Easy deep-sky observing
When I first started observing the sky, I was astonished that you could simply walk outside, set up a small telescope, and look far away into the heavens. Astronomy is one of the few sciences in which amateurs — pure lovers of the sky — can share the same laboratory, the universe itself, with the professionals. Over the past couple of decades, with the availability of larger and larger backyard scopes and an information revolution, advanced deep-sky observers have relished going after increasingly exotic targets: galaxy clusters, quasars, carbon stars, and what have you. But we shouldn’t forget that most sky observers have modest telescopes and many are getting their first views of distant objects beyond the solar system. Astro enthusiast David Fuller’s story on page 40 highlights some of the brightest…