Look Up With Astronomy Plus: Your Summer Stargazing Guide

As the nights deepen in July and August, the heart of the Milky Way climbs high in the southern sky, revealing some of the most spectacular deep-sky objects in the northern hemisphere. This is prime time for nebula hunters.

Beyond these nebular treasures, the summer sky offers an exceptional lineup of planetary and transient events. Throughout July and August, you can look for Saturn as it steadily dominates the night, rising earlier each week and remaining well placed for steady telescopic viewing. Meanwhile, early risers in July will be treated to the vivid orange glow of Mars as it travels through the constellation Taurus, occasionally having beautiful encounters with the moon and the Pleiades.

The true celestial highlight, however, arrives on August 12. As night falls, the annual Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak—and thanks to the timing of the new moon on the 14th, conditions will be near-perfect for spotting the fast, brilliant fireballs. It’s a rare opportunity to cap off a summer of observation with one of the most prolific shooting-star displays of the year.

Tuesday, July 14 – New Moon & the Perseids Awaken

The sky being free of moonlight, tonight is the best night of the month to look for faint stars, the Milky Way, and early “grazers” from the Perseid Meteor Shower. Simply lie back in a reclining lawn chair so you can take in as much of the sky as possible; early Perseids are often very fast and bright, and they can appear anytime.

Even though we are weeks away from the peak, the Perseids are now beginning to sprinkle into our atmosphere. You aren’t just waiting for a single night; you are entering a month-long season of potential discovery. Keep your eyes fixed on the northeastern horizon after midnight. This is the general direction of the constellation Perseus, the “radiant” from which these meteors appear to originate.

The moonless night sky is a gift for deep-sky observation. Without lunar glare, you can search out the faintest wisps of glowing hydrogen gas in summer showpieces, like the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and the Trifid Nebula (M20), both situated within the constellation Sagittarius. To locate them, look for the “Teapot” asterism; M8 is a bright, fuzzy patch visible to the naked eye under dark skies, located just above the Teapot’s spout.

The Lagoon Nebula, M8. (Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA / Public Domain). Source: Wikimedia Commons

M20 lies roughly two degrees to the northwest of M8; look for a smaller, circular glow that, in telescopes with larger apertures, reveals the dark dust lanes responsible for its “trifurcated” appearance.

The Trifid Nebula, M20. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

Look for the “Hourglass” region of M8—a highly ionized area packed with protostellar objects. The Trifid is a complex triple treat: an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and a dark nebula all in one.

Using an UHC (Ultra High Contrast) or OIII (Oxygen III) filter is often the “secret sauce” for observing these summer nebulae. These filters selectively block light pollution while letting through the specific wavelengths that nebulae emit, which makes those faint wisps of gas pop against the dark sky background.

If you’re looking to try your hand at astrophotography, these two celestial objects are an excellent “first-light” experiment. Because they are relatively bright and situated in a dense star field, you can capture great images even with modest equipment. Use a standard DSLR camera or a dedicated CMOS camera on a tracking mount such as the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro Pack 2i that can be installed on a camera tripod. Try stacking short exposures of 30 to 60 seconds; this will help you tease out the delicate contrast between the red hydrogen-alpha emissions and the deep, dark absorption filaments without the need for complex, long-exposure tracking.

Saturday, July 18 – The Wild Duck Cluster (M11)

Using binoculars, scan the sky above the southeast horizon until you spot a bright, fuzzy, golf-ball-shaped patch of light in the constellation Scutum. This dense open cluster earned its nickname because its brightest stars form a distinct V-shape, resembling ducks in flight.

M11 is a showstopper when seen through a telescope, standing up incredibly well to minor moonlight. Use moderate to high magnification to resolve the “flock” against the background glow of the Milky Way.

The Wild Duck Cluster, M11. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

M11 sits right in the thick of the Scutum Star Cloud. Use a wide-field refractor such as the Explore Scientific AR102 Air-Spaced Doublet Refractor, which will leave plenty of space around the cluster to frame the dense star fields and dark dust lanes.

Tuesday, July 21 – The Ptolemaeus Trio

The Moon is just past its First Quarter phase, casting long, dramatic shadows along the terminator. Look near the center of the Moon along that shadow line with binoculars to spot three massive, connected craters sitting in a vertical row. The Celestron SkyMaster Pro ED 15×70 binoculars are an excellent tool for observing the Moon.

