The Messier Objects Catalogue

MESSIER OBJECTS

CATALOGUE

December 2011

CONTRIBUTORS

BATCH OF 2009

Shaleen ([email protected]), Saurabh ([email protected])

BATCH OF 2010

Kalika, Sowmya, Deepthi, Nalin, Niranjan, Mohit, Karan

BATCH OF 2011

Amey, Chitrarth, Ashfaque, Sowmya, Gaurav, Ramya

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This compilation would have not been possible without the existence of the World

Wide Web. We are grateful to www.universetoday.com for their online collection on

Messier Objects.

And lastly and surely not the least, ‘Thank you God, for this beautiful universe

which includes these random 110 objects’.

http://www.universetoday.com/

INTRODUCTION

Charles Messier was born on June 26, 1730 in Lorraine, France. In 1744 at age fourteen, he saw the “Great Comet” appear in the skies above Lorraine and four years later in 1748, witnessed an annular solar eclipse. Perhaps it was these inspiring events that led Charles to a lifelong love of astronomy. In 1751, his excellence in handwriting brought him a job as assistant to Navy Astronomer, Joseph Delisle at the Paris Observatory. It was there that Messier learned to keep accurate records of astronomical observations and the first known entry made by Messier was the transit of Mercury across the Sun in 1753.

At the time, discovering a comet made an astronomer not only noteworthy in the eyes of their peers, but quite famous as well. In 1757 the big search was on for the Comet Halley – predicted to return during that year. While Charles wasn’t the first to locate it, he quickly came to realize during his “sweeps” that there were many objects which could be mistaken as cometary – yet remained in fixed positions. Thus began the Messier Catalogue, and its first entry in 1758 was M1, the “Crab Nebula”. While Messier was compiling his catalogue of non-cometary objects, he also discovered a genuine comet in 1763 and two more in 1764.

Charles’ catalogue was published in several editions as it was amended and the first 45 entries were printed in 1771. In its classic form, it contained 103 entries. In later years, after careful study of his notes, Dr. Helen Sawyer Hogg and Dr. Owen Gingerich would suggest that another four to six objects should be added to bring the total to 110 – the Messier Catalogue we know today. Not all of the objects were his original discovery – a fact which he made clear in his notes – and it is rather ironic that what Messier thought of to be “nuisance nebula” that might confuse the comet hunter would later become his major claim to fame. With his small

telescopes aimed towards the night sky, he would give future generations of astronomers one of the finest sets of targets for mid-northern latitudes to enjoy.

It isn’t long before the novice astronomer becomes aware of the “Messier List” – and rightly so. This wonderful collection of deep sky gems are easily accessible to a small telescope and most can even be perceived in binoculars. A large majority of the objects can be conquered easily with modest instruments under less than perfect sky conditions, a few can be seen with the unaided eye and some are quite challenging. As a whole, they

make for great nights of study, piquing both interest and intellect, as well as observing skills. They range from vague misty patches to grand swaths of stellar landscape!

The Messier Objects (as presented here), contain proper sky coordinates for setting circles or entry into Go-To systems. You’ll also find included descriptions, scientific information and history. Do not be disappointed if your observations don’t match the grand photos that accompany each article. It is unfortunate that photography can’t always depict what can be seen at the eyepiece,

but do rejoice that you are catching a smudge that’s such a huge distance away! Do not give up if you don’t find a particular object easily… Conquering the Messier list takes time and patience. There are also many fine organizations that offer awards for observing the Messier List and instructions for participation can be easily found on the web. Most of all enjoy your observations!

Source: http://www.universetoday.com/ Messier objects poster: SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space)

http://www.universetoday.com/50254/introduction-to-the-messier-objects/#ixzz20rY1dlNX

http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/telescope.gif

TYPES OF MESSIER OBJECTS

There are three main types of astronomical objects included in Messier's list – star clusters, galaxies and nebulae.

CLUSTERS

There are two types: open and globular.

An open cluster is simply a grouping of stars in the sky. These stars often form from an associated cloud of gas and dust and can be quite young in age.

A globular cluster is a gravitationally-bound concentration of approximately 10,000 to one million stars, populating the halo or bulge of the Milky Way. Globular clusters are believed to be very old and formed from an earlier generation of stars.

An open cluster has fewer stars, usually several hundred to several thousand stars in a group, and are mostly located within the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. A globular cluster is a roughly spherically-shaped, densely-packed cluster containing hundreds of thousands to millions of stars. They are found outside the galactic plane, in a halo around the galaxy. Stars in globular clusters have been found to have low abundance of any elements heavier than helium. This leads us to believe they are very old stars, having formed before the interstellar medium was enriched by heavier elements produced in stars and scattered in supernovae.

GALAXIES

A galaxy is a huge mass of stars and dust with upwards of several million stars. They are further classified by appearance, resulting in spiral galaxies which have a spiral structure; elliptical galaxies which are of ellipsoidal shape; and irregular galaxies which have irregular shapes.

NEBULAE

A nebula is an interstellar cloud of gas and dust. There are three types in Messier's catalogue: diffuse nebulae, which are clouds of interstellar gas and dust; planetary nebula, which are essentially shells of gas expelled by a star as it shrinks from a red giant to white dwarf; and supernova remnant – which are the result of violent death of large stars. Usually a pulsar, neutron star, or black hole is left behind as a remnant.

MONTH-WISE LIST OF MESSIERS

January

M33, M34, M52, M74, M76, M77, M103

February

M1, M35, M36, M37, M38, M42, M43, M45, M78, M79

March

M41, M44, M46, M47, M48, M50, M67, M81, M82, M93

April

M40, M65, M66, M95, M96, M97, M105, M106, M108, M109

May

M49, M51, M61, M63, M64, M85, M94, M101, M102, M104

June

M58, M59, M60, M84, M86, M87, M88, M89, M90, M91, M98, M99, M100

July

M3, M4, M5, M53, M68, M80, M83

August

M6, M7, M8, M9, M10, M12, M19, M20, M21, M23, M62, M107

September

M13, M14, M22, M28, M54, M69, M70, M92

October

M11, M16, M17, M18, M24, M25, M26, M55, M75

November

M27, M30, M56, M57, M71, M72, M73

December

M2, M15, M29, M31, M32, M39, M110

M1—the Crab Nebula

The Crab Nebula (the first object that Messier catalogued in his search for “comet like objects” - Messier 1) is a supernova remnant (SNR) observable in the constellation of Taurus. The bright supernova SN1054 that origi-nated the remnant was recorded by Chinese, Japanese and Arab astronomers in 1054 A.D.

In 1054, a star about 10 times the mass of our Sun reached the end of its life and exploded as a supernova. Su-pernovas occur when stars no longer have enough fuel to keep from collapsing onto themselves and they ex-plode in a violent burst of energy. It was the first such remnant found in our galaxy.

In visible light, the Crab Nebula consists of a oval-shaped mass of filaments that are the remnants of the pro-genitor star's atmosphere. At the center of the nebula lies the Crab Pulsar, a rotating neutron star (dense ball of neutrons 12 miles in diameter that completes about 30 rev/sec), which emits pulses of radiation from gamma rays to radio waves. However, how the pulsar's power gets into the Crab Nebula has long puzzled as-tronomers.

Historical records from 1054 described the supernova, that created the Crab Nebula, as a celestial event that was so bright that it was seen for 23 days in broad daylight & for nearly 2 years in the night sky.

Object Type (Other designations)

Supernova Remnant (NGC 1952, Sharpless 244)

Distance & Size 6,500 light-years; The nebula’s width is 8 light-years. Its length is 11 light-years.

RA & DEC; Constellation;

Visual Magnitude

5hrs 34.5mins RA & +22degrees 1min DEC Taurus Constellation

8.4

How do I find it? Draw a line from Betelgeuse to Elnath. About two-thirds of the way from Betelgeuse to Elnath is where you'll find the Crab Nebula.

M2

Messier 2 is a globular cluster in the constellation of Aquarius. It is bright enough to be faintly visible under dark conditions to the naked eye and just as easily visible through a pair of binoculars.

This cluster owes it’s visibility to the fact that it is one of the largest globular cluster. It’s size and density make it visible despite it’s huge distance.

The brightest of it’s stars are red and yellow giants. It’s density however makes it difficult to resolve in to sepa-rate stars, specially in the core of the cluster. The cluster is estimated to be almost 13 billion years old.

When Jean-Dominique Maraldi first saw this object, he confused it for the comet he was looking for, because most of the globular clusters had surrounding stars, but in their modest equipment, nearby stars were no-where to be seen. Even Herschel, who resolved most other globular clusters, could only describe it as a lump of fine sand.


Globular Cluster (NGC 7089, GC 4678, Bode 70)

Distance & Size 37,500 light-years; The cluster spreads over a very large area, being almost 175 light years wide.


Visual Magnitude

21hrs 33.5mins RA & -0degrees 49min DEC Aquarius Constellation

6.5

How do I find it? About 5 degrees north of the second brightest star in Aquarius, lies M2

M3

Messier 3 is a globular cluster located on the boundary of the constellation Canes Venatici. It is a bright and large cluster at a large distance from us.

The gravitational field of this cluster is to be envious of as it commands stars within 760 light years of itself. It has a large number of Blue Straggler stars, main sequence stars that look very young, prompting scientists to the conclusion that the stars lost their outer layers as they passed through the centre of the cluster. An as-tounding 170 variable stars populate this cluster.

M3 is historically significant, not only because it confused Messier and made it to his list of “Objects that are not comets”, but it is this very deep sky object that prompted Messier to come up with this list.


Globular Cluster (NGC 5272)

Distance & Size 34,000 light-years; Another large globular cluster, this one is about 180 light years across.


Visual Magnitude

13hrs 42mins RA & +28degrees 23min DEC Canes Venatici Constellation

6.2

How do I find it? Slightly towards Arcturus of the mid point of the line joining the stars Arcturus and Cor Caroli

M4

Messier 4 is an open cluster in the constellation of Scorpio. It was the first object that Messier was able to re-solve into stars.

Being very diffuse, not much optical aid is needed to resolve it into individual stars. Telescopes as small as 3 inches in diameter can be used to see the cluster resolve. With better telescopes, a bar can be seen dividing the cluster( visible in the image, going vertically down). This cluster contains stars that are 14 billion years old, just a billion years younger than the universe itself. It also contains the first millisecond pulsar, with a period of 3 milliseconds.

As a regular occurrence, the cluster passes through the Milky Way in every 120 million years. The cluster passes so close to the center of our galaxy’s nucleus, that it suffers a shock on every passage. This causes many stars to be lost to our galaxy, suggesting that this cluster may have been much larger in the past.


Open Cluster (NGC 6121)

Distance & Size 7,200 light-years; The core is only 8 light years across. The entire cluster spans about 70 light years


Visual Magnitude

16hrs 24mins RA & -26degrees 32min DEC Scorpio Constellation

5.6

How do I find it? Just point around Antares, the brightest star in Scorpio. M4 is 1.3 degrees to the west of Antares.

M5

Messier 5 is a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens. It is pretty bright and under dark conditions, seems like a faint star.

It contains many objects of interest, including numerous variable stars, two millisecond pulsars and even a dwarf nova. It’s gravitational influence extends to over a 200 light year radius. It is easily visible as a cluster through binoculars or small telescopes. Larger ones can easily resolve the cluster into stars. It contains a plane-tary system in which a planet was found to orbit two stars simultaneously.

It’s center is so dense that even Herschel, who was able to count 200 stars at the periphery of this cluster said that the core of the cluster was too compressed to distinguish the components.



Distance & Size 24,500 light-years; The cluster stretches across 160 light years


Visual Magnitude

15hrs 18.5mins RA & +2degrees 5min DEC Serpens Constellation

5.6

How do I find it? Since there are no nearby major stars, finding it is a chore. It can be found about 1/3rd the distance from Arcturus on the line between Arcturus and Antares

M6—The Butterfly Cluster

The Butterfly Cluster, Messier 6, is so called because of the butterfly shape that can be seen when viewed through a small telescope or binoculars. Larger telescopes, however, betray the name, as the cluster easily re-solves into a loose bunch of stars. Slight haziness, however, will make spotting the pattern easier.

It was often believed, that M6 and M7 were together reported by Ptolemy as a M7 or Ptoelmy’s cluster. Angularly speaking, it is the closest Messier object to the centre of our Milky Way.

It’s discovery has had just as many conflicts, as it’s measurements. It’s magnitude measurements seem to vary from 4.2 to 5.5. Age estimates go from 51 million years to 100 million years. It’s distance is approximated at values from 1300 light years to 2000 light years, which gives us a size estimate of 12.5 to 18.5 light years.


Open Cluster (NGC 6405, Lac III.12)

Distance & Size 1,600 light-years; It is a rather small cluster, only 16 light years across


Visual Magnitude

17hrs 40mins RA & -32degrees 13min DEC Scorpius Constellation

4.2

How do I find it? A third of the distance from Kaus Australis in Sagittarius on the line joining Kaus Australis and Antares in Scorpius

M7-Ptolemy’s cluster

Messier 7 is one of the closest Messier objects. As the name suggests, it was first seen by Ptolemy around 130 AD. Owing to it’s proximity, it is quite bright, and can often be easily seen with the naked eye. It is an open cluster in Scorpius.

This cluster was created almost 200 million years ago, and all the stars are roughly the same age. Despite this fact, they have all evolved in very different manners.

Ptolemy, who is credited for discovering this cluster described it as a nebulous cluster following the sting of Scorpius.


Open Cluster (NGC 6475, Lac II.14, Scorpion’s tail)

Distance & Size 800 light-years; Somewhere between 18 to 25 light years of space is occupied by this cluster


Visual Magnitude

17hrs 54mins RA & -34degrees 49min DEC Scorpius Constellation

4.1

How do I find it? Join Shaula, the Scorpion’s stinger, to Kaus Media, a star in Sagittarius. Look at the mid point of this line.

M8-The Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula is an intriguing object situated in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is the 8th object on Messier’s list.

The nebula houses a smaller, more active star nursery called the Hourglass nebula. It is lit up by a star called Herschel 36. The star Sagittarii 9 also radiates the entire Lagoon nebula, contributing to it’s glow.

The star cluster than can be seen near the bottom of the nebula is NGC 6530. It is slightly in front of the neb-ula, yet so close so as to be shrouded by the dust, causing reddening of the star light. It is home to many Bok Globules, clouds of dust that are collapsing upon themselves, which will lead to protostars.


Emission Nebula (NGC 6523, Sharpless 25, Gum 72)

Distance & Size 5,200 light-years; The nebula is 140 light years long and 60 light years wide


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 3mins RA & -24degrees 23min DEC Sagittarius Constellation

6.0

How do I find it? At about a quarter of the distance from Sagittarius and Scorpion when you join Sag-ittarius’s teapot’s lid to Antares, you should be able to spot the Lagoon.

M9

Messier 9 is a globular cluster, so close to our Milky Way’s galactic centre, that it has actually caused a slight flattening in M9.

Dark dust from the nearby nebula Barnard 64, reduces it’s apparent brightness as we view it from the Earth. This makes it difficult to see with binoculars, and even in smaller telescopes, only appears as a faint blurry patch. Even Herschel was led to believe that this cluster, was in fact a nebula with stars embedded in it.



Distance & Size 26,700 light-years; It occupies 90 light years diametrically


Visual Magnitude

17hrs 19mins RA & -18degrees 31min DEC Ophiuchus Constellation

7.7

How do I find it? Join Sabik to the outer star of Ophiuchus. About halfway along that line is M8

M10

M10 is a globular cluster visible in the constellation of Ophiuchus. Its central region, according to Mallas, ap-pears pear-shaped, with a grainy texture; the outer regions show brighter knots at medium magnification.

It is one the brightest deep sky objects present in the constellation of Ophiuchus. A surprisingly low number of variable stars have been recorded in this cluster(4).

It passes through the Milky Way every 140 million years. It is easy to spot as a bright hazy patch, even with the most modest instruments.


Supernova Remnant (NGC 6254)

Distance & Size 14,400 light-years; The nebula’s width is 8 light-years. Its length is 11 light-years.


