Solar System Targets

Because the objects in the solar system have their own orbits, they are not visible at different times of the year in the same way that deep-sky objects are. However, this page still provides background information on the common solar system targets you might view through the telescope.

Object	Type	Discovered	Brightness	Apparent Size	Size (Rel to Earth)	Suggested Telescope	Observing Notes	Notes	Links for More Information
Moon	moon	Antiquity	-12.6 - -2.5	30'	0.27 Earth	any	Best observed near first/third quarter, since side illumination shows crater/highlands; use filter to limit light	Consists of dark "seas" (maria) and bright "highlands" (terrae); albedo is ~10% -- similar to coal	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Mercury	planet	Antiquity	-2.6 - 5.7	5-13''	0.38 Earth	>= 8"	Only visible during dawn/dusk due to interior orbit; shows phases	No atmosphere; ice thought to exist in permanently shrouded craters at poles; anomolies in orbit confirmed general relativity;	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Venus	planet	Antiquity	-5 - -3.8	10-63''	0.95 Earth	>= 6"	Brightest planet in the sky; only visible near sunset/sunrise due to interior orbit; shows phases	Hottest planet in solar system 870F; greenhouse runaway atmosphere	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Mars	planet	Antiquity	-2.9 - 1.8	3-25''	0.53 Earth	>= 8"	Distinctive red color and relative brightness make it easy to find	Home to tallest mountain in solar system, Olympus Mons;	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Jupiter	planet	Antiquity	-2.9 - -1.6	30-50''	11.2 Earth	>= 8"	Can see Galilean Moons and red spot with telescope, use Jupiter Tracker	Most massive planet; has 63 moons and tenuous rings;	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Saturn	planet	Antiquity	-0.5 - 1.5	14-21''	9.4 Earth	>= 8"	Can see rings easily in telescope	rings made of billions of particles of ice and rock, ranging in size from a grain of sugar to the size of a house	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Uranus	planet	William Herschel 1781	5.3 - 6.0	3-4''	4.0 Earth	>= 10"	Beautiful aqua color; hard to find unless using tracking/finding with 10"	pronounced "YOOR-a-nus", not "your anus"; rotation axis is perpendicular to its orbital axis; first planet discovered in modern times	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Neptune	planet	Urbain Le Verrier 1846	7.8 - 8.0	2-2.5''	3.9 Earth	>= 10"	Dark blue/purple; hard to find unless using tracking/finding with 10"	Using Newtonian Gravitation to understand anomolies in Uranus' orbit, Neptune was found where predicted to be	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Pluto	dwarf planet	Clyde Tombaugh 1930	13.6 -	0.06-0.1''	0.18 Earth	Good luck!	Extremely faint, probably need >16" telescope with good tracking	Highly elliptical orbit and out of the plane of the solar system; originally classified as a planet, reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006 due to similarity with many many other kuiper belt objects	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews
Ceres	dwarf planet	Guiseppi Piazzi 1801	6.6 -	0.3-0.8''	0.08 Earth	>= 10"	Probably need >10" telescope with good tracking	Largest of the asteroid belt objects; classified as a planet in 1801 but reclassified as an asteroid in the 1850s due to discovery of several other asteroids	Space.com NinePlanets Wikipedia Solarviews