Focus your telescope dead center on the terminator to view the “Ptolemaeus Trio”—Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Arzachel—cast in stunning relief. The Celestron NexStar 5SE 5-Inch computerized GoTo SCT telescope is an excellent choice here.

Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Arzachel on the lunar terminator. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

As the lunar terminator creeps just beyond the zero meridian, this magnificent trio of walled plains comes into sharp focus. Ptolemaeus stands out as the most ancient and expansive of the group, characterized by its vast, basalt-drowned interior. Continuing south, you’ll encounter Alphonsus and finally Arzachel; as you traverse this vertical chain, the craters become increasingly younger and more structurally complex. Arzachel, in particular, is a showstopper, boasting dramatically terraced walls and a striking, needle-sharp central peak.

The Moon is a stunning target, but its brightness can sometimes overwhelm the eye, washing out those delicate crater details. If you find the glare uncomfortable, a variable polarizing filter is your best friend—it acts like “sunglasses” for your telescope, letting you dial in the perfect brightness. For those looking to hunt for finer detail, a #15 yellow filter can provide a surprising boost in contrast, helping those rugged, terraced walls of Arzachel and the shadow-filled floors of the Ptolemaic trio really jump off the page.

Thursday, July 23 – The Ring Nebula (M57)

To track down the Ring Nebula (M57), first lock onto the brilliant star Vega. Shift your focus to the Lyra parallelogram; you’ll find M57 poised halfway between the bottom two stars of the parallelogram. M57’s surface brightness is so intense that it effortlessly cuts through the glare of a waxing gibbous Moon, making it a perfect target even when the sky isn’t perfectly dark.

The Ring Nebula, M57. (Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA / Public Domain). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

Crank up the magnification to medium or high power, and you’ll see it: a tiny, ghostly gray doughnut suspended in the star field. If the moonlight feels a bit overwhelming, pop an ultra high contrast (UHC) filter into your eyepiece to banish the skyglow and sharpen your view.

Planetary nebulae are great astrophotography subjects for moonlit nights if you use an ultra high contrast or light-pollution filter. Use a longer focal length telescope like the Celestron NexStar 4SE to capture its structure, taking 1- to 2-minute exposures and stacking them to reveal the vibrant ionized gases. The Celestron NexStar 4SE is a legendary Maksutov-Cassegrain. Its long focal length (1325 mm) makes it perfect for high-magnification planetary and nebula observation, while being sufficiently compact for traveling.

Sunday, July 26 – Mars in the Predawn Sky

If you are willing to brave the early morning hours, today offers a beautiful opportunity to catch Mars in the pre-dawn sky.

As the Red Planet climbs into view, it is important to temper your expectations before stepping up to the eyepiece. Because Mars is such a small world—and still remarkably far away despite being our celestial neighbor—it can initially appear a bit disappointing in a small telescope, looking more like a tiny, quivering salmon disk than a grand world. You will certainly not see the sprawling, high-definition vistas captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

High-resolution image of the Red Planet was captured by the OSIRIS camera system aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

However, patience is your greatest asset here. As you watch patiently, waiting for the fleeting moments when our own atmosphere steadies, the magic will happen… Absolutely nothing beats the visceral, organic thrill of seeing the surface of another planet live with your own eyes. To coax those elusive details out of the glare, a high-contrast instrument like the Sky-Watcher Skymax 102 AZ-GTi Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope is an exceptional choice for planetary work.

You can further enhance this intimate encounter by threading a red or orange planetary filter, or a selective contrast tool like a Baader Neodymium filter, onto your eyepiece. These simple additions aggressively cut through the glare and atmospheric haze, allowing the dark surface mottling and brilliant polar ice caps to finally reveal themselves in the dark.

Friday, July 31 – The Return of the Ringed Planet

Tonight is the night to point your eyes—and your optics—toward Saturn. There is a singular, life-changing experience waiting for you when you see the “Ringed Planet” for the first time. Even through a modest telescope, Saturn doesn’t look like a drawing in a textbook; it looks like a three-dimensional jewel floating in the darkness, with its majestic, complex ring system clearly encircling the golden globe of the planet itself. It is pure, unfiltered cosmic magic.