Visual Magnitude

16hrs 57.5mins RA & -4degrees 6min DEC Ophiuchus Constellation

6.6

How do I find it? Halfway between Marfik and Sabik is where you will find this cluster

M11-Wild Duck cluster

M11, or the Wild Duck cluster as it is commonly called, is a fairly easy to spot open cluster in the constellation of Scutum. It’s name comes from the prominent V shape that can be clearly seen, even through small tele-scopes.

It is one of the most densely populated open clusters in our knowledge, consisting of about 2900 stars, in-cluding binaries, variables and pulsating stars.



Distance & Size 6,000 light-years; It is a very dense and small cluster, being only 23 light years across


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 51mins RA & -6degrees 16min DEC Scutum Constellation

6.3

How do I find it? Near the end of the T shape of Aquila. Extend the line joining the bottom two stars by the same distance and you should have M11

M12

Messier 12 is a Globular Cluster visible in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It has quite a few variable stars within it’s system.

The cluster is very sparsely populated, once thought to be a tightly bound Open cluster, rather than a globular cluster. It has a surprisingly low number of low mass stars. It is thought that most of them were stripped from the cluster when it passed through the Milky Way during it’s orbit around the Galactic Centre.

It is slightly dimmer and smaller than it’s identical neighbor M10. Even though it is not very dense, quite a few X ray sources, from closely interacting stars have been identified here.



Distance & Size 16,000 light-years; The photo here is of an 3 arc minute square in the sky. The entire cluster, in reality,

is 74.4 light years wide.


Visual Magnitude

16hrs 47mins RA & -1degrees 57min DEC Ophiuchus Constellation

6.7

How do I find it? A point at a quarter of the distance from Marfik on the Line between Sabik and Mar-fik marks the location of this cluster.

M13—Hercules Cluster

This 24 million year old beauty is one of the most impressive globular clusters for the northern hemisphere. Containing over a million stars packed into a 145 light year sphere, the center of this glorious object is 500X

more concentrated than its outer perimeters. And out of all of those stars there stands one stranger… Barnard Number 29. This star is very young com-

pared to the members of the cluster—it was collected field star, grabbed by the cluster on one of M13’s jour-neys around our galaxy.


Class V Globular Cluster M13, NGC 6205, the “Great Hercules Cluster”

Distance & Size 25,100 light years 20 arc min


Visual Magnitude

16hrs 41.7sec RA & +36degrees 28min DEC Hercules

5.8

How do I find it? Approximately at 1/3rd the distance between Vega (Lyra) & Arcturus (Bootes) towards Vega.

M14

Cruising along through space some 30,000 light years away is a ball of stars that spans about 100 light years across. Although it began its life some 13.5 billion years ago, it is far from being done changing.

In 1938, a nova appeared in M14, which wasn’t registered until 1964.





Visual Magnitude

17hrs 37.6min RA & -3degrees 15mins DEC Ophiuchus

7.6

How do I find it? Because M14 is rather small and on the faint side for small optics, it isn’t easy to find in binoculars or a finder scope. The best way to start is to identify Delta Ophiuchi and begin about a handspan east. If you have difficulty, try about one third the distance between Beta and Eta Ophiuchi.

M15

Messier 15 is probably the most dense globular cluster in our entire Milky Way galaxy – having already under-gone a process of contraction. This ball of stars measures about 210 light years across, yet more than half of the stars you see are packed into the central area in a space just slightly more than ten light years in size.

M15 was the first globular cluster in which a planetary nebula, Pease 1 or K 648 (“K” for “Kuster”), could be identified – and can be see with larger aperture amateur telescopes.

Messier 15 also contains 112 variable stars, and 9 known pulsars – neutron stars which are the leftovers of an-cient supernovae – and one of these is a double neutron star system, M15 C.





Visual Magnitude

21hrs 30mins RA & +12degrees 10min DEC Pegasus

6.2

How do I find it? Roughly halfway across Pegasus square’s south western and brightest Alpha & the constellation Delphinus is a slightly reddish star Epsilon Peg (Enif) and also M15.

M16

The star cluster associated with M16 (NGC 6611) was first discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745-6, but it was Charles Messier who was the very first to see nebulosity associated with it.

Born around 5.5 million years ago, this glittering swarm marks an area about 15 light years wide that has cap-tured our imaginations like no other area in the sky… the “Pillars of Creation”.

Inside the pillars are evaporating gaseous globules called (EGGs) emerging from the womb and about to be-come stars. The interstellar gas is dense enough to collapse under its own weight, forming young stars that continue to grow as they accumulate more and more mass from their surroundings. As their place of birth contracts gravitationally the interior gas reaches its end and the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away.


Open Cluster & Emission Nebula NGC 6611, Eagle Nebula—IC 4703

Distance & Size 7000 light years 7.0 arc min


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 18.8min RA & -13degrees 47mins DEC Serpens

6.4

How do I find it? Roughly halfway between Antares (Scorpius) and Altair (Aquila) and a little to-wards southwest.

M17—Lobster Nebula

Because M17 is both large and quite bright, its distinctive “2″ shape isn’t hard to make out in optics of any size.

Like many nebulae, this giant complex of cosmic clouds of interstellar matter is a star forming region in the Sagittarius or Sagittarius-Carina arm of our Milky Way galaxy.


Open Star Cluster with Emission Nebula NGC 6618, Omega, Swan, Horseshoe or Lobster



Visual Magnitude

18hrs 20.8mins RA & -16degrees 11mins DEC Sagittarius

6.0

How do I find it? Roughly halfway between Antares (Scorpius) and Altair (Aquila) and a little to-wards southwest. (further than M16)

M18

Located about 4,900 light years and spread over a 17 light year expanse of space, this group of around 20 stars is only about 32 million years old. Its hottest members are spectral type B3, yet you will also see many yellow and orange stars as well.

M18 may very well be a binary cluster, paired with the open cluster – NGC 6618 – which is harbored inside M17.


Open Star Cluster NGC 6613

Distance & Size 4,900 light years 9.0 arc min


Visual Magnitude


7.5

How do I find it? Roughly halfway between Antares (Scorpius) and Altair (Aquila) and a little to-wards southwest. (close to M17)

M19

Speeding away from us at a rate of 146 kilometers per second, this gravitationally bound ball of stars measur-ing 140 light years in diameter, is one of the Messier globular clusters that has the distinction of being closest to the center of the Milky Way. At a little more than 5000 light-years from the intense gravitation of our own galactic core, it has played havoc on M19′ s round shape, causing it to be one of the most oblate of all globulars, with twice as many stars along the major axis as along the minor.

And, although it is 28,000 light-years from Earth, it’s actually on the opposite side of the galactic core. It has some stellar branch properties that are difficult to pinpoint – even its age is indeterminate.





Visual Magnitude

17hrs 2.6mins RA & -26degrees 16mins DEC Ophiuchus

6.8

How do I find it? Between Vega and Rigil Kent, closer to Rigil Kent just below Antares.

M20—Trifid Nebula

Almost everyone who is familiar with space images has seen this beautiful and color emission and reflection nebula.

Photographically, the red emission nebula contained within Messier 20 has a bright blue star cluster in it cen-tral portion. It glows red because the ultraviolet light of the stars ionizes the hydrogen gas, which then recom-bines and emits the characteristic red hydrogen-alpha light captured on film.

The Trifid – or “three lobed” nebula has a distinctive set of dark dust lanes which divide it.


Globular Cluster NGC 6514, Trifid Nebula



Visual Magnitude


9.0

How do I find it? Roughly halfway between Vega and Rigil Kent, a little towards south east.

M21

At a distance of 4,250 light years from Earth, this group of 57 various magnitude stars all started life together about 4.6 million years ago as part of the Sagittarius OB1 stellar association.

What makes this fairly loose collection of stars rather prized is its youth as a cluster and variation of age in its stellar members. Main sequence stars are easy enough to distinguish in a group, but low mass stars are a differ-ent story when it comes to separating them from older cluster members.


Planetary nebula (NGC 6531)



Visual Magnitude


6.5

How do I find it? Roughly halfway between Rigil Kent and Altair and a little closer to Altair.

M22—Sagittarius Cluster

Drifting along in space some 10,400 light years from our solar system, M22 shares common ground with a lot of other clusters of its type. It’s true that it is a gravitationally bound sphere of stars and that most of its stars are all about the same age. It’s also true that it’s part of our galactic halo and may once have been part of a galaxy that our Milky Way cannibalized… But it’s there that the similarities end. There’s a lot more to this ball of stars that’s receding away from us at 149 kilometers per second than meets the eye.

Messier 22 contains at least 70,000 individual stars – and out of those? Only 32 are variable stars. It spans an incredible 200 light years in diameter and ranks 4th in brightness against all the known globular clusters in our galaxy.

Recent Hubble Space Telescope investigations of Messier 22 have led to the discovery of an astonishing dis-covery. It would appear that there’s planet-sized objects floating around in there about 80 times the mass of Earth! How did the HST find them? By the way gravity bends the light of the background stars – a phenomena known as microlensing.


Globular Cluster NGC 6656



Visual Magnitude


5.1

How do I find it? Roughly halfway between Rigil Kent and Altair and a little closer to Altair.

M23

At an estimated 220 to 300 million years old, Messier 23 is on the “senior citizen” list of galactic open clus-ters in our galaxy – its hottest stars reaching spectral type B9 and even contains blue straggler candidates.

It’s actually one of those objects that’s better in binoculars and low power telescopes.


Open Star Cluster NGC 6494



Visual Magnitude


6.9

How do I find it? Roughly one third the distance between Altair and Antares, closer to Antares and a little towards the south.

M24

Messier 24 is one of the most curious of the catalog entries because it really isn’t a star cluster – simply an oddity.

What we are looking at is thousands of stars that belong to the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way galaxy seen through a chance hole in the gas and dust… a clear “window” in space. And speaking of space… M24 fills a space of significant volume to a depth of 10,000 to 16,000 light-years. This is the most dense concentration of individual stars visible using binoculars, with around 1,000 stars visible within a single field of view!


Star Cloud—contains several open clusters and a planetary nebula IC 4715, Sagittarius Star Cloud, Delle Caustiche



Visual Magnitude


4.6

How do I find it? Roughly halfway between Altair and Antares and a little towards the south.

M25

Messier 25 was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and included in Charles Messier's list in 1764. A Delta Cephei type variable star (a type of star with variable magnitude which shows pulsations) designated

U Sagittarii is a member of this cluster. The occurrence of the Delta Cephei star is consistent with the fact that it is not a very young cluster, its age may be about 90 million years.


Open Cluster (IC 4725)

Distance & Size 2000 light years The spatial dimension of this cluster is about 19 light years across. Its angular

diameter is 32’


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 31.6mins RA & −19 degrees 15mins DEC Sagittarius

4.6

How do I find it? Draw a line from Arcturus to Formalhaut. It is located approximately at the mid-point slightly shifted towards Formalhaut.

Picture of the object– coloured..

- good overall view of the object...

M26

Messier 26 is not so impressive as its apparent neighbour, M11. Its discoverer Charles Messier, who catalogued it on June 20, 1764, even noted that it was "not distinguished

in a 3.5 foot (FL) telescope and needed a better instrument." Nevertheless, this is a tight, beautiful open cluster with brightest stars of magnitude 11.9. An interesting feature of M26 is a region of low star density near the nucleus, most likely caused by an ob-

scuring cloud of interstellar matter between us and the cluster.



Distance & Size 5,000 light years M26 spans about 22 light years across


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 45.2mins RA & −9degrees 24mins DEC Scutum

8.0

How do I find it? It is located at 1/3rd the distance (slightly shifted towards the side of Fomalhaut) as you go from Altair to Antares.

M27-the Dumbbell Nebula

Messier 27 was the first planetary nebula to be discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. It is easily visible through binoculars, and a popular observing target in amateur telescopes. Like many nearby planetary nebulae, the Dumbbell contains knots. Its central region is marked by a pattern of

dark and bright cusped knots and their associated dark tails. The knots vary in appearance from symmetric ob-jects with tails to rather irregular tail-less objects.

The central star, a white dwarf, is estimated to have a size larger than any other known white dwarf.


Planetary Nebula (NGC 6853)

Distance & Size 1,360 light years The nebula extends to 15 arc minutes in size at it's faintest extensions, half the

size of the full moon.


Visual Magnitude

19hrs 59.6mins RA & +22degrees 43minutes DEC Vulpecula

7.4

How do I find it? Draw a line from Altair to Deneb. It is located approximately at the mid-point slightly shifted towards Altair.

M28

Messier 28 was discovered 1764 by Charles Messier, M28 is a bright condensed globular cluster in the rich constellation Sagittarius. M28 was the second globular clusters where a millisecond pulsar was discovered in 1987. It is slightly elliptical shaped.



Distance & Size 18,300 light years M28 has a linear diameter of 60 light years.


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 24.5mins RA -24degrees 52mins DEC Sagittarius

6.8

How do I find it? Draw a line from Altair to Rigil Kent. It is located approximately at the mid-point slightly shifted towards Altair.

M29

Messier 29 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764, and can be seen from Earth by using binoculars. It is situated in a highly crowded area of the Milky Way. The four brightest stars form a quadrilateral, and another three, a triangle north of them. A few fainter stars

are around them, but the cluster appears quite isolated, especially in smaller telescopes.



Distance & Size 4,000 light years M29 has a linear diameter of about 11 light years.


Visual Magnitude

20hrs 23.9mins RA +38degrees 31.4mins DEC Cygnus

7.1

How do I find it? It is situated at 1/4th the distance as you go from Deneb to Altair slightly shifted towards Deneb.

M30

Messier 30 is the only Messier in Capricornus, It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. The core of M30 exhibits an extremely dense stellar population, and has undergone a core collapse. Conse-

quently, M30's core is very small in extension. Half of this cluster's mass is concentrated in a spherical vol-ume of a radius equal to the distance of Sirius from us.



Distance & Size 28,000 light years M30 is about 90 light years across, and appears to us under an angular diameter

of about 12.0 arc minutes.


Visual Magnitude

21hrs 40mins 22secs RA -23degrees 10mins DEC Capricornus

7.2

How do I find it? It is located approximately midway between Altair and Achernar slightly shifted towards Altair.

M31-the Andromeda Galaxy

Messier 31 is the famous Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large neighbour galaxy, forming the Local Group of galaxies together with its companions (including M32 and M110, two bright dwarf elliptical galaxies), our Milky Way and its companions, M33, and others.

It gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the Andromeda constellation, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda. Andromeda was formed out of the collision of two smaller galax-ies between 5 and 9 billion years ago.

It is the largest galaxy of the Local Group and is visible to the naked eye even under moderate conditions. It is of particular interest because it allows studies of all the features of a galaxy from outside which we also

find in the Milky Way, but cannot observe as the greatest part of our Galaxy is hidden by interstellar dust.


Spiral Galaxy (NGC 224)

Distance & Size 2,540,000 light years A vast, extended stellar disk in this galaxy makes it about 220,000 light-years in

diameter.


Visual Magnitude

00hrs 42.7mins RA & +41degrees 16mins DEC Andromeda

3.4

How do I find it? Draw a line from the beta star of Cassiopeia (Schedir) to the closest start of Pegasus square (Alpheratz), Andromeda is located slightly below the mid-point

of this line (on the side of Aldebaran)

M32

Messier 32 is the small yet bright companion of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, and as such a member of the Local Group of galaxies. It was the first elliptical galaxy ever discovered, by Le Gentil on October 29, 1749.

It can be easily found when observing the Andromeda Galaxy, as it is situated 22 arc minutes exactly south of M31's central region, overlaid over the outskirts of the spiral arms. It appears as a remarkably bright round patch, slightly elongated and is easily visible in small telescopes.

Around its nucleus, about 100 million stars move rapidly about a central massive object thought possibly to be a black hole.


Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (NGC 221)

Distance & Size 2,490,000 light years M32 has a diameter of 8,000 light years.


Visual Magnitude

00hrs 42.7mins RA & +40degrees 51mins DEC Andromeda

8.1

How do I find it? It is almost at the same position as Andromeda (M31) over the outskirts of the spiral arms.

M33-Triangulum Galaxy

Messier 33 is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way Galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy and about 30 other smaller galaxies. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.

It is sometimes known under the name “Pinwheel Galaxy” since it is said to be slowly rotating in a clockwise motion, making a complete turn every 200 million years.

