When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Credit: NASA/ESASpring is almost here, which means it’s galaxy season for amateur astronomers! Grab your telescope and join us as we highlight some of the most beautiful galactic targets visible in the spring night sky over the coming months.Why is spring a good time to see galaxies?Our view of the night sky is constantly changing as Earth makes its yearly journey around the sun. In spring, the northern hemisphere points away from the dusty plane of the Milky Way, revealing constellations teeming with majestic galaxies.AdvertisementAdvertisement”Constellations like Leo and Virgo are where our nearest galaxy clusters lie and in springtime, these constellations are best visible at midnight, the darkest point of the day,” Finn Burridge, Science Communicator at Royal Observatory Greenwich told Space.com in an email.”Galaxies are hard to spot,” Burridge continued. “They are very faint and distant and need perfectly dark conditions to see them best, so avoid a full or large Moon. You’ll also need a telescope or large binoculars to spot them. However, they are incredibly rewarding to see and image.”Many of the galaxies visible in spring lie in the direction of the Virgo Cluster and Coma Cluster, enormous collections of galaxies that together host thousands of members that rival our own Milky Way in scale and grandeur.The vast majority of these galaxies are too dim to spot with the naked eye, though a telescope with an aperture of at least 6 inches can reveal some of their ancient light, especially when viewed from a dark-sky location. Be sure to check out our picks of the best astronomy smartphone apps to help you find your way around the night sky.AdvertisementAdvertisementMany modern-day amateur telescopes come equipped with GoTo mounts, which automatically aim the optics at thousands of observable targets that are easily selected from pre-programmed astronomy catalogues. We’ve also finder charts for each target(s) along with tips on how to find them in the night sky.Each target is also accompanied by a beautiful image captured by talented astrophotographers who spent hours collecting and processing their ancient light to reveal spectacular detail in their sweeping spiral arms and active nuclei. What you will see through the eyepiece of your telescope will be radically different, but still undeniably incredible.Galaxies are, by their very nature, challenging targets to observe. Their light has traveled for far longer than there have been humans on Earth and as a result they are very faint. Oftentimes, they are best viewed using the averted-eye method, wherein you place the galaxy on the periphery of your vision, w …
