Welcome to Galaxy Season

For many astronomers, springtime means one thing - galaxies. Stuart Atkinson reveals this season's deep-sky highlights

- By Stuart Atkinson. Photographs by Socktrek Images, Istock, Getty Images and M-Gucci

When I was at school I was fascinated by space, but also by the weather. I devoured the library's science books, describing how the weather changed with the seasons. Those books depicted the seasons with delightfully sentimental illustrations. Spring was represented with lambs gambolling in fields of wild flowers; summer was a beach scene with children making sandcastles; autumn showed a child in a raincoat and wellies splashing through puddles; winter was a snowman, surrounded by a family dressed in scarves and gloves and a robin in a nearby holly tree. Eventually, I learned that the night sky has seasons too: as the months pass, amateur astronomers look at different celestial objects at different times of the year. In summer, we observe the misty band of the Milky Way and noctilucent clouds (NLCs). In autumn, we gaze again at the star-frothed spiral of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, and frosty winter nights belong to Orion, its nebulae and glittering star clusters.

Spring is 'galaxy season', when telescopes swing towards a selection of constellations, hunting for the faraway galaxies that lie within them. Over the following pages we'll look at why springtime is a boon for galaxy-hunters, and highlight three constellations and a nearby galaxy cluster that contain some of the best galactic targets to point your telescope at over the coming weeks and months.

Why is springtime galaxy season?

Our planet's journey around the Sun provides us with an ever-changing view of the Universe