The inner part of the galaxy has two luminous spiral arms, along with multiple spurs that connect the inner to the outer spiral features.


Spiral Galaxy (NGC 598, Pinwheel galaxy)

Distance & Size 3,000,000 light years M33 has a diameter is about 60,000 light-years


Visual Magnitude

1hr 33.8mins RA +30degrees 39.5mins DEC Triangulum

5.7

How do I find it? It is located at about 2/3rd the distance as you go from Aldebaran to the closest star of Pegasus square (Alpheratz)

M34

Messier 34 has about 100 stars and is estimated to be about 180 million years old. It was first found by Gio-vanni Batista Hodierna before 1654, and independently rediscovered by Charles Messier in on August 25, 1764.

Its appearance is influenced by a nearby non-member of magnitude 7.3, while the brightest member star is of magnitude 7.9. It can be resolved into stars by 10x50 binoculars and is best at low magnification in telescopes.



Distance & Size 1,500 light years It spans about 35 minutes on the sky which translates to a true radius of 7 light

years.


Visual Magnitude

2hrs 42.1mins RA & +42degrees 46minutes DEC Perseus

5.5

How do I find it? It is located approximately midway between Capella and the star closest to it from Pegasus Square (Alpheratz)

M35

Messier 35 consists of several hundred stars scattered over an area equal to that covered by the full Moon. The slightest optical instrument will resolve the brighter stars and make it a splendid view at low magnifica-

tions, a nearly circular cluster with rather uniform stellar distribution. In telescopes, low powers and wide-field eye pieces show M35 at its best.



Distance & Size 2,800 light years It has a linear diameter of about 24 light years.


Visual Magnitude

6hrs 9.1mins RA +24degrees 21minutes DEC Gemini

5.3

How do I find it? It is located at about 1/3rd the distance as you go from Elnath to Procyon slightly upwards (towards the side of Pollux)

M36

Messier 36 was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna in the 1600s. This cluster has at least 60 member stars and is thought to be about 25 million years old. Many of these bright

stars are rapidly rotating, as shown by their broadened spectral lines. As it is quite young, it contains no red giants, in contrast to its neighbors M37 and M38, which lie roughly at

the same distance.



Distance & Size 4,100 light years M36 has an angular diameter of 12 minutes which corresponds to about 14 light

years.


Visual Magnitude

5hrs 36.2mins RA & +34degrees 8mins DEC Auriga

6.3

How do I find it? It is located at about 1/4th the distance as you go from Capella to Sirius.

M37

Messier 37 can probably be called the highlight of the constellation Auriga, as it is the brightest, as well as rich-est cluster in this constellation. Oddly enough, Le Gentil, who discovered M36 and M38 missed this one, even though it outshines both it’s contemporaries.

A peculiar member of this cluster’s inhabitants, a variable called KV10, is not just a variable star in the sense that it’s brightness varies with time. But also in the sense that the time it takes to change it’s magnitude also varies, from 0.044 days to 0.417 days.



Distance & Size 4,400 light-years; The cluster is somewhere between 45 to 50 light years wide.


Visual Magnitude

5hrs 52mins RA & +32degrees 33min DEC Auriga Constellation

6.2

How do I find it? Identify Capella, the brightest star in Auriga. Join the two stars opposite to it in Auriga’s pentagon. Move slightly outside the pentagon from the mid point of these

stars to find M37

M38

Messier 38 is the dimmest messier object in the constellation of Auriga. Many observers who saw it through small telescopes saw the shape to resemble that of a cross. As technology developed and resolution increased, we can now see that it actually resembles the Greek letter π rather than the cross.

A possible binary system exists in this region. Of what you may ask? Not stars, as you may have thought, but clusters themselves. M38, it seems, has a binary cluster, NGC 1907 in it’s vicinity.



Distance & Size 4,200 light-years; The cluster is about 50 light years wide.


Visual Magnitude

5hrs 28mins RA & +35degrees 50min DEC Auriga Constellation

7.4

How do I find it? Almost 1/3rd the distance between Elnath and Capella is where you’ll find it, nearer to Elnath.

M39

Messier 39 is an open cluster located in the constellation of Cygnus. It is difficult to be certain about it, but it may be just a few bright stars superposed over a background of dimmer red giants, posing as a single cluster, while in fact, they ay not be so.

It is a very loose cluster, so scattered in fact that William Herschel refused to call it a cluster, saying that it was impossible to tell where the cluster was starting an where it would end.



Distance & Size 800 light-years; It is quite small, with a diameter of about 7 light years


Visual Magnitude

21hrs 32mins RA & +48degrees 26min DEC Cygnus Constellation

4.6

How do I find it? Extend the longer, vertical part of the Cygnus cross to twice it's length. You should find M39

M40

Messier 40, is probably the weirdest member of the Messier catalog. It is not a nebula, neither is it a cluster that would seem fuzzy. It is a double star. One that required quite a bit of power to resolve clearly. How, then, was it interfering with Messier’s search for comets?

The answer may lie in Johann Hevelius’s reports. It seems he found a nebula at the coordinates of M40. Mess-ier, being the keen astronomer he was, decided to note it down, lest it interfere with his comet hunting.

But to his dismay, he only found a double star at that position. Feeling that Hevelius must have been mistaken he added it to his catalog for future records.

The separation between these stars was 49 arc seconds but has gradually increased to 52 arc seconds


Optical Binary (WNC 4)

Distance & Size 510 light-years; The distance between the two stars is about 1/10th of a light year


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 22mins RA & +58degrees 5min DEC Ursa Major Constellation

8.4

How do I find it? Just above the star that is the joint of the handle and the spoon of the big dipper, is this double star.

M41

Messier 41 is an open cluster in the constellation of Canis Major. A majority of it’s members are red giants. It is thought that a few 100 million years ago, this cluster was a globular cluster, but repeated interactions with our Milky Way have worn it out and within 300 or 400 million years, this cluster will have dispersed com-pletely.

Aristotle, it seems, had discovered this cluster in 325 BC. The very bright star, seen in the bottom left of the picture, though the brightest in this picture, is actually not a part of the cluster. It is in fact 1000 light years away from the cluster.



Distance & Size 2,300 light-years; The cluster stretches across 25 light years


Visual Magnitude

6hrs 46mins RA & -20degrees 44min DEC Canis Major Constellation

4.5

How do I find it? About 4 degrees below Sirius, this cluster is easily visible through binoculars.

M42-Orion Nebula

The Great Orion Nebula, or Messier 42, is undoubtedly the most well known and most extensively photo-graphed and studied object in the entire sky. It is located in the constellation Orion, slightly below the hunter’s belt.

The nebula gives off a variety of wavelengths, also populating the infra red part of the spectrum. Red, blue-violet and green glows are clearly seen in many photos. The red color was due to the Hα spectrum and the blue due to the massive O class stars in the nebula. The green color however, puzzled scientists till the 20th century. They even coined a new element called nebulium to explain the green glow on it’s spectrum. But it was later discovered that it was due to a classically forbidden electron transition in doubly ionized oxygen that caused this mysterious phenomenon.

The Orion nebula is a huge stellar nursery, where many new stars are in the process of being born. The Orion nebula was the first deep space object to be photographed with a long exposure, which put forward the fact that stars invisible to the naked eye could be seen through such measures.


Emission and Reflection Nebula along with an Open Cluster (NGC 1976, Sharpless 281, Home of the Trapezium)

Distance & Size 1,600 light-years; The Nebula is approximately 40 light years across


Visual Magnitude

5hrs 35mins RA & -5degrees 27min DEC Orion Constellation

4.0

How do I find it? In the centre of the lower half of Orion are three faint stars, in a line. The middle star points us to M42

M43-De Mairan’s nebula

Messier 43 is a part of the Orion nebula. It is separated from the main M42 by a dark dust lane. The centre of this nebula is home to a protostar, and the light coming from it to us is actually coming through a tunnel of dust.

The entire nebula, however is home to a huge number of protostars. As Herschel observed this nebula through years, he noticed that the central bright star was initially white clouded, but as the years rolled by, the nebulosity began to move and fade slightly, making the star brighter.


Emission Nebula (NGC 1982, De Mairan’s nebula, Companion of the Orion nebula)

Distance & Size 1,600 light-years; The nebula is about 7.5 light years wide.


Visual Magnitude

5hrs 35mins RA & -5degrees 16min DEC Orion Constellation

9.0

How do I find it? Look in the centre of the lower half of Orion, you should spot three almost collinear stars. Behind the second star, you’ll find M43

M44–The Beehive cluster

Messier 44, an open cluster in Cancer, is also called the Beehive cluster commonly. It was called the little cloud by Hipparchus. It was eventually revealed to a star cluster in the 1600s.

There are quite a few stars in this cluster that can support solar systems. There are 3 sun like stars, which also have debris disks around them. This cluster seems very similar to Hyades, it’s composition, age and even ve-locities.

Historically, this cluster was visible very easily and was used as a warning to predict coming storms in case this cluster was not visible during the night.


Open Cluster (NGC 2632, Praesepe, The Manger)

Distance & Size 570 light-years; The cluster spans across 23 light years in space.


Visual Magnitude

8hrs 40mins RA & +19degrees 59min DEC Cancer Constellation

3.7

How do I find it? Just slightly off the line joining the middle stars of Cancer is this cluster. It is pretty much in the middle of Cancer

M45-Pleiades

The Pleiades cluster is the easiest Messier object to spot. Even with the naked eyes, it is easily seen as a small patch of stars. It can easily be resolved into stars with the naked eyes and doesn’t require more than a pair of binoculars if you want to see the entire object in one field of view.

Quite obviously, this cluster is easily visible to the naked eye, and seems like a weird thing to add to list of ob-jects that could have been confused for comets. People have come to surmise that the reason for it’s inclusion was his rivalry with Lacaille, who had a similar list containing 42 objects. The most clearly visible stars have been named after Atlas, Pleione and their seven daughters Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno and Alcyone.

The reflection nebula is due to a dust cloud that the star cluster is currently passing through. The cluster is moving through space, and though it is currently in Taurus , it will eventually drift through Orion, and in due time, be dispersed and destroyed. Currently, it is the closest Messier object to the Earth.


Open Cluster with Reflection Nebula (NGC 1432, Pleiades, Seven Sisters, Subaru, Maia Nebula)

Distance & Size 400 light-years; The cluster occupies an area 13 light years wide


Visual Magnitude

3hrs 47mins RA & +24degrees 7min DEC Taurus Constellation

1.6

How do I find it? Join Bellatrix to Aldebaran. Extend this line past Aldebaran. Almost at twice the dis-tance between Aldebaran and Bellatrix is a clearly visible bunch of stars. This is

Pleiades.

M46

Messier 46 is a globular cluster in the constellation of Puppis. It is one of the original discoveries of Charles Messier.

It is a beautiful thing to look at through either binoculars (giving us M47 in the same field of view) or through a good telescope (to observe the nebula in the cluster). The planetary nebula on the upper edge of the cluster is just a superposition. It is not a member of the cluster and is actually closer to us than the actual cluster.



Distance & Size 5,400 light-years; The cluster is 30 light years wide, while the planetary nebula is barely 1 light year

across


Visual Magnitude

7hrs 41mins RA & -14degrees 49min DEC Puppis Constellation

6.0

How do I find it? Extend the line between Mirzam and Sirius to about thrice it’s length towards Sirius. You should find M46

M47

Messier 47 is an open cluster in the constellation Puppis. It is very similar to Pleiades, both in terms of popula-tion and constituents. The stars in this cluster are chemically very similar to those found in M45.

At the centre of the cluster is a binary star. A star P1121 in this system has a large debris disk around it, which is a telltale sign of a developing planet system.

M47 is an example of Messier making a mistake in recording locations, as it was later rediscovered by many people such as Herschel and Dreyer. The dilemma was finally solved late in 1960.



Distance & Size 1,600 light-years; The cluster is a mere 12 light years across.


Visual Magnitude

7hrs 36mins RA & -14degrees 30min DEC Puppis Constellation

5.2

How do I find it? Join Sirius and Mirzam, and extend the line in the direction of Sirius to about thrice it’s length. You’re approximately where M47 is.

M48

Messier 48 is an open cluster in the constellation of Hydra. It is just bright enough to be visible to naked eye under good conditions.

Even though it is a member of Messier’s catalog, who seemed to have discovered it in 1771, it was lost due to a recording error by messier, who gave the declination off by about 5 degrees. It was discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783. William Herschel added it to his catalog and later. Since there was no other candidate to jus-tify the observation of M48 in the nearby field, Herschel’s discovery was revised as M48 and the coordinates were modified suitably.



Distance & Size 1,500 light-years; The cluster is about 25 light years across


Visual Magnitude

8hrs 13mins RA & -5degrees 48min DEC Hydra Constellation

5.5

How do I find it? Extend the line between Gomeisa and Procyon to about four times it’s length. This is where M48 will be

M49

Messier 49 is a huge system of globular clusters. It was the first member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies to be discovered, by Charles Messier, who catalogued it on February 19, 1771.

It is the brightest of the Virgo Cluster member galaxies. It is also the second galaxy discovered beyond the Local Group after Lacaille's discovery of M83.

It is a bright elliptical found between two six magnitude stars. Its estimated mass is 200 billion solar masses.


Elliptical Galaxy (NGC 4472)

Distance & Size 60 million light years The galaxy is an ellipsoid with a projected major axis of nearly 160,000 light

years


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 29.8sec RA & +8degrees DEC Virgo 8.4

How do I find it? Draw a line from Vega and Arcturus. M49 is at about one-fourth of the way on the other side of Acturus on the extended line.

M50

Messier 50 contains about 200 stars even though it isn't spread over a large area. M50 was possibly discovered by G. D. Cassini 1711, it was independently recovered by Charles Messier on the

night of April 5, 1772. He describes its as a cluster of small stars, more or less brilliant, above the right loins of the Unicorn, above the star Theta of the ear of Canis Major, & near a star of 7th magnitude. It was while ob-serving the Comet of 1772 that Messier observed this cluster. He has reported it on the chart of that comet, on which its trace has been drawn.

It’s visual appearance is also described as a heart-shaped figure.



Distance & Size 3200 light years This stellar gathering is about 20 light years across, but the central concentration

is believed to only span across 10 light years.


Visual Magnitude

7hrs 3.2min RA & -8degrees 20mins DEC Monoceros

5.9

How do I find it? Draw a line from Sirius to Procyon. M50 is at about one-thirds of the way from Sirius to Procyon

M51-The Whirlpool Galaxy

Messier 51 is the largest member of a small group of galaxies, which also houses M63 and a number of fainter galaxies.

First observed by Charles Messier in October 1773, the spiral structure was not noted until 1845 by Lord Rosse. At the time of the discovery of the spiral structure, it was thought that Messier 51 was an example of a new solar system in formation within our Milky Way Galaxy. It was not until 1923 with the construction of larger, more powerful telescopes that Messier 51 was recognized as a distinct galaxy with its own stars and nebulae.

Also shown in the above image is Messier 51's companion galaxy, NGC 5195. Although some have theorized that the two galaxies are connected. It is now generally recognized that they are two separate and distinct galax-ies. However, it is believed that the prominent spiral structure of Messier 51 is due to its gravitational interac-tion with NGC 5195.



Distance & Size To this time, its exact distance is not known. Some say it is 15 million light years and some others say it is about 37 million light years . It is estimated to be about 124,000 light years across


Visual Magnitude

13hrs 29.9mins RA & +47degrees 12 minutes DEC Canes Venatici

8.1

How do I find it? M51, is off the tail end of the big dipper, in the direction that the dipper is "cupping”

M52

Messier 52 is a fine open cluster of condensed stars of different sizes, located in a rich Milky Way field. It is one of the rich clusters for which amateur Jeff Bondono has proposed the name "salt and pepper" clusters. It is 35 million years old cluster of stars & has around 200 members .

M52 was an original discovery of Charles Messier, captured on the night of September 7, 1774. He describes it as Cluster of very small stars, mingled with nebulosity, which can be seen only with an achromatic telescope. It was when he observed the comet which appeared in this year that Messier saw this cluster, which was close to the comet on 7th Sep.

It is below Ruchbah (delta Cassiopeia): That star was used to determine both the cluster of stars and the comet.



