Messier Objects

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Messier observations 1-10 of 110 total to date.

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Catalog #	Thumbnail	Title/link	Description
M1		M1 / Crab Nebula / Sh2-244	The Crab Nebula was discovered by John Bevis in 1731, and cataloged by Messier on August 28, 1758: "Nebula above the southern horn of Taurus, it doesn't contain any star; it is a whitish light, elongated in the shape of a flame of a candle, discovered while observing the comet of 1758.". <--> This is a classic target, long thought to be a supernova remnant due to its location in Taurus and accounts by Chinese Astronomers of a July 1054 "new star" that appeared in the sky and shown in daylight for 23 days. In my capture it resembles an oval membrane covered with a network of bright pink and less-bright teal-blue filaments, presumably dimly ionized gas. Today it's a relatively easy capture with a modern CMOS camera. I'd always wondered why it was called the Crab Nebula... then saw the sketch by Lord Rosse (see gallery) while researching this post. I realized through an eyepiece, even a powerful one, you see only the bright parts of the nebula and markings which, if you squint at the photo, indeed look like a crab. Messier mistook this object for Halley's Comet in 1758, which inspired him to being cataloging his list and accounts for its designation as M1. I've also included an observation I made in December of 2022 with my Evo 9.25 with reducer. The greater light gathering power of the 9.25 allows the blue veins to be slightly more visible. Visual observation can't prove this is a supernova remnant, but radio and x-ray observations find the object is illuminated by a pulsing, neutron star which is indeed definitive proof of a supernova remnant.
M2		M2 / NGC 7089	M2 was discovered by the French astronomer Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746, and "rediscovered" by Messier on September 11, 1760: "Nebula without star in the head of Aquarius, its center is brilliant, & the light surrounding it is round; it resembles the beautiful nebula which is situated between the head & the bow of Sagittarius [M22].... M. Messier has reported this nebula on the chart of the track of the comet observed in 1759". William Herschel was the first to resolve its individual stars in 1783. <--> M2 ranks 10th in both Apparent Magnitude among Messier GCs at 6.47 and diameter (16'). It appears slightly ellipsoidal, with several dozen giant stars visible. Unclear from the Nov 2024 capture what color they are; I've included at the end of the gallery an image I captured in September of 2023 that suggests they are they are both red and yellow.
M3		M3 / NGC 5272	This was the first Messier object to be discovered by Charles Messier himself on May 3, 1764, representing a gap of nearly 4 years from the recording of M2. This personal discovery seemed to inspire Messier, since he went on to catalog another 37 objects (through M40) before the end of the year. As usual, he described M3 as a "nebula" (a blur): "Nebula discovered between Bootes & one of the Hunting Dogs of Hevelius [Canes Venatici], it doesn't contain any star, its center is brilliant, & its light is gradually fading away, it is round.... It is reported on the chart of the comet observed in 1779. Memoirs of the Academy of the same year". William Herschel, 20 years later, was the first observer to resolve individual stars within the cluster. <--> This is a lovely Globular Cluster, exhibiting a fair number of blue and red-giant stars. It ranks 5th among Messier GCs in brightness at apparent magnitude of 6.19 and seventh in apparent size (18').
M4		M4 / NGC 6121 / Spider Cluster	M4 was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and catalogued by Charles Messier on May 8, 1764, only 5 days after M3: "Cluster of very small [faint] stars; with an inferior telescope, it appears more like a nebula; this cluster is situated near Antares & on its parallel". <--> M4 is much less dense than other Messier GC's. I believe this is the ONLY GC in the Messier catalog where he was able to resolve individual stars. Compare it to his description of M3, for example: "it doesn't contain any star, its center is brilliant, & its light is gradually fading away." Or, more tersely in many other, later objects: "Nebula without stars". M3 is the second brightest GC in the Messier catalog at Apparent Magnitude 5.63 and the largest at 36'. The "Spider" cluster is an appropriate nickname and exhibits an unusual line of brighter stars just slightly off-center, evincing the spider's "back". This was an opportunistic capture on a night when the weather forecast did not predict observable weather. When it turned clear, I quickly set up the SeeStar. This time of year I'm normally using my 8" EdgeHD... but the SeeStar's focal length suits this target nicely with its wider field of view: The poor transparency resulted in a "brownish" tinge to the original image (visible in the "annotated" gallery image). I was able to adjust the color-balance in the final gallery images to reveal both blue and red giant stars.
M5		M5 / Rose Cluster / NGC 5904	M5 was discovered by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1702 when he was observing a comet. Charles Messier discovered it independently on May 23, 1764, a gap of 15 days since M4 and 4 objects (M5-M8) this same date: "Beautiful Nebula discovered between the Balance [Libra] & the Serpent [Serpens].... [I]t doesn't contain any star; it is round, & one sees it very well, in a fine [clear dark] sky, with an ordinary refractor of 1-foot [FL]. M. Messier has reported it in the chart of the comet of 1763". William Herschel was the first to resolve this cluster into stars; he counted 200 of them with his 40-foot [FL] reflector in 1791, "although the middle is so compressed that it is impossible to distinguish the components." <--> M5 is the third brightest and largest GC in the catalog at AM 5.63, and 21.6' diameter, respectively. The diameter includes the loose halo of stars surrounding the central core. So while may be the largest cluster, it is far from the largest globular core. This is my favorite Messier GC, and I've captured it many times. I show two here, with the most recent my favorite and featured. Messier clusters are a "goto" on a full moon night, as they're so bright that, if it's clear, you can still achieve an observation of beauty. However, the most recent capture was made early in the morning where the moon had nearly set, contributing to the better color balance than in the other from April, 2024. Both are color-balance corrected but you can see the red giant and blue stars clearly in the 2025 capture. I've included the pre-color adjusted image FYI for the 2024 capture which was badly distorted by the full moon conditions.
