Fifteen Steps to Forever: Use these well-known observing targets as incremental stepping stones into the cosmic past.

The article offers suggestions for using 15 cosmic steps for astronomical observation. It states that closest star visible to observers at mid-northern latitudes is Barnard's Star, a red dwarf in the constellation Ophiuchus, the Snake Holder, and mentions that Vega, in Lyra the Lyre, an A-class main-sequence star lying almost 25 light-years away. It notes that M8, the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius, the Archer is one of only two star-forming regions visible to the naked eye.