Distance & Size 5000 light years The cluster's apparent diameter of 13 arc min which corresponds to a linear ex-

tension of 19 light years


Visual Magnitude

23hrs 24.2mins RA & +61degrees 35mins DEC Cassiopeia

7.3

How do I find it? Draw a line between Alpha Cassiopeia (Schedir), and Beta Cassiopeia (Caph). Extend that line into space about the same distance

M53

Messier 53 was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode, on February 3, 1775, who described it as a "rather vivid and round" nebula. Charles Messier, who independently rediscovered and catalogued it 2 years later, on Febru-ary 26, 1777, found it "round and conspicuous" and that it resembles M79. William Herschel was the first to resolve it into stars, and found it similar to M10.

Heading towards us at a speed of 112 km/s, globular cluster M53 is one of the furthest distant globular clusters in our Milky Way halo and lay almost equally distant between our solar system and the galactic center.

As in all globular clusters, the stars of M53 are apparently “metal-poor", which means that they contain only little quantities of elements heavier than helium (actually mainly elements like carbon and oxygen); those of M53 are even below the average globular cluster members in "metallicity".

M53 has a bright compact central nucleus of about 2' in diameter, although its stars are not very concentrated toward the centre as compared to other globulars, and a gradually decreasing density profile to the outer edges.



Distance & Size 58,000 light years This star cluster has a diameter of 220 light years


Visual Magnitude

13hrs 12.9mins RA & +18degrees 10mins DEC Coma Berenices

7.6

How do I find it? M53 can be easily found just about a degree northeast of Alpha Coma Berenices, a visual binary star. To located Alpha, draw a mental line from Arcturus via Eta

Bootis where you’ll see it about a fist width west.

M54

Messier 54 is a quite conspicuous globular cluster, discovered by Charles Messier, on July 24, 1778, and is very difficult to resolve. It is receding from us at about 142 km/s.

Its distance, for years, was estimated to be about 50-65,000 light years. However, in 1994, the exciting discov-ery was made that M54 was probably not a member of our Milky Way at all, but of a newly discovered dwarf galaxy! This galaxy is now called SagDEG, for Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, and one of the most recently discovered Local Group galaxies. M54 coincides with one of two major concentrations of the SagDEG galaxy, and is receding from us at a very similar velocity (about 130 km/s). This makes it probable that M54 is within this galaxy, which was estimated at a distance of 80-90,000 light years. At this distance, M54 would be one of the most luminous known globular clusters with an absolute visual magnitude of -10.01, a brilliance of about 850,000 suns like ours, and outshined only by spectacular Omega Centauri in our Milky Way.



Distance & Size 87,400 light years (a recent estimate) This compact globe of stars could be as wide as 150 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude


7.6

How do I find it? M54 is close to Zeta Sagittarii, the southernmost star of Sagittarius’ "dipper" asterism of 4 or 5 stars (also called the "Milky Dipper", and part of

the "Teapot"), namely 0.5 degrees south and 1.5 degrees west.

M55

Messier 55, was originally discovered by Nicholas Louis de Lacaille on June 16, 1752, when he was observing in South Africa, and catalogued by him as Lac I.14. Charles Messier finally found it and catalogued it on July 24, 1778, after having looked in vain as early as 1764: This is a consequence of this object's southern declination.

Sir William Herschel was the first to glimpse the resolvability of this great globular cluster. He described it as- “A rich cluster of very compressed stars, irregularly round, about 8 minutes long.“

This is a loose appearing ball of stellar points may not seem concentrated – but its home to tens of thousands stars.



Distance & Size 17,300 light years This globular cluster of stars is 100 light years wide in diameter; & roughly 2/3 of

the Moon's apparent diameter


Visual Magnitude

19hrs 40mins RA & -30 degrees 58mins DEC Sagittarius

6.3

How do I find it? M55 is by no means easy to find. It lies between zeta Sagittarius and theta Sagitta-rius, seven degrees east of zeta and one degree south.

M56

Messier 56 was one of Charles Messier's original discoveries; he saw it first on January 23, 1779 and describes it as a "nebula without stars," like most globular clusters. It was first resolved into stars by William Herschel around 1784.

It is one of the less bright Messier globulars, especially lacking the bright core which most globulars have. Nev-ertheless it is not too difficult to resolve, even at its rather large distance.

This incredible ball of stars is moving towards planet Earth at a speed of 145 kilometers per second, yet still re-mains about 32,900 light-years away.

As one of the less dense of the Milky Way’s halo globulars, it is also less dense in variable stars – containing only perhaps a dozen.



Distance & Size 32,900 light years This globe of stars spans a diameter of 85 light years


Visual Magnitude

19hrs 16.6mins RA & +30degrees 11mins DEC Lyra 8.3

How do I find it? It is located about half-way between Albireo (Beta Cygni) and Sulafat (Gamma Lyrae)

M57 - The Ring Nebula

Messier 57 is the finest planetary nebula in the skies. The ring (sometimes called braiding, but scientifically known as “knots” in the gaseous structure) itself should be clearly visible in medium scopes.

It was first discovered in early January 1779 by Antoine Darquier. Although Darquier did not post a date, it is believed his observation preceded Messier’s independent recovery made on January 31, 1779 when he states that Darquier picked it up before him: “A cluster of light between Gamma and Beta Lyrae, discovered when looking for the Comet of 1779, which has passed it very close: it seems that this patch of light, which is round, must be composed of very small stars.”

At one time in its life, it may have had twice the mass of Sol (our sun), but now all that’s left is a white dwarf that burns over 100,000 degrees. Surrounding it is an envelope about 2 to 3 light years in size of what once was its outer layers – blown away in a cylindrical shape some 6000 to 8000 years ago.

It is called a planetary nebula, because once upon a time before telescopes could resolve them, they appeared almost planet-like. But, as for M57, the central star itself is no larger than a terrestrial planet! The tiny white dwarf star, although it could be as much as 2300 light years away, has an intrinsic brightness of about 50 to 100 times that of our Sun.


Planetary nebula (NGC 6720)

Distance & Size 2300 light years It is an envelope about 2 to 3 light years in size


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 53.6mins RA & +33degrees 2mins DEC Lyra 8.8

How do I find it? It is situated between Beta and Gamma Lyrae, at about one-third the distance from Beta to Gamma

M58

Messier 58 was first discovered by Messier, along with the apparently nearby elliptical galaxies M59 & M60, on the occasion of following the Comet of 1779. It is one of the earliest recognized spiral galaxies.

It is one of the four barred spiral galaxies in Messier's catalog (the others are M91, M95,and M109), although it is sometimes classified as intermediate between normal and barred spirals (e.g. in R. Brent Tully's Nearby Galax-ies Catalog). M58 is a telescopic object and requires patience to find, because the Virgo Cluster contains so many galaxies which can easily be misidentified.

M58 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. From 1779 it was arguably (though unknown at that time) the farthest known astronomical object until the release of the New General Catalogue (NGC) in the 1880s and even more so the publishing of red-shift values in the 1920s.

Although it might appear pretty plain, it has some great things going for it ,namely an active galactic nucleus. Two supernovae have been observed in M58: the type II supernova 1988A, found by Ikeya on January 18, 1988, 40" south of the nucleus at mag 13.5, and the type I supernova 1989M, discovered by Kimeridze on June 28, 1989 at mag 12.2 and 33"N, 44"W of M58's center.


Spiral galaxy (NGC 4579)

Distance & Size 68 million light years Its angular diameter is 5.5x4.5 arc minutes


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 37.7mins RA & +11degrees 49mins DEC Virgo

9.7

How do I find it? First, locate Vindemiatrix (epsilon Virgo) and Denebola (beta Leo). It is situated between Vindemiatrix and Denebola, at about one-third the distance from

Vindemiatrix to Denebola

M59

Messier 59 is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and one of the larger elliptical galaxies there, although it is considerably less luminous and massive than the greatest ellipticals in this cluster, M49, M60 and, above all, M87. It is quite flattened: Various sources give values of its ellipticity as E3-E5

M59 was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler on April 11, 1779, together with nearby M60, on the occasion of observing the comet of that year. Charles Messier, also when observing that comet, found both galaxies four days later, on April 15 of that year, and in addition nearby M58 which Koehler missed. Messier described M59 as equally faint as M58, and fainter than M60.

It has a counter-rotating core. This unusual behavior is accounted to the possible presence of a black hole at its centre. Although not biggest or brightest of the group, it is home to nearly 2000 globular clusters.



Distance & Size 6 million light years Its longer axis of 5 arc minutes corresponds to almost 90,000 light years linear

extension.


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 42mins RA & +11degrees 39mins DEC Virgo

9.6

How do I find it? Locate M58. M59 is closer to Vindemiatrix as compared to M58 and father as compared to M60

M60

Messier 60, the most following (eastern) Messier galaxy in the Virgo cluster, is the last in a row of the three (M58, M59, and M60). At lower magnifications, it lies in the same field of view as M59 (25 arc min away).

M60 was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler on April 11, 1779, when he was following the comet of that year, together with neighbouring M59. It was independently found one day later by Barnabus Oriani, who missed M59, and four days later, on April 15, 1779, by Charles Messier, who also found it near M58. Mess-ier describes M60 as "a little more distinct" than M58 and M59.

Photographs obtained with larger instruments show a large system of faint globular clusters; M60 has a re-spectable number of about 5100 of these objects in its halo. The Hubble Space telescope has investigated M60's core and found evidence that it contans a massive central object of about 2 billion solar masses.

A supernova, SN 2004W, was found in M60 as it had already faded to magnitude 18.8; this supernova was found to be of a sub luminous type Ia. It had probably flashed up about half a year before, but remained unno-ticed because M60 was close to its solar conjunction.



Distance & Size 6 million light years It has a linear diameter of 120,000 light years


Visual Magnitude


8.8

How do I find it? Locate M58 & M59. It is closer to Vindemiatrix as compared to M58 and M59

http://messier.seds.org/m/m058.html

http://messier.seds.org/m/m059.html

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/koehler.html

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/oriani.html

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/history/biograph.html

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/history/m-cat.html#M60

http://messier.seds.org/more/m060_hst.html

http://messier.seds.org/more/m060_hst.html

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/supp/mdo.html

http://messier.seds.org/more/m060_sn2004W.html

M61

Messier 61 is located in the constellation of Virgo, amidst the cluster of galaxies know as the Virgo cluster. This is one of the larger galaxies in the cluster.

It is a Seyfert galaxy, a type of galaxy with nuclei that produce spectral line emission from highly ionized gases. This galaxy's low luminosity, about magnitude 10, makes it appear as nothing more than a fuzzy spot in small optic instruments.

Six supernovae have been observed in this galaxy.


Spiral (Seyfert) Galaxy (NGC 4303)

Distance & Size 60 million light years Measures about 100,000 light years in diameter.


Visual Magnitude


9.7

How do I find it? Locate Spica, the brightest star present in the constellation Virgo. From this star, draw a straight line towards the star Denebola, the last star in the tail of Leo con-

stellation. M61 lies at a distance of one third of the length from Denebola.

M62

Messier 62, an unusual globular cluster, is known for its highly irregular shape. This deformation is believed to have been caused by gravitational tidal forces acting on the cluster due to its close proximity to the galactic center.

M62 contains the high number of 89 variable stars. It also contains several X-Ray sources, thought to be close binary star systems, as well as millisecond pulsars in binary systems.

Charles Messier found this cluster on June 7, 1771, but took an accurate position only on June 4, 1779 .From its apparent size and magnitude, M62 is very similar to its neighbor, M19.


Globular Cluster (NGC 6266 )

Distance & Size 22,500 light years 100 light years wide


Visual Magnitude


6.5

How do I find it? Locate Altair present in the constellation Aquila which is also a part of the Sum-mer triangle. Locate Antares, the red star present in the constellation Scorpius. Join the 2 stars with a straight line. M62 can found very close to Antares by

moving from the line towards the tail of the Scorpius.

M63—Sunflower Galaxy

Messier 63 earned this name due to its sunflower-like appearance. It was originally discovered in 1779 by Mess-ier's friend, Pierre Mechain.

This galaxy is part of a group of galaxies that includes M51. In the mid-19th century, Lord Rosse identified spi-ral structure within the galaxy, making this one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified.

In 1971, a supernova with a magnitude of 11.8 appeared in one of the arms of M63. Colour photos of this galaxy show star-forming regions throughout its spiral arms. M63 has faint extensions

of its arms which could be the result of the gravitational forces of the nearby galaxies.



Distance & Size 37 million light years 100,000 light years across, about the same as Milky way Galaxy


Visual Magnitude

13hrs 15mins RA & 42degrees 1min DEC Canes Venatici

8.6

How do I find it? Locate Arcturus present in the constellation Bootes. Join this star to the first of the stars of Ursa major, Alkaid. From this line, move towards the side opposite to Vega (present in the summer triangle). M63 is roughly located on the line join-

ing Arcturus and the third star of Ursa Major.

Picture of the object– colored..


M64—Black Eye Galaxy

The Black Eye Galaxy was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779. The name black eye comes from a dark dust lane that obscures the light near the center of this galaxy. This

dust lane is believed to be a site of active star formation. This dust lane is visible even in small telescopes. Recent detailed studies have led to the remarkable discovery that the interstellar gas in the outer regions of

M64 rotates in the opposite direction from the gas and stars in the inner regions. This pattern is believed to trigger the creation of many new stars around the boundary separating the two regions.

Astronomers believe that the oppositely rotating gas arose when M64 absorbed a satellite galaxy that collided with it, perhaps more than one billion years ago. The small galaxy that impinged on its neighbour has now been almost completely destroyed, its stars either merged with the main galaxy or scattered into space, but signs of the collision persist in the backward motion of gas at the outer edge of the galaxy.


Spiral Galaxy (NGC 4826, Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, Evil Eye Galaxy)

Distance & Size 20 million light years The inner region has a radius of approximately 3,000 light-years, while the

outer section extends another 40,000 light-years


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 56mins RA & 21degrees 41mins DEC Coma Berenices

8.5

How do I find it? Extend lines from Arcturus (present in Bootes) and third star of Ursa major such that they meet at a right angle. The orientation of the triangle should be such

that the line from Arcturus should be smaller in length. The intersection of these two lines gives a very good approximation of the location of M64.

M65

Messier 65, an intermediate spiral galaxy, is low in dust and gas, and there is little star formation in it. The ratio of old stars to new stars is correspondingly quite high.

To the eye, M65's disk appears slightly warped, and its relatively recent burst of star formation is also sugges-tive of some external disturbance. Rots (1978) suggests that the two other galaxies in the Leo Triplet inter-acted with each other about 800 million years ago. Recent research by Zhiyu Duan suggests that M65 may also have interacted, though much less strongly. He also notes that M65 may have a central bar—it is difficult to tell because the galaxy is seen from an oblique angle—a feature which is suggestive of tidal disruption.


Intermediate spiral galaxy (elliptical in view) (NGC 3623)

Distance & Size 35 million light years Apparent dimension 8x1.5 arc minutes


Visual Magnitude

11hrs 18mins RA & 13degrees 5mins DEC Leo 9.3

How do I find it? Draw lines from Arcturus (present in Bootes) and Merak (present in Ursa major) such that they intersect at right angle in the constellation Leo. M65 lies very

close to this intersection.

M66

Messier 66 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. It has striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms. M66 is part of the famous Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies that also includes M65 and NGC 3628. Gravitational interaction from its past encounter with neighboring NGC 3628 has resulted in an extremely

high central mass concentration and a high molecular to atomic mass ratio.


Intermediate Spiral Galaxy (NGC 3627)

Distance & Size 35 million light years 95,000 light years across


Visual Magnitude

11hrs 20mins RA & 12degrees 59mins DEC Leo 8.9

How do I find it? Follow the procedure described for M65 since M66 & M65 are very close.

M67

Messier 67 was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler in 1779. Age estimates for the cluster range between 3.2 and 5 billion years. It contains around 500 stars, some 200 of

which are believed to be white dwarfs. It has about 100 stars similar to Sun. M67 is the nearest old open cluster, and thus has become a standard example for studying stellar evolution. It

is probably the second best observed open cluster after the Hyades cluster, which is amongst the nearest open clusters and younger than M67.

In spite of being one of the most-studied open clusters, estimates of its physical parameters such as age, mass, and number of stars of a given type, vary substantially.

