SPARKLING STARS A sky safari with binoculars

There’s one piece of advice that should be familiar to anyone who is trying to get started in astronomy - buy a pair of binoculars and use them to learn your way around the night sky. But once you have a pair, where do you start? Here, we take you on a trip across the night sky, looking at 10 of the best stellar groups visible in September.

We’ve chosen several large targets that are arguably better in binoculars than anything else - it would be daft to omit these - as well as targets that help you develop useful observing skills, and a couple that push these skills to their limits. There are even several circumpolar objects which will be visible in UK skies throughout the year, so you can continue to observe them if you wish. We recommend 10x50 binoculars for this, but all of the objects are visible with a smaller pair, so dust off whatever you have and let’s get observing!

We get things going with a circumpolar sight that’s easy to find. The extends 4° southeast from Mirphak (Alpha (α) Persei). When you track it down, you should