The Messier Catalogue

Charles Messier compiled this, the most famous of all star catalogues, in 1774 and contained 45 objects. His primary interest was in comet hunting and these nebulous objects caused him some confusion - hence his need to catalogue them once and for all. His original catalogue was supplemented by his friend Pierre Méchain bringing th etotal number of sources to 103. Seven additional objects were added in the twentieth century.



M31


M31 = The Andromeda Galaxy, the closest sprial galaxy to the Milky Way. (The Magellanic Clouds are closer but these are not sprials.) This is the most distant object visible to the naked eye, and the largest of the Local Group of Galaxies, which includes our own Milky Way.


Distance: 2.3 million light-years
Mass: 30 billion solar masses
Type of object: Galaxy
Magnitude: 3.4
Right ascension (J2000.0): 00h 42m 44.4s
Declination (J2000.0): +41° 16' 08"
Constellation: Andromeda
Galactic longitude: 121.17°
Galactic latitude: -21.57°
Surface brightness: 12.6 mag/sq arcmin
Size: 178.0'x40.0'
Position angle: 35°


See also:

NOVA IN M31 [IAU Circular Number 7516]


M51 = The Whirlpool Galaxy


X-rays from a rare type of supernova in the Whirpool Galaxy were recently observed, thanks to the fine resolution of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The team of researchers also detected a large number of point-like X-ray sources due to black holes and neutron stars in binary star systems. [Harvard's Chandra Website]


M40


This is a double star not a galaxy or nebular


M73


A group of 4 stars but not a true cluster.


M91


The position of this source is not clear from Messiers original catalogue


M101 & M102


This is actually the same object!

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