M67 does not contain an unbiased sample of stars. One cause of this is mass segregation, the process by which lighter stars (actually, systems) gain speed at the expense of more massive stars during close encounters, which causes the lighter stars to be at a greater average distance from the cluster’s center or to escape altogether .



Distance & Size 2700 light years 20 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude

8hrs 50mins RA & 11degrees 49mins DEC Cancer

6.1

How do I find it? Locate Regulus, the second most brightest star ,the second most brightest star present in the constellation Leo. Also, locate Procyon, a bright star present in the constellation Canis Minor. Join the two stars and one can find M67 very close to

the midpoint of this line.

M68

Messier 68 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. It has at least 42 known variables. It contains about 250 giant stars of absolute magnitude greater than zero,

about half as much as M3 or M13. Its brightest star is of magnitude 12.6, while the horizontal branch level of this cluster is at magnitude 15.6.

Helen Sawyer Hogg has found 25 stars being brighter than magnitude 14.8. The nearby mark in the lower right shows the non-member Mira-type variable FI Hydrae, which has a period of about 324 days and can be-come as bright as 9th magnitude.



Distance & Size 40,000 light years 140 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 39mins RA & -26degrees 45mins DEC Hydra

7.8

How do I find it? Draw lines from Antares (present in Scorpius) and Spica( present in Virgo) to make a right angle such that the line from Antares is longer in length. M68 is

present very close to this intersection towards the right lower side, taking Antares as reference.

M69

Messier 69 was added to his catalog on August 31, 1780, the same night he found M70. The discovery oc-curred when Messier was looking for a nebulous object catalogued by Lacaille in 1751-52 as Lac I.11; he had already looked for that object in vain in 1764. Messier thought he had recovered Lacaille's object and identi-fied M69 with , but this is probably a misidentification. It is a close neighbour of globular cluster M70, with 1,800 light-years separating the two objects; both of these clusters lie close to the galactic center.

It is one of the most metal-rich globular clusters known. Nevertheless, this value is still significantly lower than that for the younger (Population I) stars like our Sun, indicating that even this globular was formed at early cosmic times when the universe contained less heavier elements, as these elements still had to be formed in the stars.



Distance & Size 29,700 light years Spatial radius of 42 light years


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 31mins RA & -32degrees 21mins DEC Sagittarius

7.6

How do I find it? Join the stars Altair & Deneb present in the summer triangle . Draw a line from the star Antares present in Scorpius to meet the previously drawn line (extended)

perpendicularly. M69 lies near this intersection towards the side of Antares.

M70

Messier 70 is nearly identical to its close neighbour in size and brightness, although it is just a bit larger. Both are quite close to the galactic center, so they are both subject to quite strong tidal gravitational forces.

Charles Messier discovered this globular on August 31, 1780, and described it as a "nebula without star." William Herschel was the first to resolve this globular cluster into stars and describes it as "a miniature of M3."



Distance & Size 29,300 light years 65 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude

18hrs 43mins RA & -32degrees 18mins DEC Sagittarius

7.9

How do I find it? Join the stars Altair & Deneb present in the summer triangle . Draw a line from the star Antares present in Scorpius to meet the previously drawn line (extended)

perpendicularly. M70 lies very near to this intersection.

M71

Messier 71 was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1746 and included by Charles Messier in his cata-logue of comet-like objects in 1780. It was also noted by Koehler at Dresden around 1775.

M71 was long thought (until the 1970s) to be a dense light years packed open cluster and was classified as such by leading astronomers in the field of star cluster research due to its lacking a dense central compression, and its stars having more "metals" than is usual for an ancient globular cluster.

Today, M71 is designated as a very loose light years concentrated globular cluster, much like M68 in Hydra. M71 has a luminosity of around 13,200 suns.

In average binoculars it will show as a fair light years large fuzzy patch that almost seems to come to resolu-tion, and begin to reveal individual stars to a small aperture telescope. Larger telescopes can and will full re-solve this unusual globular cluster.


Cluster, globular (NGC 6838 GCI 115)

Distance & Size 12000 light years The M71 cluster spans across about 27 light years.


Visual Magnitude

19hrs 53.8mins RA & +18degrees 46.7mins DEC Sagittarius

8.5

How do I find it? Sagittarius is an arrow shaped constellation. About halfway between gamma and delta Saggita is the sixth magnitude cluster M71.

M72

Messier 72 was discovered by Pierre Méchain on August 29, 1780. M72 is a pale nebulous patch of light, very small and of grainy texture in a 4-inch, which shows only the 2'

diameter core region. This globular is of notable even brightness, fainting very gradually to the edges. It is hard to resolve in amateur

telescopes; in the 8-inch, only the extreme edges show suspicions of resolved stars. A close pair of stars is situ-ated to the south of this cluster.


Globular Cluster (NGC 6891, GCI 118)

Distance & Size 53,000 light years The diameter of M72 is about 72 light years.


Visual Magnitude

20hrs 53.5mins RA & -12degrees 32.2mins DEC Aquarius

10.0

How do I find it? M72 lies in the far southeast corner of Aquarius, just over the border from Capricornus. It is easy to find the right general section of the sky starting at Alpha and Beta Capricorni, the brightest stars for a long way around, and a very striking

pair. From there, locate Epsilon Aquarii (mag 3.8) and Theta Capricorni (mag 4.1). If you can see both stars naked-eye, you may well be able to locate 2/5 of

the way from Epsilon Aqr to Theta Cap.

M73

Messier 73 is an asterism of four stars in the constellation of Aquarius. An asterism is composed of physically unconnected stars that appear close to each other in the sky as seen from Earth. M73 is one of the best-known asterisms in the sky.

M73 was discovered by Charles Messier on October 4, 1780, who originally described the object as a cluster of four stars with some nebulosity.

M73 was once treated as a potential sparsely populated open cluster, which consists of stars that are physically associated in space as well as on the sky. The question of whether the stars were an asterism or an open cluster generated a small, interesting debate.

Although M73 was determined to be only a chance alignment of stars, further analysis of asterisms is still im-portant for the identification of sparsely populated open clusters. Such clusters can be important for demon-strating how open clusters are ripped apart by the gravitational forces in the Milky Way.


Asterism NGC 6994

Distance & Size 20,000 light years 2.8 arc min


Visual Magnitude

20hrs 58.9min RA & -12degree 38min DEC Aquarius

9.0

How do I find it? It is easy to find the right general section of the sky starting at Alpha and Beta Capricorni, the brightest stars for a long way around, and a very striking pair.

From there, locate Epsilon Aquarii (mag 3.8) and Theta Capricorni (mag 4.1). to locate M72 and M73 2/5 of the way from Epsilon Aqr to Theta Cap.

M74

The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a Grand Design Spiral Galaxy.

It is estimated that M74 is home to about 100 billion stars.[4] M74 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780. Méchain then communicated his discovery to Charles Messier,

who listed the galaxy in his catalog Two supernovae have been identified in M74: SN 2002ap and SN 2003gd.


Spiral Galaxy NGC 628 UGC 1149 PGC 5974

Distance & Size 35,000 k-light years Apparent dimensions 10.2x9.5 (arc min)


Visual Magnitude

1hr 36min 48sec RA & +15degree 47min DEC Pisces 10.5

How do I find it? Start by locating Alpha Arietis (Hamal) and make a mental line between it and Beta – then on to Eta Piscium. Center your finders cope at Eta and shift the view

about 1.5 degrees northeast.

M75

It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and included in Charles Messier's catalog of comet-like objects that same year.

This globular cluster has since been named The Jasmine Onyx Star (Intergalactic Star Database Number: ISD 0116739), in recognition of Jasmine Onyx Watson, born 18/08/2011.


Globular Cluster NGC 6864 GCI 116

Distance & Size 58,000 light years Radius of M75 is about 67ly.


Visual Magnitude

20hrs 6min 4.75sec RA & -21degree 55min 16.2sec DEC Sagittarius

9.5

How do I find it? Extend a line from the star pair of Alpha and Beta Capricorni to locate the Rhio and Pi cap.

A pair of mag 5 stars Rho and Pi Capricorni, close enough to fit easily in a wide telescopic field, point almost directly at M75. Take a line from Rho to Pi, bending

slightly N, and you pass through mag 5 Sigma Cap.

M76-Little Dumbbell Nebula

Also discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780, it was first recognized as a planetary nebula in 1918 by the astronomer Heber Doust Curtis.

The structure is now classed as a bipolar planetary nebula (BPNe). The Little Dumbbell Nebula derives its common name from its resemblance to the Dumbbell Nebula (M27)

in Vulpecula. It was originally thought to consist of two separate emission nebulae and was thus given two catalog numbers in the NGC 650 and 651. Some consider this object to be one of the faintest and hardest to see objects in Messier's list.


Planetary Nebula NGC 650,NGC 651 Barbbell Nebula Cork Nebula

Distance & Size 3,400 light years The across distance f M76 is about 1.23ly. The radius is about 0.617ly.


Visual Magnitude

1hr 42.2min RA & +51 degree 34.5min DEC Perseus

10.1

How do I find it? The easiest way to find the M76 is to start from the 3.5 magnitude star 51 Andro-medae and make you way about a finger width (2 degrees) north-northeast until you come to 4th- magnitude Phi Persei, a variable star. From here aim your tele-scope less than a degree northwest of the star, and you will have M76 in the eye-

piece field of view.

M77

Messier 77 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780, who originally described it as a nebula. Both Messier and William Herschel described this galaxy as a star cluster. Today, however, the object is known to be a galaxy. Messier 77 is an active galaxy with an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), which is obscured from view by astro-

nomical dust at visible wavelengths.


Spiral Galaxy NGC 1068

Distance & Size 60,000 k-light years M 77 has a diameter of about 1,70,000 light years.


Visual Magnitude

2hrs 42min 40.7sec RA & -00 degrees 6min DEC Cetus 10.5

How do I find it? M77 can be easily found less than a degree east/southeast from the 4th magni-tude Delta Ceti. This magnificent face-on spiral galaxy can be spotted with smaller binoculars from a dark sky location as a round contrast change and is easily seen

in small telescopes.

M78

Messier 78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula of a group of nebulae that include NGC 2064, NGC 2067 and NGC 2071. This group belongs to the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

Messier 78 can be spotted as a small, faint, hazy patch in binoculars as small as 5X30 – but turns nebular with larger aperture binoculars and small telescopes.


Diffused Nebula (NGC 2068 ,Ced55u)

Distance & Size 1,600 light years M78 is 8×6 (arc min)


Visual Magnitude

5hrs 46.7mins RA & 3mins DEC Orion

8.0

How do I find it? Locate Orion’s “Belt” – the famous asterism of three stars. Simply identify Zeta Orionis (Alnitak) the easternmost of the trio and you’ll find M78 about 2 de-

grees (less than a thumb length) north and 1 1/2 degrees (less two finger widths) east.

M79

Messier 79 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780.. It is thought that M79 is not native to the Milky Way galaxy at all, but instead to the Canis Major Dwarf Gal-

axy which is currently experiencing a very close encounter with the Milky Way—one it is unlikely to survive intact.

This is, however, a contentious subject as astronomers are still debating the nature of the Canis Major dwarf galaxy itself.

Most of the stars in this cluster are red giants.


Globular Cluster (NGC 1904,GCI 10)

Distance & Size 40,000 light years 8.7 arc-minutes (apparent magnitude)


Visual Magnitude

5hrs 24.2mins RA & -24degrees 31.2mins DEC Lepus

8.5

How do I find it? M79 isn’t hard to find once you’ve identified the four primary stars of Lepus which resemble a lopsided rectangle. Next, locate Gamma and Beta Lepus. From Beta Lepus look approximately 4 degrees (3 finger widths) south for 5.5 magni-tude ADS 3954. This star will show easily in binoculars and reveal itself as a nice binary in a telescope. M79 is 1/2 a degree northeast of ADS 3954 and will show

in the same binocular field as almost an “echo star” reflection.

M80

Messier 80 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781 M80 contains a relatively large number of blue stragglers, stars that appear to be much younger than the clus-

ter itself. On May 21, 1860, a nova was discovered in M80 that attained a magnitude of +7.0. The nova, variable

star designation T Scorpii, reached an absolute magnitude of -8.5, briefly outshining the entire cluster.


Globular Cluster (NGC 6093,GCI 39)

Distance & Size 27,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

16hrs 27mins RA & –22degrees 58.5mins DEC Scorpius

8.5

How do I find it? Located midway in between alpha Scorpii (Antares) and beta Scorpii.

M81—Bode’s Galaxy

Due to its proximity to Earth, large size and active galactic nucleus (which harbours a supermassive black hole—70 million times our Sun), Messier 81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers. The galaxy's large size and relatively high brightness also make it a popular target for amateur astronomers.

Messier 81 was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774. Consequently, the galaxy is sometimes referred to as "Bode's Galaxy". In 1779, Pierre Méchain and Charles Messier re-identified Bode's object, which was sub-sequently listed in the Messier Catalogue.

Only one supernova has been detected in Messier 81.



Distance & Size 12 million light years The diameter is thought to be 95,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

09hrs 55.5mins RA & +69degrees 3.9mins DEC Ursa Major

6.9

How do I find it? Follow a line between Gamma and Alpha Ursae Majoris for about the same dis-tance.

M82—Cigar Galaxy

This starburst galaxy, Messier 82, is five times as bright as the whole Milky Way and one hundred times as bright as our galaxy's center.

In 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope revealed 197 young massive clusters in the starburst core. The average mass of these clusters is around 2×105M⊙, hence the starburst core is a very energetic and high-density envi-ronment. Throughout the galaxy's center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way Galaxy.

Forming a striking pair in small telescopes with nearby spiral M81, M82 is being physically affected by its larger neighbour. Tidal forces caused by gravity have deformed this galaxy, a process that started about 100 million years ago. This interaction has caused star formation to increase tenfold compared to "normal" galaxies.


Starburst galaxy (NGC 3034)

Distance & Size 12 million light years About 40,000 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude

09hrs 55.9mins RA & +69degrees 40.8mins DEC Ursa Major

9.5

How do I find it? M82 is extremely close to M81 (only about 150,000 light years away) and lies at about its north-west corner



M83—Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

The southern Pinwheel is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky, making it visible with binoculars.

Pierre Méchain discovered M83 in 1752 at the Cape of Good Hope. Charles Messier added it to his catalogue in March 1781.

On 16 June 2008 NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer project reported finding large numbers of new stars in the outer reaches of the galaxy. It had hitherto been thought that these areas lacked the materials necessary for star formation.

Six supernovae have been observed in M83.


Barred spiral galaxy (NGC 5236)

Distance & Size 15 million light years The galaxy has a diameter of about 45,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

13hrs 37mins RA & -29degrees 51.9mins DEC Hydra

8.5

How do I find it? Draw a line from Centaurus to Gamma Hydra and another vertically downwards from Spica. M83 is at the intersection of these lines.



M84

Messier 84 is situated in the heavily populated inner core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Radio observations and Hubble Space Telescope images of M84 have revealed two jets of matter shooting out

from the galaxy's centre as well as a disk of rapidly rotating gas and stars indicating the presence of a 1.5 ×109 solar supermassive black hole.

Charles Messier discovered Messier 84 on 18 March 1781. Two supernovae have been observed in M84.


Lenticular galaxy (NGC 4374)

Distance & Size 60 million light years It is about 140,000 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 25mins RA & +12degrees 53.2mins DEC Virgo

11

How do I find it? It is very difficult to find M84 on its own, so it is best to find M87 first and move just over 1 degree in its north-west direction. It is very close to M86.


- good overall view of the object…..

M85

Messier 85 was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. It is the northernmost outlier of the Virgo clus-ter discovered as of 2004.

The type I supernova, 1960R was discovered in M85 on Dec 20, 1960 and reached an apparent magnitude of 11.7. M85 is interacting with the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4394, and a small elliptical galaxy called MCG 3-32-38.


Lenticular galaxy (type S0) (NGC 4382)

Distance & Size 60 million light years Its diameter is about 110,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 25.4mins RA & +18degrees 11.5mins DEC Coma Berenices

10.5

How do I find it? M85 is in a sparse portion of the sky. It is about 10 degrees south of the open cluster Melotte 111 and too faint to see in a finderscope. It can only be seen in a

very clear sky.



