Date: March 15, 2009
Title: The Messier Objects
Podcaster: Ed Sunder
Organization: Flintstone Stargazing http://flintstonestargazing.com
Description: When anyone gets interested in astronomy, one of the things that is talked about almost immediately are the Messier Objects. What are they? How do you observe them? Which are the most interesting? Where do they come from? These questions will be answered in this podcast.
Bio: Ed has been observing since he first looked through his telescope and saw Jupiter and her moons in June, 2007. Since then he’s observed and imaged the entire Messier catalog and is outside looking at the stars from his driveway pretty much every clear night
Today’s Sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by the American Association of Variable Star Observers, the world’s leader in variable star data and information, bringing professional and amateur astronomers together to observe and analyze variable stars, and promoting research and education using variable star data. Visit the AAVSO on the web at http://www.aavso.org/
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Ed Sunder and I’m an amateur astronomer in Flintstone Georgia. I’ve been doing astronomy for the past year and a half and recording my journey at my blog, flinstonestargazing.com.
I’d like to welcome you to the March 15th edition of the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. Today’s post is titled, “The Messier Objects”.
Charles Messier was a famous 18th century astronomer who was particularly interested in comets. During his lifetime, he discovered 13 of them. But it is not Messier’s comets that cause his name to be mentioned regularly at any astronomy club meeting. It is his catalog of what have become known as the Messier Objects.
Charles Messier, while observing the night sky, and particularly while looking for comets, discovered (or at least documented) 110 deep sky objects. These objects have become known as the Messiers and are generally referred to as M1 or M31 or M110 and so on. One of the reasons for documenting these was simply to advance the science of astronomy, but it’s also thought that his object list was created to ensure that these objects would not be confused with comets. The reason they could be confused is that through a telescope with lower light gathering power, such as those Messier used, many deep sky objects look like cotton balls, which is what comets also look like. The major difference was that these deep sky objects did not move across the sky as comets did. Therefore, if you found an object and checked its coordinates against this list you could figure out if you were seeing something that had been seen already. Even though Charles Messier used very large telescopes, some of the best of his day, because of the materials used, his best observing was equivalent to around a 3 or 4 inch refractor. What this means is that pretty much all of these objects are visible even with simple telescopes (or in many cases binoculars) from a dark sky site.
Let’s talk about what kinds of objects are in the Messier Catalog. It turns out that among the 110 objects that there are representatives of every kind of deep sky object. Galaxies, open clusters, planetary nebulae, globular clusters, reflection nebulae and a double star (we’ll get to that later) are all to be found in abundance in the catalog. In terms of the brightest deep sky objects, there are only a few that aren’t in this catalog. As a result, many amateur astronomers, such as me, have set a goal of viewing the entire Messier catalog. Some people even attempt what are called Messier Marathons where they attempt to view all 110 objects in a single night. Because of the location of the objects in the sky, this can only be done during March or early April and most folks like to do it when there is a new moon to maximize dark skies. This year, the optimum date falls on March 26, just 11 days from now, but you could do it any time between the 22nd and the 29th of March. That is, if you’re crazy. And I am, indeed crazy. If the weather is good and it’s not absolutely freezing, I’m hoping to do my own marathon. I’ll post results on my blog. I also may cheat by doing it on a couple days successively. In order to pull it off, you pretty much have to observe nearly nonstop from sundown to sunup.
Getting back to the catalog itself, it wouldn’t be astronomy if there weren’t some controversy and with the catalog, there is controversy indeed. To start with, M104 through M110 were not included in the final version of the catalog published by Messier. During the 1900’s observations of these 7 other objects were found in Messier’s (or his assistant’s) notes and they have been included as M104 through M110 ever since. There are probably some purists out there who don’t count those 7 objects. I think that’s silly. M40 is a double star – the only one in the catalog. He cataloged this while looking for something reported by another astronomer, which he did not find. Some people believe that Masseur Messier may have actually misrecorded his observations. Controversy also surrounds M102. Due to a possible handwriting problems or a mistake in recording, there is a bit of confusion as to whether M102 is NGC 5866, NGC 5879 or perhaps just M101. At this point in time, I think most folks would come down on the side of the galaxy NGC5866. I know that the folks at Meade have come down on that side, because that’s where their goto software points my scope.
Now that you know a bit about the objects, if you’ve got a telescope, or binoculars for the brighter stuff, you can take a look at some of these famous objects yourself. To start with, right now M45, also known as the Pleiades, is visible a bit west of straight overhead right after sunset. This open cluster is visible to the naked eye and is really nice through binoculars. Through a telescope, you may be able to see a bit of nebulosity surrounding these very bright stars and in images, M45 is one of the most beautiful sights to photograph in the entire night sky. M42 is the Orion Nebula, also visible to the naked eye as the middle “star” of the Sword of Orion. Those two are the ones most easily visible to the naked eye even in somewhat light polluted skies, though M31, the Andromeda galaxy, is also visible using averted vision in skies with some light pollution. From a true dark sky site, a large number of other Messiers are also visible. In terms of looking through a telescope, M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy is nice as is M104, the Sombrero galaxy. In my scope, I can just make out the dust lane across M104. M81 and M82, Bode’s galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy are a nice pair in the northern sky. As a matter of fact, I really like all of the galaxies in the Messier catalog. In terms of globular clusters, M13, the Great Hercules Cluster, is my personal favorite. If seeing conditions are good, through my scope I feel like I can start to make out stars in this beautiful cluster. M2 is another quite nice cluster. My personal favorites though have to be the planetary nebulas. These nebulas have nothing to do with planets. They are nebulas created by stars going nova. M27, the Dumbell Nebula (I think it should be called the apple core nebula, but I’m not in charge) is wonderful in the scope. It’s possible to make out the overall dumbbell structure to it and it’s a wonderful imaging target. M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra, is just stunning in the telescope. You’re just cruising along and all of a sudden there is this bright ring. It’s really beautiful as you pump up the magnification. M76, the Little Dumbbell Nebula is tough to see and not that spectacular. And M97 rounds out Messier’s planetary nebulae. It’s known as the Owl nebula and when you see it, you know why. There are many more wonderful objects in the catalog, but I don’t have time to list them all.
Now you need to get out and observe them. At the least, check them out online – there are many wonderful images of these spectacular sights on the web. If you want to see what each of them looks like, you can also check out my website, flintstonestargazing.com where I have images of all 110 Messier objects (though the images are not nearly as spectacular as what the real imaging pros do).
I hope you get a chance to get out and take a look at these wonderful objects. Perhaps you’ll become as obsessed as I am. If you do get out and take a look, I would love it if you would leave me a comment about what you see on my blog.
This has been Ed Sunder wishing you clear skies.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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