Overview of messier Catalogue

Messier objects refers to the 1 10 celestial body listed by the famous French astronomer Charles Messier in the nebula cluster table in the middle of the 8th century. Throughout his life, messier compiled this catalogue of celestial bodies observed in the sky with a small-caliber telescope, covering nebulae, clusters and galaxies in every corner of the visible sky in the northern hemisphere. These are all deep-space celestial bodies that can be easily observed with telescopes, and they are also the favorite celestial bodies for amateur astronomers today. Messier himself is a comet hunter. He compiled this catalogue of celestial bodies in order to record the celestial bodies that look like comets instead of comets in the sky, so that he would not be confused by these celestial bodies when looking for real comets. 1774 The first edition of the Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters recorded 45 celestial bodies, numbered from M 1 to M45. 1780 increased to M70. The final version of the nebula cluster table published the following year collected 103 celestial bodies to M 103. At present, there are 1 10, M 104 to m10 in messier objects, which were added by later generations and discovered by messier and his friend Pierre Umeka, but not listed in the catalog of nebula clusters.

Messier (1730.6.26-1817.4.12), in messier's time, nebula was a term used to indicate any obscure light source in the deep sky. 175 1 year, messier was a famous French astronomer J.N. Delil's astronomical observation draftsman and recorder. He was the first person in France to observe the expected return of Halley's comet in 1758- 1759.

Since then, messier has become an enthusiastic seeker of new comets. King Louis XV of France once called him a "comet hunter". Messier discovered 13 comet independently, and observed many other comets. 1760, in order to better distinguish between nebulae and comets, he began to make a list of nebulae. The two celestial bodies looked the same in his small telescope at that time. Until now, many of the most famous nebulae are still called by the numbers in the messier Nebula Cluster Table, and the celestial bodies in the table are the best objects for modern astronomy enthusiasts to test telescopes.

Messier objects, also known as messier Star, refers to about 100 celestial bodies listed in the table of nebula clusters compiled by French astronomer messier in the18th century. Messier himself is a comet Seeker. He compiled this catalogue of celestial bodies in order to record the celestial bodies that look like comets instead of comets in the sky, so that he would not be confused by these celestial bodies when looking for real comets.

In the catalog, every celestial body is numbered with the prefix m, for example, the Crab Nebula is M 1. The table lists *** 1 10 celestial bodies, most of whose brightness is within 10, which can be seen with a small astronomical telescope.

Astronomers use a new catalog of nebulae and clusters, called NGC catalog for short, which includes 7840 nebulae and clusters. There is a supplement to the NGC catalog, called the IC catalog, which includes 5836 galaxies in the nebula cluster. The 1 10 M object in the messier catalog is the essence of NGC and IC catalogs, and it is also the most spectacular and beautiful object in the sky. Many M celestial bodies are living specimens for astronomers to study the evolution of celestial bodies. For example, valuable information about the late evolution of stars can be obtained from the M 1 nebula, and spectacular scenes of star birth can be obtained from M8, M 16 and M42.

Description: The messier Nebula Cluster Table was published in 1784, and only 103 celestial bodies were included. The seven celestial bodies numbered 104 ~ 1 10 in this table were added by later generations. In the table, column 1 is Maynard number, column 2 is (new general catalogue) number, column 3 and column 4 are Gregorian coordinate in 2000, column 5 is apparent size (unit: angular minutes), column 6 is total luminosity (visual magnitude), column 7 is distance (unit: thousand light years), column 8 is constellation and column 8 is constellation.