Thursday 9 November 2017

Space Stuff - Messier Objects Part 1

Charles Messier (1730 - 1817) was a French astronomer who spent much of his life identifying various star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, and other notable occupants of our glorious heavens. Ironically, it wasn't even his aim to create a comprehensive list or catalogue of interesting sights - he actually did it purely as part of his efforts to hunt down comets which was his primary goal - but make a list he did, and such was the importance of it and the many discoveries on it, the list of 'Messier Objects' has remained in regular use to this day by amateurs and professionals alike.

This could be down to the fact that the list contains many of the biggest, brightest, and best-known (and therefore most popular) objects to be found. Indeed, many of us will have grown up seeing or hearing about a lot of them, myself included, without ever knowing what they are or even what they're called. There are 110 objects in Messier's catalogue too, which means simpletons like me often forget about some or get others mixed up, so I figured it might be worth listing them here. The first such post is therefore thus. The pics should all be 1200x900, hope you like them :)

M1 / Supernova Remnant
"Crab Nebula"
M2 / Globular Cluster

M3 / Globular Cluster
M4 / Globular Cluster

M5 / Globular Cluster
M6 / Open Cluster
"Butterfly Cluster"

M7 / Open Cluster
"Ptolemy Cluster"
M8 / Nebula with Cluster
"Lagoon Nebula"

M9 / Globular Cluster
M10 / Globular Cluster

M11 / Open Cluster
"Wild Duck Cluster"
M12 / Globular Cluster

M13 / Globular Cluster
"Great Globular Cluster in Hercules"
M14 / Globular Cluster

M15 / Globular Cluster
M16 / Nebula
"Eagle Nebula"

M17 / Nebula
"Omega Nebula"
M18 / Open Cluster

M19 / Globular Cluster
M20 / Nebula
"Triffid Nebula"

M21 / Open Cluster
M22 / Globular Cluster
"Sagittarius Cluster"

M23 / Open Cluster
M24 / Open Cluster
"Sagittarius Star Cloud"

M25 / Open Cluster
M26 / Open Cluster

M27 / Nebula
"Dumbbell Nebula"
M28 / Globular Cluster

M29 / Open Cluster
"Cooling Tower"
M30 / Globular Cluster

M31 / Spiral Galaxy
"Andromeda Galaxy"
M32 / Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy

M33 / Spiral Galaxy
"Triangulum Galaxy"
M34 / Open Cluster

M35 / Open Cluster
M36 / Open Cluster

M37 / Open Cluster
M38 / Open Cluster

M39 / Open Cluster
M40 / Double Star
"Winnecke 4"

2 comments:

  1. Great pics Simon! Did not realise you were into Astronomy. Do you have a telescope? I used to have one and hope to one day be able to afford a good one!

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    1. Thanks :)

      I've been into astronomy since before I was into games I think. I actually started an astronomy blog too but I just didn't have time to keep both going to I stuck to this one. I don't even have much time for this page these days! :(

      I don't currently have a telescope, though I used to have a medium level one, but I'm reading about spacey stuff :P

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