M86

Messier 86, discovered by Charles Messier in 1781, lies in the heart of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies and forms a most conspicuous group with another giant, Lenticular Galaxy M84.

It displays the highest blue shift of all Messier objects, as it is approaching the Milky Way at 244 km/s. This is due to its falling towards the centre of the Virgo cluster from the opposite side, which causes it to move in the direction of the Milky Way.


Lenticular galaxy (NGC 4406)

Distance & Size 52 million light years M86 has a diameter of about 150,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 26.2mins RA & +12degrees 56.8mins DEC Virgo

11

How do I find it? It is very difficult to find M86 on its own, so it is best to find M87 first and move just over 1 degree in its north-west direction. It is very close to M84.

It lies in the Virgo cluster of galaxies.



M87—Virgo A

Messier 87 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. This galaxy is one of the fifteen Messier objects that belong to the nearby Virgo Cluster of galaxies. This galaxy may be on a highly elliptical orbit that is carrying it toward the cluster center, which is occupied by

the giant elliptical galaxy M87. The super massive black hole at the core of this galaxy has 107.9 solar masses, or about 80 million times the

mass of the Sun.


Supergiant elliptical galaxy (NGC 4486)

Distance & Size 53.5 million Light years It is about 110,000 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 31mins 59.2sec RA & +14degrees 25.6min DEC Coma Berenices

11

How do I find it? M88 is about 1.5 degrees to the northeast of M90, in the Virgo cluster of galax-ies. There is a double star at its southeastern tip.



M88

Messier 88, discovered in 1781 by Messier, who cataloged it as a nebulous feature. It is the second brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster. Unlike a disk-shaped spiral galaxy, Messier

87 has no distinctive dust lanes and it has an almost featureless, ellipsoidal shape that diminishes in luminosity with distance from the center.

At the core is a super massive black hole, which forms the primary component of an active galactic nucleus. This object is a strong source of multi-wavelength radiation, particularly radio waves.

The stars in this galaxy form about one sixth of its mass. As one of the most massive giant elliptical galaxies near Earth and one of the brightest radio sources in the sky, M87 is a popular target for both amateur astron-omy observations and professional astronomy study.



Distance & Size 47 million Light years Its diameter is about 125,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 30mins 49.4sec RA & +12degrees 23.5min DEC Virgo

11

How do I find it? In the Virgo constellation, draw a line from ε Virgo (Vindemiatrix) to o-Virgo (Omicron Virginis). From the mid point of this line, move about 2 degrees north

to find M87. It lies in the Virgo cluster of galaxies.



M89

Messier 89 was discovered by Messier on March 18, 1781. M89 is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Current observations indicate that M89 may be nearly perfectly spherical in shape. This is unusual, since all

other known elliptic galaxies are relatively elongated ellipsoids. The galaxy also features a surrounding structure of gas and dust extending up to 150,000 light-years from the

galaxy and jets of heated particles that extend 100,000 light-years outwards. This indicates that it may have once been an active quasar or radio galaxy.

M89 also has a large population of globular clusters.


Elliptical galaxy (NGC 4552)

Distance & Size 50 million light years It has a diameter of about 80,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 35mins 39.8sec RA & +12degrees 33.4min DEC Virgo 11.5

How do I find it? M89 is at the centre of the equilateral triangle formed by the galaxies M57, M87 and M90, in the Virgo cluster of galaxies.



M90

Messier 90 was discovered by Messier in 1781. It is a member of the Virgo Cluster. The galaxy is located approximately 1°.5 away from the subgroup centered

on Messier 87. The star formation in Messier 90 appears truncated. Consequently, the galaxy's spiral arms appear to be

smooth and featureless, rather than knotted like galaxies with extended star formation. Multiple supernovae in the nucleus have produced 'super winds' that are blowing the galaxy's interstellar me-

dium outward into the intra cluster medium. The spectrum of M90 is blue-shifted, which indicates that it is moving towards the Earth.



Distance & Size 60 million Light years The diameter of M90 is about 155,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 36mins 49.8sec RA & +13degrees 9.8min DEC Virgo

11

How do I find it? M90 forms the northern apex of an equilateral triangle with reference galaxies M87 and M57, in the Virgo cluster of galaxies.



M91

Messier 91 was initially described as a Nebula without stars. At a Messier position of 0.1' in right ascension and 1' in declination to M89, it is difficult to distinguish both

of them. It is also believed to be one of the faintest objects of the messier list.



Distance & Size 60000 (kly) 5.4×4.4 (arc min) (apparent dimension)


Visual Magnitude

12 : 35.4 (h:m) RA and +14 : 30 (deg:m) DEC Coma Berenices

10.2

How do I find it? The best way to locate M91 is to start with M88 and trace 50 deg E in a 1deg field of view. For M88, in the Virgo constellation, draw a line from ε Virgo

(Vindemiatrix) to o Virgo (Omicron Virginis) and is spotted at the mid point of this line, about 2 degrees north.

M92

M92 is one of the brighter globular clusters in the northern hemisphere, but it is often overlooked by amateur astronomers because of its proximity to the even more spectacular Messier 13. It is visible to the naked eye under very good conditions.

As the ecliptical coordinates for M92, longitude = 249.9 deg, latitude = 65.9 deg, indicate the Earth's North Celestial Pole which occasionally passes closer than 1 degree of this cluster, at periods of the precession of Earth's axis (about 25,800 years). So this cluster becomes a "Polarissima Borealis", or "North Cluster", in about 14,000 years (16,000 AD), as it was about 12,000 years ago (10,000 BC).


Globular cluster (NGC 6341)

Distance & Size 26,000 light year 14.0 (arc min)(apparent dimension)


Visual Magnitude

17 : 17.1 (h:m) RA and +43 : 08 (deg:m) DEC Hercules

6.4

How do I find it? Once you’ve identified the “keystone” asterism in the constellation of Hercules, finding Messier 92 is a snap. Simply draw a mental line between Pi and Eta, (the

widest part of the keystone and the northernmost two stars) and create a triangle in your mind. Now, focus at the apex of the of the triangle and look for a small, smudgy spot just to the north. Bright and easy, M92 can be spotted in small bin-

oculars and becomes recognizable as a globular cluster in larger models

M93

Best described as a star-fish shaped cluster, M93 is one of the last deep sky objects to be compiled in the mess-ier list.

The brightest stars of this cluster are blue giants of type B9 easily spotted sometimes even through the naked eye.


Open star cluster (NGC 2447)

Distance & Size 3.6 kly 22.0 (arc min) (apparent dimension)


Visual Magnitude

07 : 44.6 (h:m) RA and -23 : 52 (deg:m) DEC Puppis

6.0

How do I find it? To find M93, locate Omicron1 and Omicron2 about 8 deg SE of Sirius. On the same parallel declination as Omicorn2, the bright open cluster towards 10 deg E

is M93.

M94

Messier 94 is a spiral galaxy argued to contain the prototypical pseudobulge. A classical pseudobulge consists of a disk of gas and young stars that intersects a large sphere (or bulge) of older stars. In the case of M94, this pseudobulge takes the form of a ring around a central oval-shaped region.

It is also classified as having a low ionization nuclear emission region (LINER) nucleus. LINERs in general are characterized by optical spectra that reveal that ionized gas is present but the gas is only weakly ionized.


Barred spiral galaxy located in constellation Canes Ventaci (also known as NGC 4736)

Distance & Size 16.8 Mly 11.2 x 9.1 moa (apparent dimension)


Visual Magnitude

12hr 50min RA and 41(deg) DEC Canes Venatici

8.99

How do I find it? Locate the Cor Carolli and the alpha double star in the “Big Dipper” A hazy patch at the center of the these two stars is M94!

M95

The center of the galaxy M95 contains a ring-shaped circum nuclear star-forming region . It belongs to the constellation Leo. Aptly described as a lucid white nebula, on the lion’s ribs (leo) with only two small stars in the field!


Barred Spiral Galaxy (NGC 3351)

Distance & Size 38000 kly 4.4x3.3 (arc min) (apparent dimensions)


Visual Magnitude

10hrs 44mins RA & +11degrees 42min DEC Leo 11.4

How do I find it? Located in the belly of the constellation Leo towards the left of one of the brightest stars, Regulus.

M96

It is the brightest galaxy within the Leo I group(M96 group) of galaxies which also include M95 and M105 as well as at least 9 other galaxies.

The M96 has asymmetric arms and a displaced core, probably caused by the gravitational pull of other nearby galaxies.


Type SA spiral galaxy NGC 3368

Distance & Size 38millionLight years 66,000 light years wide


Visual Magnitude

10 hrs 46 mins RA & 11 degrees 49 mins DEC Leo Constellation

9.2

How do I find it? Locate Regulus, the brightest, southernmost star in the backwards question mark asterism. Now locate the westernmost star in the triangle asterism in Leo.M96 is

located south of the star in between the above stars.

M97-The Owl Nebula

The Owl Nebula gets its name due to the appearance of owl– like “eyes” when viewed through a large tele-scope under dark sky conditions with the aid of a “nebula filter”. The “eyes” are also visible through photo-graphs taken of the nebula.

Its appearance has been interpreted as that of a cylindrical torus shell (or globe without poles), viewed oblique, so that the projected matter-poor ends of the cylinder correspond to the owl's eyes.

As often for planetary nebulae, the Owl is significantly brighter visually (9.9 mag) than photographically (about 12.0 mag), as most light is emitted in one green spectral line.


Type 3a Planetary Nebula Owl Nebula, NGC 3587

Distance & Size 2,600 light years Radius of 1.5 light years


Visual Magnitude

11hrs 14.8mins RA & +55degrees 1min DEC Ursa Major constellation

9.9

How do I find it? The owl nebula is located slightly south of 1/3 rd of the distance Between beta and gamma ursa majoris.

M98

M 98 is a member of the Virgo Cluster, which is a large, relatively nearby cluster of galaxies. M 98 is one of the faintest objects in Messier's catalog. Messier 98 has a blue shift and is approaching us at about 140 km per second. M98 is nearly edge-on and displays a chaotic, diffuse disk, containing some blue regions of newly formed

stars, and a huge quantity of occulting dust, which reddens considerably the light of the central small but bright nucleus.


Intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 4192

Distance & Size 60 million light years 9.5×3.2 (arc min) (apparent dimension)


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 13.8mins RA & 14degrees 54min DEC Coma Berenices

10.1

How do I find it? Begin with the bright M84 pairing located in the heavily populated inner core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies about halfway between Epsilon Virginis and Beta

Leonis. Once identified, stay at the eyepiece and move your telescope north until you locate M99 and continue at least 3 or 4 more eyepiece fields. When you

reach a star pattern you are certain that you can identify, shift the telescope one eyepiece field to the west. Now sweep south for several eyepiece fields. If you

have not seen the slender scratch of M98, continue the process carefully one eye-piece field at a time.

M99

M99 is one of the brighter spiral members of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies.

It rotates clockwise and is unusually asymmetric.

Three supernovae have been recorded in M99.


Type Sc spiral galaxy NGC 4254

Distance & Size 60 million light years 5.4×4.8 (arc min)


Visual Magnitude

12 hrs 18.8 mins RA & 14 degrees 25 mins DEC Coma Berenices

9.9

How do I find it? Begin with the bright M84/84 pairing located in the heavily populated inner core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies about halfway between Epsilon Virginis and Beta Leonis. Once identified, stay at the eyepiece a move your telescope north until

you locate M99.

M100

M100 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. The galaxy has two prominent arms of bright blue stars and several fainter arms. The blue stars in the arms are

young hot and massive stars which formed recently from density perturbations caused by interactions with neighboring galaxies.

5 supernovae have been observed in M100 so far.


Type Sc, spiral galaxy NGC 4321

Distance & Size 60 million light years 7×6 (arc min)


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 22.9mins RA & 15degrees 49min DEC Coma Berenices

9.3

How do I find it? Locate the bright M84. Once identified, stay at the eyepiece a move your tele-scope north until you locate M99 and continue at least 3 or 4 more eyepiece

fields. When you reach a star pattern you are certain that you can identify, shift the telescope one eyepiece field to the east and continue northward for several eyepiece fields. If you have not seen the fairly large round patch of M100, con-

tinue the process carefully one eyepiece field at a time.

M101—The Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel galaxy is one of the most prominent Grand Design spiral galaxies ,shining with the light of about 30 billion suns.

While quite symmetric visually and in very short exposures which show only the central region, it is very asymmetric, its core being considerably displaced from the center of the disk. M101 is the brightest of a group of at least 9 galaxies, called the M101 Group.

With an estimated linear diameter of over 170,000 light-years, this is one of the largest disk galaxies known. Assembled from 51 exposures recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 20th and 21st centuries, with

additional data from ground based telescopes, this mosaic of M101 is touted as the largest, most detailed spiral galaxy view ever released from Hubble. The sharp image shows stunning features along the galaxy's face-on disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible right through M101 itself.


Galaxy( type Sc spiral galaxy) NGC 5457

Distance & Size 27 million Light years Diameter of over 170,000 Light years


Visual Magnitude

14hrs 3.2mins RA & +54degrees 21min DEC Ursa Major Constellation

7.9

How do I find it? M101 is easily located by finding the first star (Eta) in the handle of the “Big Dip-per” asterism in Ursa Major. It lays almost exactly the same distance north as the

distance between Eta and the second star in the handle -Zeta. Simply form a mental triangle with the northern apex as your target position.

M102—The Spindle Galaxy

M102 is the last of the "missing" Messier objects. It is a galaxy listed in the Messier Catalogue that has not been identified unambiguously. Its original discoverer Pierre Méchain later said that it was a duplicate observa-tion of Messier 101, but it is believed that it could be NGC 5866, although other galaxies have been suggested as possible identities.

M102 one of the brightest galaxies in the NGC 5866 group and is seen almost edge-on. It has a dust disk, which is highly unusual for a lenticular galaxy. It is possible that it is really a spiral galaxy misidentified as len-ticular because of its acute edge-on angle to the Earth. The dust disk is slightly warped compared to the disk of starlight.

A potentially interesting trivia about NGC 5866: With its elliptical latitude of about 67 degrees North, the Earth's North Celestial Pole passes within less than a degree of it, at periods of the precession of Earth's axis (about 25,800 years). So this galaxy was "Polarissima Borealis" about 6900 years ago (4900 BC) and will be-come again in 18900 years (20900 AD).


Lenticular Galaxy (NGC 5866)

Distance & Size 45 million Light years Not determined exactly because of edge-on angle


Visual Magnitude

15hrs 6.5min RA & +55degrees 46mins DEC Draco

9.9

How do I find it? It’s rough location is about 10 degrees east/northeast of Eta Ursa Major – or about 10 degrees south of Gamma Ursa Minor.

M103

M103 is one of the latest additions to the Messier catalog. It was also the last object to be included in the first publication of Messier's catalog.

This is an open cluster of about 40 stars that form an arrowhead shape. This bright cluster is an easy target for a pair of binoculars. A small telescope will be able to resolve the cluster's fainter stars.

The most obvious feature of M103 is the binary star Struve 131, with components at 7.3 and 10.5 magnitude. The two brightest stars that are actually cluster members are about 10.5 magnitude, and there is a prominent

red giant of magnitude 10.8. M103 is variously estimated from 9 million to 25 million years old.


Type D Open Cluster (NGC 581)

Distance & Size 8500 Light years 15 light years wide


Visual Magnitude

1hr 33.2mins RA & +60degrees 42min DEC Cassiopeia

7.4

How do I find it? A Diamond or arrow head shaped cluster, a little above the midpoint of the line joining Deneb and Capella.

It is about 1/2 a degree north and 1 degree east from Ruchbah (Delta Cassiopeiae) in the direction of Epsilon Cassiopeiae

M104—Sombrero Galaxy

M104 is an edge-on spiral galaxy that got its name from the sombrero hat-like appearance. It is the first object in the catalog that was not included in the original publication. Messier added it by hand

to his personal copy in 1781. M104 is characterized by a dark dust lane that spans the length of the galaxy's disk. The Sombrero is one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo cluster. There is a super massive black hole at

the center of the galaxy.


