novice backyard astronomers more effectively find their way around the night sky.

Every month, I create and share observation guides to find some of the most rewarding, delicate, and awe-inspiring objects you can see with a telescope. And now for the first time, you can buy fifty observation guides in one simple archive.

Keep reading to discover just how useful each guide is, and to try out some samples...

What's Inside a Typical Observation Challenge?

Each observation challenge follows the same format, making it easy for you to use each one.

They begin with a simple table of the object's most important details, including what it is, its coordinates, and how bright it is.

Next, I share with you an overview of the object.

What's inside this depends on the object itself, but might include its distance, size, age, who discovered it, things to be aware of when observing, etc. I always include a great image of the object too.

After that overview, we get into the main part of the challenge, which is the finder charts.

These take you from an easy to find part of the night sky, such as Orion or the Big Dipper, and guide you step by step towards the object we're looking for.

Each star map zooms in on the one before and, where necessary, is annotated to make it clear what you should be doing on that step. Every star map is clickable for a full-screen version and, in the newer guides, each one can be downloaded as a PDF to print off at home (more on that shortly).

When we get to the stage of seeing the object itself, there are three different telescope views which are tailored to your particular needs.

The type of telescope you have shows you the sky in a different way. Refractors, for example, show a mirrored view of the world, while reflectors show it upside-down. Pick the view relevant to your model.

Oh, and if you prefer black stars on a white background (which is easier to use outside at night and saves on printer ink) you can download and print the inverse monochrome version instead.

Please note: the Individual Telescope Views section is relatively new to the Virtual Astronomy Club and only the latest observation guides contain it.

When you come to the end of the challenge, you get the chance to download any of the images used so far as PDFs, so you can print them at home.

This is a relatively new feature in the VAC, so not all guides have it. However, every guide has full screen images that can be captured and printed.

Now you know what's included in the guides, what guides are available?