Messier Objects

1. Messier Objects

2. Messier Objects Charles Messier (1730 – 1817) was a French astronomer who is most noted for his observational discoveries of interstellar objects and a catalog of known objects under his study. *Intended to find comets. His famous catalogue was actually a list of objects to avoid when comet hunting.

3. Messier Objects Messier’s original intention was to find and chart comets, including Halley’scomet. While finding previously discovered comets and finding new ones, he inadvertently discovered other deep spaceobjects. Messier started a catalogueof these newly discovered objects. His first discovery was the crab nebula, which was designated as M1.

4. Messier Objects In his first year, Messier discovered 19new objects. By 1771, (his first discovery was in 1757) Messier had catalogued 65objects. The final publication of the Messier Catalogue, as it was now known, consisted of 103objects. Sevenmore objects were added to the catalogue posthumouslymaking the final tally 110 Messier Objects.

5. Messier Objects • The Messier Catalogue is still used by astronomers, including amateurstoday. • The Messier Catalogue contains examples of the five types of deep space objects:

6. 1. Diffuse Nebula

7. 2. Planetary Nebulae

8. 3. Open Clusters

9. 4. Globular Clusters

10. 5. Galaxies

11. 1. M1 – Crab Nebula

12. 2. Lagoon Nebula

13. 3. M31 – Andromeda Galaxy

14. 4. M42 - Orion Nebula

15. 5. M101 – Pinwheel Galaxy