As the Pleiades rise, the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead is said to be at its thinnest. (Image credit: Photo by Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The spooky season is officially here! To celebrate, we've put together a list of five Halloween-themed skywatching targets that you can enjoy with nothing but the naked eye or binoculars and, of course, clear skies.

Over millennia, the night sky has helped shape human beliefs. In return, we have imprinted our myths, stories and perceptions upon it, seeing monsters and mythology in the twinkling lights of the stars and assigning sinister aspects to innocent cosmic objects.

Many of these ghostly impressions and meanings have survived to the present day. Here are a few of our favorites.

The Pleiades open star cluster

Don't be fooled by their beauty; the blue-white stars of the Pleiades are dripping in spooky lore.…