This breathtaking, detailed view of the ringed planet was captured by the Cassini spacecraft during its extended Equinox Mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If you want the crispest, highest-contrast views of Saturn’s delicate cloud bands and the gap in its rings, a refractor telescope is your best ally. Because refractors don’t have secondary mirrors obstructing the light path, they deliver extremely sharp, high-contrast images that excel at teasing out the fine details on planetary surfaces. They are also incredibly easy to maintain and point—perfect for a starter telescope.

The Explore Scientific AR102 refractor is a fantastic, affordable choice for observing Saturn and the other planets. It provides a beautiful balance of aperture and optical clarity, giving you that “sharp as a tack” view that makes planetary observing so rewarding.

This evening, we have to contend with a waxing gibbous Moon. While the Moon is always a stunning target, its bright, reflected light can sometimes “wash out” the subtler details of Saturn if they are positioned near each other in the sky. To get the best view of the Ringed Planet, try to observe it early in the evening before the Moon climbs too high, or consider using a variable polarizing filter to dim the lunar glare and keep Saturn in sharp contrast.

If you would like to take pictures of Saturn this evening, instead of taking long exposures, attach your planetary camera to your telescope and shoot a 2- to 3-minute high-speed video clip of the planet. You can then use stacking software to extract the sharpest frames and create an incredibly detailed image.

Wednesday, August 12 & Thursday, August 13 – The Perseid Meteor Shower Peak

Mark your calendars—the sky is about to catch fire! The Perseids are returning, and this year we have the ultimate advantage: a New Moon, granting us a pitch-black canvas for one of the most brilliant astronomical displays of the year. We’re talking up to 100 meteors per hour, including those legendary “fireballs” that tear across the atmosphere, bathing the night in sudden, brilliant light. This is a naked-eye masterpiece, so leave your telescope behind, pull up a reclining chair, and prepare to have your breath taken away. Keep your binoculars within arm’s reach, though—you’ll want them to track the ethereal, glowing “smoke trails” that linger in the wake of the brightest meteors. Good binoculars need not be expensive. You can get a pair of binoculars with great optics such as the Celestron Cometron 7×50 binoculars at a reasonable price, and they will provide a lifetime of great observational moments.

Perseid meteors streaking through the night sky. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

Finding the Radiant: Your Guide to Perseus

While the meteors will appear all over the sky, they all seem to explode outward from a single point called the radiant. To find it, look toward the northeastern sky and search for the constellation Perseus. Look for the “W” shape of Cassiopeia, which is very easy to spot. Perseus sits just below it. If you can find the bright star Mirphak (the brightest star in Perseus), you are staring right into the heart of the meteor shower’s source! The higher Perseus climbs, the more meteors you will see, so the best viewing is almost always in the early hours before dawn.

Perseid fireballs can leave behind ionized “smoke” trails that persist for seconds or even minutes. Don’t look away too fast—the best part of the show often happens a few moments after the meteor has already vanished!

August 15: The King and the Elusive Inner World

Set your alarm to wake you up pretty early (or get ready to stay up much later than usual), so you can see the rare and striking planetary encounter that the predawn sky is offering this morning. If you look toward the eastern horizon just before sunrise, you won’t be able to miss the brilliant, piercing light of Jupiter standing as a morning beacon. If you look closely, you will spot a much fainter point of light not too far away from Jupiter: it is the notoriously elusive inner planet, Mercury. Because Mercury never strays far from the Sun’s glare, it is particularly difficult to catch. Having the “King of Planets” acting as a brilliant guidepost makes this one of the easiest and most rewarding astronomical opportunities of the year.

Jupiter and Mercury in conjunction. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0). Source: Wikimedia Commons

Because they are separated by such a tiny margin, you can frame both planets simultaneously in a low-power eyepiece! The visual contrast is absolutely breathtaking. On one side, you have Jupiter—a massive gas giant proudly displaying its equatorial cloud bands and its retinue of Galilean moons. On the other side, you have Mercury, —a tiny, sun-scorched rock—appearing as a brightly lit disk.

You don’t need a massive telescope to capture this predawn embrace; affordable telescopes such as the smartphone-enabled StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ or the PowerSeeker 80AZS from Celestron are good choices for planetary observation.

