Looking up at the night sky is awe-inspiring, but add a pair of binoculars, and suddenly, the heavens come alive in spectacular detail. Star clusters sparkle, distant galaxies reveal themselves and nebulas glow. There are even a couple of eclipses coming up that will demand a close-up, like the total lunar eclipse on March 13-14.
Choose a pair of the best stargazing binoculars — with specs like 8×42, 7×50 or 10×50, or thereabouts — and another layer of the night sky will be unlocked. Here’s what to look at in a pair of binoculars from February to April.
If you want to get even closer to the night sky, the best telescopes will give you that extra bit of power.
9 best things to see with binoculars between February to April 2025
The moon and total lunar eclipse
The lunar surface itself is an excellent target for binoculars, with dark areas and ancient lava fields called maria easily visible. You can look at the moon at any time — most conveniently soon after sunset between the new moon and the full moon — but don’t miss the total lunar eclipse on March 13-14, 2025, if you’re in North or South America. During that event, the lunar surface will turn a reddish-pink for 65 minutes (hence the name ‘blood moon’).
The Pleiades (M45)
Pronounced ‘Plee-er-Deez’, this sparkling open cluster of stars totals six or seven visible to the naked eye (hence the nickname ‘The Seven Sisters’) and about 100 stars in a pair of the best binoculars. A bright object in the constellation Taurus, the Pleiades will be closely visited by the moon on March 5, April 1 and April 29, 2025.
Orion’s Sword
The closest star-forming region to the solar system, the Orion Nebula (M42) is easy to find with the naked eye but looks its best through any pair of binoculars. Just find the fuzzy but bright patch known as Orion’s Sword below the three stars in Orion’s Belt, and you’re there. It’s best seen from January to April.
The ’S’ in Orion’s Belt
All stars look like points of light in a pair of binoculars, so they don’t generally make for great targets. One exception is Orion’s Belt, which is an instantly recognizable line of three equally spaced stars — Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Winding between the latter two stars is a lovely S-shape of stars. It’s a staple of the binocular night sky from January to April.
Hyades Cluster
The V-shape of stars in the Hyades, in the constellation Taurus, is a classic binocular site that in close-up reveals hundreds of stars. At just 151 light-years distant, the Hyades is the closest open cluster of stars to the solar system. Its main bright star may appear to be the red giant Aldebaran, the ‘eye of the bull’, but it’s unrelated to the Hyades and lies just 65 light-years away. It’s best seen from January to April.
The sun and solar eclipses
If you can find some solar filters for your binoculars — or buy some special solar binoculars — then 2025 is the perfect year to get eyes on the sun. When it’s close to solar maximum, its once-every-11-years peak in activity, sunspots are typically visible every day. As a bonus, there is a partial solar eclipse on March 29, 2025, which will be visible at sunrise from eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. as well as Europe and northwest Africa.
Beehive Cluster (M44)
Perhaps the most beautiful star cluster to see through a pair of binoculars is the Beehive Cluster in the constellation Cancer. Best seen from February to April between the constellations Leo and Gemini (the latter of which has Mars in attendance), M44 displays hundreds of stars in binoculars.
Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
The farthest object it’s possible to see in the night sky with the naked eye, Andromeda nevertheless only truly impresses in a pair of binoculars. At ‘just’ 2.5 million light-years distant, this close galaxy to our Milky Way is visible halfway between the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia and the star Alpheratz in the ‘Great Square’ of Pegasus, in the western sky just after dark during spring. It looks like a fuzzy patch of light, so use the averted vision technique to see it: look slightly to the side of M31, and your peripheral vision — which is more sensitive to brightness — will better appreciate what a spectacular object this is.
The ‘Horse and Rider’
Binoculars can reveal intriguing double stars. Those with keen eyesight can look at the star Mizar in the constellation Ursa Major — better known as the Big Dipper or Plough asterism — and see two stars. However, this is far easier to do using a pair of binoculars. Mizar has a dimmer companion called Alcor, which is easy to split with a pair of binoculars. Known as the ‘horse and rider’, the two stars — about 82 light-years distant — don’t orbit each other. They’re visible to those in the northern hemisphere for most of the year, apart from fall.
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