Deep sky objects (DSO) are those beyond our solar system - stars, galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. For a list of the constellations to find DSO objects, see the 88 Constellations of the Night Sky.
What makes a "best" DSO? Being visually stunning and bright (easy to find). Being easy to find means having a bright magnitude and bright surface brightness. Surface brightness (SB) is tied to how extended (large) the object appears in the sky. For point-like objects like stars, magnitude is sufficient to determine how bright an object appears. For extended objects like nebulae and galaxies, the larger it appears, the dimmer it appears because the light is spread out across its size in the sky. The lower the value for magnitude and SB, the brighter it appears.
30 BEST galaxies | 100 galaxies
35 BEST nebulae | 100 nebulae
35 BEST clusters | 225 clusters | Globular clusters | Open clusters
MW structure | Satellite galaxies
10 largest GMC
130 named Exo
30 notable SNR
50 notable NS
30 closest BH
15 brightest
100 brightest C-types
25 brightest
10 brightest
100 brightest doubles & triples
40 brightest QSO
viewing favorites
110 gal, neb, clu
109 gal, neb, clu
400 gal, neb, clu
7,840 gal, neb, clu
5,386 gal, neb, clu
5,250 galaxy clusters
313 northern nebulae
349 dark nebulae
1760 dark nebulae
338 peculiar northern galaxies
500 peculiar southern galaxies
100 compact galaxy groups
65,000 galaxies
2,500 galaxies
12,000 galaxies
2,000 VC galaxies
9,000 stars < mag 6.5
3,800 stars < 82 ly
Two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
- Albert Einstein