If you want to capture this image, you don’t need a large telescope either; a camera equipped with a telephoto lens (around 200 mm) mounted on a sturdy tripod is the perfect tool. Wait for the soft, pastel hues of morning twilight to paint the background sky, dial your ISO up moderately, and use a 1- to 2-second exposure. This is just quick enough to capture both planets brightly without the Earth’s rotation trailing them into lines.

The Sun will rise not too long after this dynamic duo. Be careful not to point any optics directly at the Sun, as it might cause severe and possibly permanent damage to your eyes.

Saturday, August 15 – The Evening Star: Venus at Greatest Elongation

Today is a great day for planetary observation, with three planets making a noteworthy appearance. If you look toward the western horizon shortly after sunset, you’ll be greeted by a celestial diamond blazing against the fading dusk. This is Venus, returning as the legendary “Evening Star.” Tonight marks a special milestone: Venus has reached its greatest elongation east. In simple terms, the planet has swung as far away from the Sun’s blinding glare as it possibly can from our vantage point on Earth. This gives us the longest, highest, and absolute best evening viewing window of the entire season. Take your time and soak it in—you have a generous window to enjoy the view before it follows the Sun below the horizon.

Pointing a telescope at Venus tonight will provide a geometric treat. Because of its orbital angle at greatest elongation, Venus will display a perfect, miniature “half-moon” phase! Because the planet sits relatively low in the sky, you’ll be looking through a thick layer of turbulent atmosphere. The secret to a great view? Patience. Keep your eye to the glass and wait for those brief, magical moments of steady air. When the atmosphere suddenly settles, the sharp, blindingly white terminator line—the border dividing the planet’s day and night sides—will snap into beautifully crisp focus.

The Sky-Watcher Skymax 102 AZ-GTi GoTo telescope is a great choice for observing Venus tonight. While refractors are widely considered the gold standard for planetary observation due to their unobstructed optics, Maksutov-Cassegrains are a great alternative that offer a distinct advantage: massive focal length in a highly portable package. Refractors use a straight optical path, meaning to get the high magnification needed to see Jupiter’s bands or Venus’s phases, the physical tube must be extremely long and unwieldy. “Maks” solve this by “folding” the light. Light enters through a thick, curved corrector lens at the front, bounces off a primary mirror at the back, reflects off a secondary “spot” mirror on the front lens, and finally exits out the back to the eyepiece.

Venus is so blindingly bright that it can easily overwhelm the eye, especially when viewed through the thick, turbulent air near the low horizon. A variable polarizing filter is the best all-around tool for observing Venus. It acts exactly like a dimmer switch for the eyepiece. As the sky darkens and Venus seems to get brighter, the observer can dial down the light transmission to the exact percentage needed to cut the glare and make the sharp terminator line pop.

If you want to image our Sister Planet, Venus is incredibly bright—so bright that it can easily overexpose your shots, turning the planet into a shapeless white blob. To capture it perfectly, frame Venus alongside a striking local foreground, such as a distant treeline, a mountain ridge, or an urban skyline. The trick here is speed: keep your exposures very short (around 1/60th to 1/30th of a second). This lightning-fast shutter speed will prevent the planet’s intense brilliance from blowing out your camera sensor, giving you a perfectly balanced twilight masterpiece.

Thursday, August 20 – The Double Cluster in Perseus: Twin Diamonds in the Deep Dark

If you can escape the ambient glow of the Montreal suburbs and find a patch of true country dark, a spectacular deep-sky treat is waiting for you. Look roughly halfway between the constellations of Cassiopeia and Perseus. To the naked eye, you’ll see a faint, mysterious, ghostly smudge suspended in the black. But train a standard pair of 10×50 binoculars on that smudge, and the magic happens: the cloud vanishes, bursting into two distinct, incredibly dense knots of sparkling cosmic jewelry.

The Double Cluster in Perseus. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

This is the Double Cluster (NGC 869 and NGC 884), and it is arguably one of the most magnificent low-power targets in the entire northern hemisphere. Slip a wide-field, low-power eyepiece into your telescope, and you can frame both of these massive open clusters simultaneously. What you’re looking at is a violent, beautiful contrast of stellar evolution: hundreds of young, fiercely hot, blue-white stars blazing like diamonds, beautifully interspersed with a few rare, striking, ruby-red supergiants. It’s a jaw-dropping field of view that will make you want to just sit and stare for an hour.

