Charles Messier (1730 - 1817) was a French astronomer who spent much of his life identifying various star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, and other notable occupants of our glorious heavens. Ironically, it wasn't even his aim to create a comprehensive list or catalogue of interesting sights - he actually did it purely as part of his efforts to hunt down comets which was his primary goal - but make a list he did, and such was the importance of it and the many discoveries on it, the list of 'Messier Objects' has remained in regular use to this day by amateurs and professionals alike.
This could be down to the fact that the list contains many of the biggest, brightest, and best-known (and therefore most popular) objects to be found. Indeed, many of us will have grown up seeing or hearing about a lot of them, myself included, without ever knowing what they are or even what they're called. There are 110 objects in Messier's catalogue too, which means simpletons like me often forget about some or get others mixed up, so I figured it might be worth listing them here. The first such post is therefore thus. The pics should all be 1200x900, hope you like them :)
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M1 / Supernova Remnant
"Crab Nebula" |
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| M2 / Globular Cluster |
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| M3 / Globular Cluster |
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| M4 / Globular Cluster |
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| M5 / Globular Cluster |
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M6 / Open Cluster
"Butterfly Cluster" |
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M7 / Open Cluster
"Ptolemy Cluster" |
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M8 / Nebula with Cluster
"Lagoon Nebula" |
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| M9 / Globular Cluster |
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| M10 / Globular Cluster |
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M11 / Open Cluster
"Wild Duck Cluster" |
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| M12 / Globular Cluster |
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M13 / Globular Cluster
"Great Globular Cluster in Hercules" |
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| M14 / Globular Cluster |
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| M15 / Globular Cluster |
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M16 / Nebula
"Eagle Nebula" |
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M17 / Nebula
"Omega Nebula" |
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| M18 / Open Cluster |
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| M19 / Globular Cluster |
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M20 / Nebula
"Triffid Nebula" |
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| M21 / Open Cluster |
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M22 / Globular Cluster
"Sagittarius Cluster" |
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| M23 / Open Cluster |
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M24 / Open Cluster
"Sagittarius Star Cloud" |
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| M25 / Open Cluster |
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| M26 / Open Cluster |
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M27 / Nebula
"Dumbbell Nebula" |
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| M28 / Globular Cluster |
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M29 / Open Cluster
"Cooling Tower" |
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| M30 / Globular Cluster |
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M31 / Spiral Galaxy
"Andromeda Galaxy" |
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| M32 / Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy |
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M33 / Spiral Galaxy
"Triangulum Galaxy" |
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| M34 / Open Cluster |
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| M35 / Open Cluster |
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| M36 / Open Cluster |
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| M37 / Open Cluster |
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| M38 / Open Cluster |
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| M39 / Open Cluster |
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M40 / Double Star
"Winnecke 4" |
Great pics Simon! Did not realise you were into Astronomy. Do you have a telescope? I used to have one and hope to one day be able to afford a good one!
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
DeleteI've been into astronomy since before I was into games I think. I actually started an astronomy blog too but I just didn't have time to keep both going to I stuck to this one. I don't even have much time for this page these days! :(
I don't currently have a telescope, though I used to have a medium level one, but I'm reading about spacey stuff :P