The Tulip Nebula (Sharpless 2–101) blooms amid the star-rich fields of Cygnus in this narrowband image. Cataloged by Stewart Sharpless in 1950, this emission nebula is an active star-forming region — and lies just 15' east of Cygnus X-1, the first confirmed stellar black hole. Credit: BTB-Astroteam Brentenriegel/ccdguide.com
The sky is filled with great objects for observers. With today’s equipment and the sophistication of knowledge we have about clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, some 10,000 good-looking objects are within the range of backyard scopes.
Of course, a dark, moonless sky helps a lot with seeing anything other than the Moon. And a site as far from city lights as is reasonably possible helps, too. But astronomy hobbyists have never had a better, more exciting time to go after live photons from distant objects tucked away in the cosmos.