The Double Cluster is an incredibly rewarding astrophotography target that doesn’t require massive, expensive focal lengths to look spectacular. A modest 300 mm to 500 mm tracking setup is the absolute sweet spot here. Fire off a series of 30- to 60-second exposures, and you will beautifully capture the twin stellar hubs radiating against the deep void.

Saturday, August 22 – The Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

Step outside tonight, look toward the northeast, and prepare to have your mind blown by the sheer scale of the universe. By late August, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) climbs high enough into the evening sky to offer a spectacular view. If you can get to a truly dark site, you won’t even need binoculars. Look for a faint, elongated, hazy smudge glowing quietly against the stars. That humble smudge is the furthest object the human eye can see without optical aid—an entire island universe of a trillion stars, sitting a staggering 2.5 million light-years across the void. The light hitting your retina tonight began its journey before our species even existed!

Point a telescope at Andromeda, and you’ll quickly realize that low magnification is your best friend here. Drop in your widest-field eyepiece. The blazing, intensely bright galactic core will immediately dominate the center of your view, while the ghostly, fainter outer spiral disk stretches out across the edges of the field. Once your eyes adapt, take a moment to scan just outside the main glow, and you will spot two distinct, fuzzy “stars.” These are M32 and M110—Andromeda’s very own dwarf satellite galaxies, locked in a gravitational dance with their massive parent.

The Andromeda Galaxy, M31. (Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA / Public Domain). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

If you intend to image M31, leave the massive focal lengths behind. A fast telephoto lens (around 135 mm to 200 mm) shot wide open is the perfect tool for the job. Stack a series of 1- to 2-minute tracked exposures, and the true structure of the galaxy will roar to life, revealing intricate, dark dust lanes wrapping around the core and the sweeping, faint blue glow of its spiral arms.

Thursday, August 27 to Friday, August 28 – Deep Partial Lunar Eclipse

Late on the night of August 27 and continuing into the early hours of August 28, the Full Sturgeon Moon will glide into Earth’s shadow. For observers in Quebec, this is a spectacular deep partial eclipse with maximum coverage peaking just past midnight, where roughly 93% of the lunar disk will move into the dark umbra.

Watch as the creeping, curved shadow of the Earth slowly envelops familiar lunar features like Tycho and Copernicus. The contrast between the brilliant, un-eclipsed sliver and the deeply shaded portion offers a fascinating study in dynamic range. If you’re looking for a great telescope for watching a lunar eclipse, consider the NexStar 5SE; it is ideal for eclipses because its motorized mount keeps the Moon perfectly centered for hours while the Earth’s shadow slowly crawls across it.

A partial lunar eclipse showing Earth's umbral shadow. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0). Source: Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia.org

If you want to image the eclipse, bracket your exposures heavily because the eclipsed portion is thousands of times dimmer than the sunlit edge. Take shots ranging from 1/500th of a second (for the bright sliver) down to 1 or 2 full seconds (for the dark umbra), combining them later for a true HDR image.

Monday, August 31 – Saturn Approaching Opposition

Wrapping up the month, the “Lord of the Rings” will be rising earlier and glowing prominently in the southeast by late evening. Shining with a steady, golden-yellow light, it is easily distinguished from the twinkling background stars.

Saturn is nearing its September opposition, meaning it is getting larger and brighter. Though the rings are presented at a very narrow angle this year, higher magnifications will show them cutting sharply across the planet’s disk, alongside a few of its brightest moons, like Titan.

Keep Looking Up

If you’re just starting out, remember that observational astronomy is a practice of patience. You might get clouded out during a peak event, or spend thirty minutes hunting for a tough target like Mercury only to come up empty-handed. Don’t let the difficult nights discourage you, and never let yourself believe you’ve “seen it all.” 

The night sky is a dynamic, ever-changing canvas. Whether you are tracking the shifting phases of Venus, waiting for that split second of steady air to reveal a hidden planetary detail, or simply lying back to watch the Perseids streak through the dark, no two nights under the stars are exactly the same. Even a lifetime of looking upward isn’t enough to witness everything the universe has to offer. 

So, keep your optics handy, stay curious, and as always—clear skies!