M6		M6 / NGC 6405 / Butterfly Cluster	Credit for the discovery is usually given to Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1746. Charles Messier observed the cluster on May 23, 1764, the same date as M5 through M8: "Cluster of small stars between the bow of Sagittarius & the tail of Scorpius. At simple view [to the naked eye], this cluster seems to form a nebula without stars; but even with the smallest instrument one employs for investigating one sees a cluster of small [faint] stars." <--> Located at declination -32°. this is one of the most challenging objects in the Messier catalog to observe from my location in the Catskills, at 42° N latitude. At best, it appears low in the southern sky, well below the trees in my back yard. M6 is the second lowest of the low just slightly west of M7. I decided to travel to the Ashokan Reservoir, which is an hour drive from my house and delivers a very low southern horizon... taking a chance that it wouldn't get wiped out by light pollution close to the horizon. As it turned out, it was fine. Luckily it was pretty much due south, just west of the meridian. The Reservoir is a beautiful dark site, but the ESE horizon is blown out below 20° because of light pollution from Poughkeepsie, 20 miles away, and NYC, 100 miles. My observing location was on top of a dyke holding back a big part of NYC's water supply. Being elevated, it allowed me to observe down to the "true" horizon. I struggled with a cold breeze coming off the water, even in early September. This is one of the more convincing open clusters in the Messier Catalog, and deserves its nickname of the "Butterfly Cluster". The two antennae trigger the illusion. There's excellent L/R symmetry in the "wings", with the upper wing continuing the illusion. The lower wing is not quite so comprehensive, but still adequate.
M7		M7 / NGC 6475 / Ptolemy Cluster	Named for the Greek/Roman astronomer Ptolemy, who described this open cluster as a Nebula in 130 AD. Messier cataloged it on May 23, 1764, the same date as M5 through M8: "Star cluster more considerable than the preceding [M6]; this cluster appears to the naked eye like a nebulosity; it is little distant from the preceding, placed between the bow of Sagittarius & the tail of Scorpius." <--> M7 is the most southerly of all Messier objects at -34.8°. I traveled to a dark site at the Ashokan Reservoir in order to capture it (see M6) on a pretty decent night. What's fun about this object is it's located on top of the Milky Way so you see hints of the galactic center and dark nebula in the background. At my latitude, the object was already down to 12° when it became dark enough to begin imaging, and I had another half dozen targets to capture in the southern area of the sky close to the meridian. Considering only 4 minutes of integration, I think the Seestar did a decent job of capturing the background as well as the open cluster.
M8		M8 / Lagoon Nebula / Sh2-25	The Lagoon Nebula was discovered by Giovanni Hodierna before 1654[5] and is one of only two star-forming nebulae faintly visible to the eye from mid-northern latitudes (the other being the Great Orion Nebula). This is the final object Messier cataloged on May 23, 1764, the same date as M5 through M8: "A cluster which appears in the shape of a nebula when observed with an ordinary telescope of 3 feet [FL]; but with an excellent instrument one perceives nothing but a large quantity of small [faint] stars; near this cluster is a fairly bright star, surrounded by a very faint glow". <--> I've provided two observations here, about 4 days apart. The initial visit captured the Lagoon Nebula effectively, but was inadvertently framed to cut off the Trifid Nebula (M20) - 3rd image in gallery. The return visit, was properly framed to show M20 in context (gallery images 1 & 2) but seeing and transparency were inferior to the first night. Obviously -- with today's technology -- M8 and M20 are part of the same HII star-birthing complex. 18th century telescopes had narrow fields of view, limited resolving power, and lacked filters to allow naked-eye observation of the HII cloud which is the dominant feature of the complex to modern eyes. I struggled to identify Herschel's "hourglass" which he called out as an important feature. I realized that, in order to bring out the connection between M20 and M8 I had completely blown out the bright core and obscured the "hourglass". I went back to SharpCap's unstretched stack, and there it was (4th image in gallery). Clearly the single brightest feature in the complex. But something I'd completely "blown out" in all of my previous observations.
M9		M9 / NGC 6333	M9 was Messier's personal discovery #2 in the list, after M3, on May 28, 1764 a gap of 5 days: "Nebula, without star, in the right leg of Ophiuchus; it is round & its light is faint". It wasn't until William Herschel paid it a visit in 1783 that individual stars were resolved. <--> M9 is a "middling" globular cluster, ranking 21st out of 29 GC's in the catalog in terms of Apparent Magnitude (7.72), and 13th in terms of apparent size at 12'. These rankings are based on a table I found in Wikipedia listing all known Globular Clusters. It is in some cases inconsistent with the individual Wikipedia articles on each GC but is (hopefully) internally consistent. My featured images, taken in March 2025, show M9 in its context of a dense star-field with a looming dark nebula, and a second, tiny GC (NGC 6342) nearby. The early-morning observing conditions were quite good. My second observation is from May of 2024 and shows a close-up of the cluster itself, captured with my EdgeHD on a full moon night. It required some fairly aggressive color correction, but indicates at least some of the blue and red-giant stars in the center.
M10		M10 / NGC 6254	This is object #3 discovered by Messier himself on May 29, 1764: "Nebula, without stars, in the belt of Ophiuchus.... This nebula is beautiful & round; one can only see it with difficulty in an ordinary telescope of 3-feet [FL]." <--> M10 ranks 10th in brightness and 5th in size among Messier GC's. Too bad Messier couldn't see the beautiful blue giant stars that liberally accent the surface. It's highly symmetrical and, as best I can measure, roughly as tall as it is wide.

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