Type Sa Spiral Galaxy (NGC 4594)

Distance & Size 50 million light years 50,000 light years across


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 40mins RA & -11degrees 37min DEC Virgo 8.0

How do I find it? M104 is easily found exactly 11 degrees due west of Alpha Virginis (Spica). and 5.5° northeast of Eta Corvi.

M105

M105 is the brightest member of a group of galaxies in the constellation of Leo known as the M96 group. It is an elliptical galaxy located about 38 million light-years from Earth.

This object was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781. It was found 3 days earlier than M101 but was not in-cluded in the original publication of Messier's catalog.

The center of the galaxy has a core region that contains about 50 million times more mass than our own Sun because of the presence of a super massive black hole.


E1 Elliptical Galaxy (NGC 3379)

Distance & Size 38 million light years 5.3 x 4.8 arc-minutes


Visual Magnitude

10hrs 47.8mins RA & +12degrees 35min DEC 9.3 Leo

How do I find it? It lies on the line joining Regulus (Alpha Leo) and Arcturus (Alpha Bootes), about 1/4 the total distance from Regulus.

M106—Spiral Galaxy

Messier 106 was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781. It is receding from us at a relative velocity of 537 km/s. It is a Seyfert II galaxy, which means that due to unusual spectral lines it is believed to be falling into a super

massive black hole in the centre. The spiral arms apparently end in bright blue knots. These knots are most probably young star clusters which

are dominated by their very hot, brightest and most massive stars; the occurrence of these hot stars indicates that these clusters cannot be very old, as such massive stars have only a short lifetime of a few million years. So the blue knots show us the regions of very recent star formation!


Spiral Galaxy (NGC 4258, Type Sbp)

Distance & Size 23.7 million light years Radius about 1/24 to 1/12 light years (27000 AU to 54000 AU)


Visual Magnitude

12hrs 19mins RA & +47degrees 18mins DEC Canes Venatici

9.1

How do I find it? Extend the diagonal of the trapezium of the Big Dipper from Dubhe-Phad to the bright star in Canes Venatici known as ‘Cor Caroli’

The galaxy can be spotted about halfway from Phad to Cor Caroli

M107—Globular Cluster

Messier 107 was independently discovered by Pierre Mechain in April 1782 and Wiliiam Herschel in May 1793 It apparently contains some dark obscured regions, which is unusual for globular clusters. The star distribution

is "very open" enabling the interstellar regions to be examined more easily. It contains 25 variable stars. It is of intermediate metallicity and is approaching us at 147 km/s.



Distance & Size 20900 light years Roughly 80 light years in diameter


Visual Magnitude


7.9

How do I find it? Draw a line from Zeta Ophiuchus to Antares. About 1/4th the way from Zeta Ophiuchus to Antares is where you’ll spot the globular cluster of M107.

M108

Messier 108 is member of the Ursa Major cloud, a loose agglomeration of galaxies, and is receding at about 772 km/s.

The nearly edge-on galaxy appears to have no bulge and no pronounced core at all, it is just a detail-rich mot-tled disk with heavy obscuration along the major axis.

It is quite easy to spot for amateur astronomers and shows many details even with simple instruments.


Barred Spiral Galaxy (NGC 3556)

Distance & Size 45 million light years Diameter of about 95,000 light years & width about 31,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

11hrs 11.5mins RA & +55 degrees 40mins DEC Ursa Major

10

How do I find it? Draw a line from Merak to Phad. About 1/4th the way from Merak to Phad is where you’ll find the galaxy M108.

M109

Messier 109 is one of the “theta” shaped barred spiral galaxies which appears as a hazy spot.—it has a bright central core and a bar of stars which gives it the appearance of the Greek letter “Theta”.

It is a member of the Ursa Major cloud, a loose agglomeration of galaxies and is receding at a tremendous velocity of 1142 km/s.

M109 has three satellite galaxies (UGC 6923, UGC 6940 and UGC 6969) and possibly might have more.


Barred Spiral Galaxy (NGC 3992 Type SBc)

Distance & Size 55 million light years Diameter of about 110,000 light years


Visual Magnitude

11hrs 58mins RA & +53 degrees 23mins DEC Ursa Major

9.8

How do I find it? It can be found Just near Phad, a bit away from the trapezium.

M110

Messier 110, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, is a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy (M32). It has long been classified as peculiar due to its dust clouds and signs of recent star formation near its center. Unlike M32 NGC 205 does not show evidence for a super massive black hole in its centre. Although it was never added by Charles Messier in his list of Messier objects, it was depicted by him, together

with M32, in the drawing of Andromeda galaxy. In 1999 a nova was discovered in NGC 205 by Johnson & Modjaz.


Dwarf spheroidal Galaxy (NGC 205)

Distance & Size 2.9 million light years Major axis 14000 light years & minor axis 8500 light years


Visual Magnitude

0hrs 40mins RA & +41 degrees 41mins DEC Andromeda

8.0

How do I find it? Join Mirach (in Andromeda) and Shedir (in Cassiopeia). You can spot two more stars around 1/4 the way from Mirach to Shedir. M110 can be spotted just besides the second star on the line from Mirach along with the bright Andromeda Galaxy

(M32).

THE MESSIER MARATHON

The Messier Marathon is an exhaustive attempt by an astronomer to observe all 110 Messier Objects in a single night – usually occurring around Spring Equinox when all objects can be seen between dusk and dawn. The observer begins with objects which are low to the western horizon at sky dark, continuing eastward and finishing with the targets that are low to the east just before dawn. While no sequence list can be perfect for every observer at every location, the below list works well with mid-northern latitudes and can be modified to suit your needs.

Each year astronomy clubs and observing groups get together to run the “Messier Marathon”… an exhausting, yet wonderful time!

Messier Marathon Observing List 1. M77 spiral galaxy in Cetus 2. M74 spiral galaxy in Pisces 3. M33 The Triangulum Galaxy (also Pinwheel) spiral galaxy in Triangulum 4. M31 The Andromeda Galaxy spiral galaxy in Andromeda 5. M32 Satellite galaxy of M31 elliptical galaxy in Andromeda 6. M110 Satellite galaxy of M31 elliptical galaxy in Andromeda 7. M52 open cluster in Cassiopeia 8. M103 open cluster in Cassiopeia 9. M76 The Little Dumbbell, Cork, or Butterfly planetary nebula in Perseus 10. M34 open cluster in Perseus 11. M45 Subaru, the Pleiades–the Seven Sisters open cluster in Taurus 12. M79 globular cluster in Lepus 13. M42 The Great Orion Nebula diffuse nebula in Orion 14. M43 part of the Orion Nebula (de Mairan’s Nebula) diffuse nebula in Orion 15. M78 diffuse reflection nebula in Orion 16. M1 The Crab Nebula supernova remnant in Taurus 17. M35 open cluster in Gemini 18. M37 open cluster in Auriga 19. M36 open cluster in Auriga 20. M38 open cluster in Auriga 21. M41 open cluster in Canis Major 22. M93 open cluster in Puppis 23. M47 open cluster in Puppis 24. M46 open cluster in Puppis 25. M50 open cluster in Monoceros 26. M48 open cluster in Hydra 27. M44 Praesepe, the Beehive Cluster open cluster in Cancer 28. M67 open cluster in Cancer 29. M95 spiral galaxy in Leo 30. M96 spiral galaxy in Leo

http://www.universetoday.com/30311/elliptical-galaxy/

http://www.universetoday.com/19527/auriga/

31. M105 elliptical galaxy in Leo 32. M65 spiral galaxy in Leo 33. M66 spiral galaxy in Leo 34. M81 Bode’s Galaxy (nebula) spiral galaxy in Ursa Major 35. M82 Cigar Galaxy irregular galaxy in Ursa Major 36. M97 The Owl Nebula planetary nebula in Ursa Major 37. M108 spiral galaxy in Ursa Major 38. M109 spiral galaxy in Ursa Major 39. M40 Double Star WNC4 in Ursa Major 40. M106 spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici 41. M94 spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici 42. M63 Sunflower galaxy spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici 43. M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici 44. M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy spiral galaxy in Ursa Major (M102 may be a duplication of M101) 45. M102? Spindle Galaxy (NGC 5866) lenticular (S0) Galaxy in Draco 46. M53 globular cluster in Coma Berenices 47. M64 Blackeye galaxy spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices 48. M3 globular cluster in Canes Venatici 49. M98 spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices 50. M99 spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices 51. M100 spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices 52. M85 lenticular (S0) Galaxy in Coma Berenices 53. M84 lenticular (S0) galaxy in Virgo 54. M86 lenticular (S0) galaxy in Virgo 55. M87 Virgo A elliptical galaxy in Virgo 56. M89 elliptical galaxy in Virgo 57. M90 spiral galaxy in Virgo 58. M88 spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices 59. M91 spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices 60. M58 spiral galaxy in Virgo 61. M59 elliptical galaxy in Virgo 62. M60 elliptical galaxy in Virgo 63. M49 elliptical galaxy in Virgo 64. M61 spiral galaxy in Virgo 65. M104 The Sombrero Galaxy spiral galaxy in Virgo 66. M68 globular cluster in Hydra 67. M83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy spiral galaxy in Hydra 68. M5 globular cluster in Serpens Caput 69. M13 Great Hercules Globular Cluster globular cluster in Hercules 70. M92 globular cluster in Hercules 71. M57 The Ring Nebula planetary nebula in Lyra 72. M56 globular cluster in Lyra 73. M29 open cluster in Cygnus

http://www.universetoday.com/32834/canes-venatici/

http://www.universetoday.com/20405/coma-berenices/

74. M39 open cluster in Cygnus 75. M27 The Dumbbell Nebula planetary nebula in Vulpecula 76. M71 globular cluster in Sagitta 77. M107 globular cluster in Ophiuchus 78. M10 globular cluster in Ophiuchus 79. M12 globular cluster in Ophiuchus 80. M14 globular cluster in Ophiuchus 81. M9 globular cluster in Ophiuchus 82. M4 globular cluster in Scorpius 83. M80 globular cluster in Scorpius 84. M19 globular cluster in Ophiuchus 85. M62 globular cluster in Ophiuchus 86. M6 The Butterfly Cluster open cluster in Scorpius 87. M7 Ptolemy’s Cluster open cluster in Scorpius 88. M11 The Wild Duck Cluster open cluster in Scutum 89. M26 open cluster in Scutum 90. M16 open cluster associated with the Eagle Nebula or Star Queen Nebula IC 4703 in Serpens Cauda 91. M17 The Omega or Swan or Horseshoe or Lobster Nebula diffuse nebula in Sagittarius 92. M18 open cluster in Sagittarius 93. M24 Milky Way Patch star cloud with open cluster NGC 6603 in Sagittarius 94. M25 open cluster in Sagittarius 95. M23 open cluster in Sagittarius 96. M21 open cluster in Sagittarius 97. M20 The Trifid Nebula diffuse nebula in Sagittarius 98. M8 The Lagoon Nebula diffuse nebula in Sagittarius 99. M28 globular cluster in Sagittarius 100. M22 globular cluster in Sagittarius 101. M69 globular cluster in Sagittarius 102. M70 globular cluster in Sagittarius 103. M54 globular cluster in Sagittarius 104. 55 globular cluster in Sagittarius 105. M75 globular cluster in Sagittarius 106. M15 globular cluster in Pegasus 107. M2 globular cluster in Aquarius 108. M72 globular cluster in Aquarius 109. M73 open cluster in Aquarius 110. M30 globular cluster in Capricornus

Good luck!!

THE WEEK LONG MESSIER MARATHON

Are you ready to run the Messier Marathon? Doing all 110 objects in one night is both exhausting and rewarding… with no guarantee that night you choose will be clear. If you’d rather take your stars at a more leisurely pace – then follow along as we spread 110 of the best sky objects out over a week. The best time of year to do this is nearest to Spring Equinox and the best time to begin is just a few days before New Moon. Now, let’s hope for clear skies as we grab binoculars or telescopes and head out into the night.

Night One – This is going to be one incredibly busy week as we’re off to conquer the week long “Messier Marathon.” Beginning as soon as the sky darkens enough to find the guide star Delta Cetus, the M77 spiral galaxy will be your first, and the M74 spiral galaxy east of Eta Pisces will be your second mark. Both of these galaxies are telescopic only and will be an extreme challenge at this time of year due to their low position. Even computer-assisted scopes will have some difficulty revealing this pair under less than optimal conditions. Next up is M33 west of Alpha Triangulum. With ideal skies, the “Pinwheel Galaxy” could be seen in binoculars, but sky bright will make this huge, low surface brightness spiral difficult for even telescopes at low power. M31 – the Andromeda Galaxy – will, however, be a delightful capture for both binoculars and scopes just west of Nu Andromedae. For the telescope, two more on the list are companions to M31 – the elliptical M32 on the south-eastern edge and M110 to the northwest.

Let’s head northwest as we take on two open clusters visible to both telescopes and binoculars. You can find M52 easiest by identifying Alpha and Beta Cassiopeia, drawing a mental line between them and extending it the same distance northwest of Beta. Next just hop north of Delta to pick up our ninth object – the M103 open cluster. Time to head south towards Perseus and go back to the telescope to locate M76, the “Little Dumbbell” planetary nebula, just north of Phi. Binoculars are all that’s needed to see the M34 open cluster also in Perseus, located roughly halfway between the “Demon Star” Algol and lovely double Almach, Gamma Andromeda.

Now that skies are dark and the fastest setting objects are out of the way, we can take a moment to breathe as we view M45 – the Pleiades. The “Seven Sisters” are easily visible to the unaided eye high in the west and their cool, blue beauty is incomparable in binoculars or telescopes. Our next “hop” is with the “rabbit” Lepus as we go back to the south and identify Beta and Epsilon. Triangulating with this pair to the south is a nearly fifth magnitude star (ADS 3954) which will help you locate the small globular M79 to its northeast. At around magnitude 8.5, it is possible to see its very tiny form in binoculars, but M42 – the “Great Orion Nebula” is much easier. The next object, M43, is part of the Orion Nebula, and you will catch it as a small “patch” to the north-northeast. The next two objects, M78 northeast of Zeta Orionis and the M1 Crab Nebula northwest of Zeta Tauri, are both achievable in binoculars with excellent conditions, but are far more interesting to the telescope.

Now we can really relax. Take a few minutes and grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and get warmed up. The remaining objects on our observing list for tonight are all very easy, very well positioned for early evening, and all observable in just binoculars. Are you ready? Then let’s go.

M35 is just as simple as finding the “toe” of Gemini – bright Eta. A short hop to the northwest will capture this fine open cluster. The next stop is Auriga and we’ll go directly between silicon star Theta and southern Beta. About halfway between them and slightly to the east you will find open cluster M37. This time let’s use Theta and Iota to its west. Roughly halfway between them and in the centre of Auriga you will find M38 and a short hop southeast will capture M36. Now let’s get Sirius and finish this list for tonight. The open cluster M41 in Canis Major is found just as quickly as drifting south of the brightest star in the sky. The last three for tonight couldn’t be any easier – because we just studied them before. Go capture M93, M47 and M46 in Puppis… And give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back.

You’ve just conquered 24 Messiers.

Night Two – Ready for tonight’s challenge? Then nap away the very early evening hours and let’s head out well before bedtime to work on the next section of our week-long “marathon.”

First up will be four binocular targets, the incredibly colourful open cluster M50 is roughly a third of the way in a line drawn between Sirius and Procyon – use binoculars. Hydra is a difficult constellation, but try dropping south-southeast of the most eastern star in Monoceros – Zeta – about half a fist’s width to discover relatively dim open cluster M48. Far brighter, and usually visible to the unaided eye is M44, better known as the Beehive Cluster, just a scant few degrees north-northwest of Delta Cancri. From Delta, go south and identify Alpha because M67 is just to its west. It will appear as a “fine haze” to binoculars, but telescopes will find a spectacular “cloud” of similar magnitude resolvable stars.

Now we really do have to use the telescope again because we’re going “lion taming” by hunting galaxies in Leo. Let’s trade one Alpha for another as we head west to Regulus. Roughly about a fist width east of this major star you will see two dim stars that may require the use of the finderscope – 52 to the north and 53 to the south. We’re heading right between them. About a degree and a half south of 52, you will discover ninth magnitude elliptical M105. Larger scopes will also show two additional faint galaxies, NGC 3384 and NGC 3389 to M105′s west. Continuing about a degree south towards star 53 you will spot the silver-gray beauty of M96 in a relatively starless field. Enjoy its bright nucleus and wispy arms.

