What are Messier Objects?

Tiffany Alago

March 1, 2009

Prof. Layden

ASTR 309

IntroductionThroughout the night as the earth rotates

our sky changes, and so does the sky where we stand.

The information that continues is the results of a Messier marathon. How many Messier objects can you see in one night?

The answer is you never know for sure. If you ask yourself that question everyday, you would most likely get a different answer each day.

PurposeThe purpose of this project is to give a brief description of Messier objects:

What are they?What are some different types?To show what do some look like.What’s important or interesting about

them?

GoalsPart of the work of this project was to take the best

quality pictures possible. In order to achieve this goal one had to put in practice and improve the skills learned in class, which includes:

Planning your night – what are you observing and when are you going to observe it?

Checking and predicting the weather.Proper use of the CCD camera.Proper use of the 0.5m telescope.

Messier ObjectsCharles Messier is the first astronomer to come up

with a systematic catalogue of deep sky objects.

In the Messier catalog there are currently 110 deep sky objects.

Some of the types of deep sky objects include:Galaxies – spiral, irregular, ellipticalNebulae – planetary, diffuseGlobular clusters

Open clusters

M 35Open cluster Right Ascension:

06h08.9m

Declination: +24°20m

Visual Brightness: 5.3 mag

Apparent Dimension: 28.0 arc min

Exposure time of image: 12 s

M 35This open cluster is

located in Gemini.

Discovered by Philippe Loys de Cheseaux.

Was catagolized in 1745 or 1746.

At a distance of 2,800 light years

Includes several hundreds of stars. Last count was of 513 stars

Of intermediate age.

Includes some post-main sequence stars: with some red and orange giants of spectral type G to K

M42Star forming NebulaeRight Ascension:

05h35.4m

Declination: -05°27m

Visual Brightness: 4.0 mag

Apparent Dimension: 85 x 60 arc min

Exposure time of image: 12s

M42Is an emission and reflection nebula, with an

open cluster in Orion.Also known as the Orion Nebula.Is one of the brightest starforming nebulae and

one of the brightest diffusion nebulae in the skyIt is a big object, considered to cover four

times the area of the full moon.Located 1,600 light years away.Is a very turbulent cloud of gas and dust,

hence it’s gaseous nature.

M42This nebula is said to be located in the sword

of Orion.Under good night sky conditions it can be

clearly visible to the naked eye.Is considered one of the brightest of all deep

sky objects and is one of the most studied.

M44Open ClusterRight Ascension:

08h40.1m

Declination: +19°59m

Visual Brightness: 3.7 mag

Apparent Dimension: 95.0 arc min

Exposure time of image: 4s

M44Also known as Praesepe or the Beehive cluster.

Includes about 200 stars.

Is about 577 light years away.

Has an estimated age of about 730 million years old.

Contains some red giants, white dwarfs and one blue star.

M44Mythology behind M44 is that “Greeks and

Romans saw this "nebula" as the manger (Greek:

Phatne) associated with two asses who eat from it;

Asellus Borealis, the Northern Ass and Asellus

Australis, the Southern Ass. Erathosthenes

reported that these were the asses on which the

gods Dionysos and Silenus rode into the battle

against the Titans.

M44The titans were frightened by the animals'

braying so that the gods won. As a reward,

the asses were put in sky together with

Phatne.” (Frommert and Krongberg)

M53Globular ClusterRight Ascension:

13h12.9m

Declination: +18°10m

Visual Brightness: 7.3 mag

Apparent Dimension: 13.0 arc min

Exposure time of image: 20s

M53Discovered by John

Elert Bode in 1775.

Is a globular cluster (NGC 5024) in Coma Berenice.

Has stars within the horizontal branch and some red giants.

Is 60,000 light years away from the galactic center.

Is below average of “metallicity” compared to other globular clusters.

Contains 47 known RR Lyrae variable stars!!!

M64Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

12h56.7m

Declination: +21°41m

Visual Brightness: 8.5 mag

Apparent Dimension: 9.3x54 arc min

Exposure time of image: 45s

M64Also known as the Blackeye galaxy or the Sleeping

Beauty Galaxy.

Was discovered by Eward Pigott in 1779.

A characteristic feature of this galaxy is the dark dust pattern that surrounds it.

The distance of has not been very well determined.

Includes cepheid variable stars!!!

M65Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

11h18.9m

Declination: +13°05m

Visual Brightness: 9.3 mag

Apparent Dimension: 8x1.5 arc min

Exposure time of image: 30s

M65Discovered in 1980 by

Charles Messier.

Also is NCG 3623 within Leo.

