By clicking here you should be able to download a pdf file I have created from the online version of my Guide to Essential Dark Sky Objects. The images have been drawn from a variety of Internet sources -- but primarily from astrobin.com. I focus on the wonderful astrophotography of amateurs -- and increasingly on what can be seen with inexpensive imaging equipment like the Dwarf2 and the SeeStar S50. I have consciously avoided using images from the huge cutting-edge telescopes like the Hubble, the JWST, the VLT, etc. This file shows what can be done with small telescopes used by talented amateurs.
The data is also drawn from many sources. The Hipparchos and Gaia space telescopes are now giving us more accurate distances to stars in the Milky Way, but even so many stellar distances and masses have considerable uncertainty.
Thus, this guide is just a tool for observing the sky at night. It is not encyclopedic or authoritative. It is designed to be used with a basic monthly star chart like the ones available online from Orion or Skymaps.com.