About another degree west will bring you to M95, which is neither as bright nor as large as its Messier “neighbour.” Small scopes should show a brightening towards its centre and large ones should begin to resolve out the arms of this awesome barred spiral. Our next

destination is the south-western star of the three that mark Leo’s “hips,” Theta Leonis – or more commonly called Chort. South of it you will see faint star 73 and right around one degree to its east-southeast you will locate a pair. In small scopes at low power, M65 and M66 are in the same field. The western M65 and eastern M66 are both beautiful spirals.

Now let’s head north for another “same field pair” of galaxies and hunt down M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. Many folks have trouble “star hopping” to these galaxies, but a very simple way of finding them is to draw a mental line between Phecda (Gamma) and Dubhe (Alpha). By extending that line beyond Dubhe almost the same distance, you’ll locate our next two “marathon” objects. At low power with a smaller scope, the southern-most and most pronounced of the two is the stunning M81 with its bright core. To the north is broken, spindle-shaped peculiar galaxy M82. Viewable in binoculars, we’ll study more about this pair later on as we head for Mirak (Beta) and our next galaxy. About a degree and a half southeast you will see a 10th magnitude “scratch” of light. This great edge-on galaxy – M108 – should show at least four brighter “patches” to the small scope and a nice dark dust-lane to larger ones. Continuing about another half degree southeast will bring you to the planetary nebula M97. Also known as the “Owl,” this 12th magnitude beauty is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter and can be spotted under optimal conditions with binoculars – but requires a large scope at high power to begin to discern its features. Let’s continue south to Phecda and less than half a degree to the east you will locate M109. In the field with Gamma, M109 will show its faded central bar and prominent nucleus to the small scope, but requires large aperture and high magnification to make out structure. The last in Ursa Major is an error on Messier’s part. Labelled as M40, this object is actually double star WNC 4, located in the same eyepiece field as 70 Ursae Majoris to the northeast.

Now let’s move into Canes Venatici and round up a few more. This is an area of dimmer stars, but the two major stars, Alpha (it is called Cor Caroli and it is a wonderful double star) and Beta are easily recognizable to the east of the last star in the “handle” of the “Big Dipper” (Eta). The northernmost is Beta and you will find the soft-spoken spiral galaxy M106 almost midway between it and Phecda less than 2 degrees south of star 3. M94 is a much brighter, compact galaxy and is found by forming an isosceles triangle with Alpha and Beta Canum with the imaginary apex towards Eta Ursae Majoris. M63 is a very pretty, bright galaxy (often known as “the Sunflower”) that approaches magnitude 10 and is found about one-third the distance between Cor Caroli and Eta Ursae Majoris (Alkaid). Still heading towards Alkaid (Eta UM), the incomparable M51 comes next. Near Eta you will see an unmistakable visual star called 24 CnV, the “Whirlpool” is the same basic distance to the southwest. Now that we’re back into “big bear country” again, we might as well head on to the M101 “Pinwheel” galaxy which is found by following the same trajectory and distance to the other side of Alkaid. Before we head on, let’s continue north and clean up… ummm… another “messy mistake.” The accepted designation for M102 is lenticular galaxy NGC 5866, located in Draco south east of Iota.

Now let’s finish up – it’s getting late. Our next stop will be to identify the three primary stars of Coma Berenices now high in the east above Arcturus. You will find small globular cluster M53 northeast of Alpha. One of the coolest galaxies around is M64 (known as the “Blackeye”) just a degree east-northeast of 35 Comae, which is about one-third the distance between Alpha Comae and Alkaid. The last, and most outstanding for the night, is a globular cluster that can be seen in binoculars – M3. As strange as this may sound, you can find M3 easily by drawing a line between Cor Caroli and Arcturus. Starting at Arcturus, move up about one third the way until you see Beta Comae to the west of your “line”… Poof. There it is.

Awesome job. We’ve just completed another 24 objects and we’ve claimed 48 on the Messier list before bedtime in two days.

Night Three – Our next set of Messier objects won’t be difficult to view as the “window of opportunity” in which we’ll be able to see them. Am I going to ask you to stay up past your bedtime? Darn right…

These next targets will be best viewed after midnight when the constellations of Coma Berenices and Virgo have well risen, providing us with the darkest sky and best position. For the large telescope, we are going to be walking into an incredibly rich galaxy field that we will touch on only briefly because they will become the object of future studies. Just keep in mind that our Messier objects are by far the brightest of the many you will see in the field. For the smaller scope don’t despair. These are quite easy enough for you to see as well and probably far less confusing because there won’t be so many of them visible. Now let’s identify the easternmost star in Leo – Denebola – and head about a fist width due East…

Our first will be M98, just west of star 6 Comae. It will be a nice edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. Next return to 6 Comae and go one degree southeast to capture M99, a face-on spiral known as the “Pinwheel” that can be seen in apertures as small as 4″. Return to 6 Comae and head two degrees northeast. You will pass two fifth magnitude stars that point the way to M100 – the largest appearing galaxy in the Coma/Virgo cluster. To the average scope, it will look like a dim globular cluster with a stellar nucleus. Now let’s continue on two degrees north where you will see bright yellow 11 Comae. One degree northeast is all it takes to catch the ninth magnitude, round M85. (Ignore that barred spiral. let’s keep moving…) Now, let’s try a “trick of the trade” to locate two more. Going back to 6 Comae, relocate M99 and turn off your drive. If you are accurately aligned to the equator, you may now take a break for 14 minutes. When you return the elongated form and near stellar nucleus of M88 will have “drifted” into view. Wait another two to three minutes and the faint barred spiral M91 will have joined the show in a one degree field of view? Pretty fun, huh?

Now let’s shift guide stars by locating bright Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis) almost due east of Denebola. Let’s hop four and a half degrees west and a shade north of Epsilon to locate one of the largest elliptical galaxies presently known – M60. At a little brighter

than magnitude 9, this galaxy could be spotted with binoculars. In the same telescopic low power field you will also note faint NGC 4647 which only appears to be interacting with M60. Also in the field is our next Messier, bright cored elliptical M59 to the west. (Yes, there’s more – but not tonight.) Moving a degree west of this group will bring you to our “galactic twin,” fainter M58. Moving about a degree north will call up face-on spiral M89, which will show a nice core region in most scopes. One half degree northeast is where you will find the delightful 9.5 magnitude M90 – whose dark dust lanes will show to larger scopes. Continue on one and a half degrees southwest for M87, one of the first radio sources discovered. This particular galaxy has shown evidence of containing a black hole and its elliptical form is surrounded by more than 4,000 globular clusters.

Just slightly more than a degree northwest is a same field pair, M84 and M86. Although large aperture scopes will see many more in the field, concentrate on the two bright cored ellipticals which are almost identical. M84 will drift out of the field first to the west and M86 is east. Next we will select a new guide star by going to 31 Virginis to identify splendid variable R about a degree to its west. We then move two degrees northwest of R to gather in the evenly lighted oval of M49. Now shifting about three degrees southwest, you will see a handsome yellow double – 17 Virginis. Only one-half degree south is the large face-on spiral, M61. Larger scopes will see arms and dust lanes in this one. Last for tonight is to head for the bright blue beauty of Spica and go just slightly more than a fist width (11 degrees) due west. M104 – the “Sombrero” galaxy – will be your reward for a job well done.

Congratulations. You’ve just seen 17 of the finest galaxies in the Coma/Virgo region and our “Marathon” total for three days has now reached 65. We’re over halfway home…

Night Four – How about if we try an “early to bed and early to rise” attitude and conquer these next objects well ahead of the dawn? Set your alarm for 3:00 am, dress warm and let’s dance.

With Corvus relatively high to the south, the drop is about five degrees to the south-south east of Beta Corvi. Just visible to the unaided eye will be the marker star – the double A8612. Eighth magnitude M68 is a bright, compact globular cluster in Hydra that will appear as a “fuzzy star” to binoculars and a treat to the telescope. Our next is tough for far-northern observers, for the “Southern Pinwheel” – M83 – is close to ten degrees southeast of Gamma Hydrae. (This is why it is imperative to get up early enough to catch this constellation at its highest.)

Now we’re going to make a wide move across the sky and head southeast of brilliant Arcturus for Alpha Serpentis. About 8 degrees southwest you will find outstanding globular cluster M5 sharing the field with 5 Serpens. Now locate the “keystone” shape of Hercules and identify Eta in its northwest corner. About one-third of the way between it and Zeta to the south is the fantastic M13, also known as the “Great Hercules Globular Cluster.” A little more difficult to find is the small M92 because there are no stars to guide you. Try this trick – Using the two northernmost stars in the “keystone,” form an

equilateral triangle in your mind with its imaginary apex to the north. Point your scope there. At sixth magnitude, this compact globular cluster has a distinct nucleus.

Now we’re off to enjoy summer favourites and future studies. M57, the “Ring Nebula,” is located about halfway between Sheilak and Sulafat. You’ll find the small globular M56 residing conveniently about midpoint between Sulafat and Alberio. About 2 degrees south of Gamma Cygni is the bright open cluster M29. And equally bright M39 lays a little less than a fist width to the northeast of Deneb. If you remember our hop north of Gamma Sagitta, you’ll easily find M27, the “Dumbbell Nebula,” and the loose globular, M71, just southwest of Gamma. All of the objects in this last paragraph are viewable with binoculars (albeit some are quite small) and all are spectacular in the telescope.

And now we’ve made it to 76 on our “Messier Hit List.”

Night Five – So, are you having fun yet? Now we’re moving into early morning skies and looking at our own galactic halo as we track down some great globular clusters. What time of day, do you ask? Roughly two hours before dawn…

Ophiuchus is a sprawling constellation and its many stars can sometimes be hard to identify. Let’s start first with Beta Scorpii (Graffias) and head about a fist’s width to the northeast. That’s Zeta and the marker you will need to locate M107. About one quarter the way back towards Graffias, you will see a line of three stars in the finder. Aim at the centre one and you’ll find this globular in the same field. Now go back to Zeta and you will see a pair of similar magnitude dim stars higher to the northeast. The southernmost is star 30 and you will find the M10 globular cluster about one degree to its west. M12 is only about three degrees further along to the northeast. Both are wonderfully large and bright enough to be seen in binoculars.

Now we need to identify Alpha in Ophiuchus. Head toward Hercules. South of the “keystone” you will see bright Beta Hercules with Alpha Hercules to the southeast. The next bright star along the line is Alpha Ophiuchi and globular cluster M14 is approximately 16 degrees south and pretty much due east of M10. Now let’s head for bright Eta Ophiuchi (Sabik) directly between Scorpius and Sagittarius. The next globular, M9, is about three and a half degrees southeast.

Now let’s move on to an easier one. All you need to know is Antares to find the globular cluster M4 in Scorpius. All you have to do is aim your binoculars there, for this diffuse giant is just a little over one degree to the west. Go back to Antares and shift about four degrees to the northwest and you’ll find compact, bright globular M80. It will be very small in binoculars, but it’s quite bright. Going back to the scope is best for M19, although it’s easy to find around seven degrees due east of Antares. The last for this morning is M62 about a half a fist’s width to the south.

Hey, you’re doing terrific. Some of these are tough to find unless you’ve had practice… But now we’re up to a total of 85.

Night Six – Ready to get up early again? I know it’s hard, but what we’re after this morning is truly worth it. These are some of the most beautiful objects in the sky.

The lower curve of Scorpius is quite distinctive and the unaided eye pair you see at the “stinger” is beautiful double Shaula (Lambda) and its slightly less bright neighbour Upsilon. Aim your binoculars there and head towards the northeast and you cannot miss M6, the “Butterfly Cluster.” Below it and slightly east is a hazy patch, aim there and you will find another spectacular open cluster M7, often known as “Ptolemy’s Cluster.”

Now go north and identify Lambda Aquilae and you will find M11, the “Wild Duck” open cluster just to the west. About the same distance away to the south/southwest you will spot M26, another open cluster. These are all great binocular targets, but it will take an exceptionally dark, clear sky to see the Eagle Nebula associated with the M16 easy open cluster about a fist’s width away to the southwest. Far easier to see is the “Nike Swoosh” of M17 just a little further south. Many of you know this as the “Omega” or “Swan” nebula. Keeping moving south and you will see a very small collection of stars known as M18, and a bit more south will bring up a huge cloud of stars called M24. This patch of Milky Way “stuff” will show a wonderful open cluster – NGC 6603 – to average telescopes and some great Barnard darks to larger ones.

Now we’re going to shift to the southeast just a shade and pick up the M25 open cluster and head due west about a fist’s width to capture the next open cluster – M23. From there, we are dropping south again and M21 will be your reward. Head back for your scope and remember your area, because the M20 “Triffid Nebula” is just a shade to the southwest. Small scopes will pick up on the little glowing ball, but anything from about 4″ up can see those dark dust lanes that make this nebula so special. You can go back to the binoculars again, because the M8 “Lagoon Nebula” is south again and very easy to see.

This particular star hop is very fun. If you have children who would like to see some of these riches, point out the primary stars and show them how it looks like a dot-to-dot “tea kettle.” From the kettle’s “spout” pours the “steam” of the Milky Way. If you start there, all you will need to do is follow the “steam” trail up the sky and you can see the majority of these with ease.

Our Messier total has now risen to 98…

Night Seven – OK, folks… It’s “crunch time” and the first few on this list will be fairly easy before dawn, but you won’t have long before the light steals the last few from the sky.

At the top of the “tea kettle” is Lambda. This is our marker for two easy binocular objects. The small M28 globular cluster is quite easily found just a breath to the north/northwest. The larger, brighter and quite wonderful globular cluster M22 is also very easily found to Lambda’s northeast. Now we’re roaming into “binocular possible” but better with the telescope objects. The south-eastern corner of the “tea kettle” is Zeta, and we’re going to hop across the bottom to the west. Starting at Zeta, slide southwest to capture globular

cluster M54. Keep heading another three degrees southwest and you will see the fuzzy ball of M70. Just around two degrees more to the west is another globular that looks like M70′s twin. Say good morning to M69.

Now it’s really going to get tough. The small globular M55 is out there in “No Man’s Land” about a fist’s width away east/south east of Zeta and the dawn is coming. It’s going to be even harder to find the equally small globular M75, but if you can see Beta Capricorn it will be about a fist’s width southwest. Look for a “V” pattern of stars in the finder and go to the north-eastern star of this trio. You should be able to put it in the same low power field. Without the “square” of Pegasus to guide us, look low to the east and identify Enif by its reddish colour. (Delphinus above it should help you.) Power punch globular M15 is to Enif’s northwest and you should be able to see the star on its border in the finderscope. Let’s be thankful that M2 is such a fine, large globular cluster. The hop is two thirds of the way between Enif and Beta Aquarius, or just a little less than a fist’s width due west of Alpha.

Let’s hope that Beta is still shining bright, because we’ll need to head about a fist’s width away again to the southwest to snag what will now be two very dim ones – the M72 globular cluster and M73 open cluster just west of Nu Aquarius. We’re now running just ahead of the light of dawn and the M30 globular cluster is our last object. Hang on Delta Capricornus and show us the way south/southwest to star 41. If you can find that, you’ve got the very last one…

We’ve done the Messier Catalogue of all 110 objects in just one week!

Is this a perfect list with perfect instructions? No way. Just like the sky, things aren’t always perfect. This is just a general guideline to helping you find the Messier objects for yourself. Unless you are using a computer-guided scope, it truly takes a lot of practice to find all the Messiers with ease, so don’t be discouraged if they just don’t fall from the sky. You might find all of these in one year or one week – and you just might find all of them in one good night. Regardless of how long it takes you – or when the skies cooperate – the beauty, joy and reward is the peace and pleasure it brings.

Source: http://www.universetoday.com


REFERENCES

www.universetoday.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.seds.org

www.apod.nasa.gov/apod/messier.html

www.google.com


http://www.wikipedia.com/

http://www.seds.org/

http://www.apod.nasa.gov/apod/messier.html

http://www.google.com/

The Messier Objects Catalogue

Education

Transcript of The Messier Objects Catalogue