Forms part of the Leo Triplett (M66 and NGC 3628).

Has a luminous disk populated by old stars.

Located 35 million light years away.

M66Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

11h20.2m

Declination: +12°59m

Visual Brightness: 8.9 mag

Apparent Dimension: 8x2.5 arc min

Exposure time of image: 20s

M66Discovered by Charles Messier in 1780.

Is NGC 3627 in Leo and also forms part of the Leo Triplett.

It’s spiral arms are deformed as result of encounters with other members of the Leo Triplett.

Is 35 million light years away.

M 67Open ClusterRight Ascension:

08h50.4m

Declination: +11°49m

Visual Brightness: 6.1 mag

Apparent Dimension: 30 arc min

Exposure time of image: 20s

M67Discovered by Johann

Gottfried Koehler approximately in 1779.

The oldest of Messier’s open clusters.

Close to 3.2 billion years old.

Is NGC 2682 within Cancer.

Expected death… in another 5 billion years!!

Has a red giant branch and a main sequence that end in hot blue.

Has counted till now 500 stars, 200 of them being white dwarfs!

Is the perfect object to observe when studying sun-like type stars.

M81Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

09h55.6m

Declination: +69°04m

Visual Brightness: 6.9 mag

Apparent Dimension: 21x10 arc min

Exposure time of image: 65s

M81Also known as the Bode’s Galaxy. NGC 3031 in

Ursa Major.Discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774.Has a distance of 11 million light years away.On March 28, 1993 a type II supernova occurred

in M81, which was discovered by the Spanish amateur astronomer Francisco Garcia Diaz!!!

Has a population of 210(+/- 30) globular clusters!!Is the cause for M82 initial deformation from an

encounter millions of years ago.

M82Irregular GalaxyRight Ascension:

09h55.8m

Declination: +69°41m

Visual Brightness: 8.4 mag

Apparent Dimension: 9x4 arc min

Exposure time of image: 18s

M82As M81, it was also

discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774.

NGC 3034 in Ursa Major.

Famous for it’s heavy starforming activity.

Prototype member of the class of Star Bursting Galaxies!!!

Only 12 million light years away.

Has one true and one false supernova reported:False: (1986D) - a slightly variable 2-micrometer source had fooled the discoverers.

True: (2004am) – discovered at the Lick Observatory.

M94 Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

12h50.9m

Declination: +41°07m

Visual Brightness: 8.2 mag

Apparent Dimension: 7x3 arc min

Exposure time of image: 40s

M94NGC 4736 in Canes Venatici.Discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781.Has an extremely bright inner region surrounded by

a ring of active starforming regions.The distance has yet to be fully determined.Relatively young/adult cluster.One of the relatively rare galaxies in which two

“waves" of stellar formation can be observed.

M95Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

10h44.0m

Declination: +11°42m

Visual Brightness: 9.7 mag

Apparent Dimension: 4.4x3.3 arc min

Exposure time of image: 60s

M95Discovered by Pierre

Méchain in 1781.

Is NGC 3351 within Leo.

Is a barred spiral galaxy.

One of the faintest Messier objects.

Is 41 million light years away.

Has cepheid variables!!!

Was one of the galaxies in the key project of the Hubble Space Telescope for the determination of the Hubble constant.

M98Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension: 12h13.8m

Declination: +14°54m

Visual Brightness: 10.1 mag

Apparent Dimension: 9.5x3.2 arc min

Exposure time of image: 25s

Look close, zoom in… it’s there

M98Is NGC 4192 in Coma Berenices.

Discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781.

It has been argued to be a Virgo Cluster member.

“Shows a chaotic, diffuse disk, containing some blue

regions of newly formed stars, and a huge quantity

of occulting dust.” (Frommert and Kronberg)

Also one of the faintest Messier objects.

M105Elliptical GalaxyRight Ascension:

10h47.8m

Declination: +12°35m

Visual Brightness: 9.3 mag

Apparent Dimension: 2.0 arc min

Exposure time of image: 75s

M105Discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781.

Is NGC 3379 in Leo.

Only 38 million light years away.

Contains a massive central object of about 50 million solar masses.

M106Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

12h19.0m

Declination: +47°18m

Visual Brightness: 8.4 mag

Apparent Dimension: 19x8 arc min

Exposure time of image: 25s

M106NGC 4258 in Canes

Venatici.

Discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781.

Has a distance of 21 to 25 million light years.

It resembles somewhat the Andromeda galaxy M31.

The arms have bright blue star clusters that must have been recently formed.

The active center also emits jets!!!

A supernova, 1981K, occurred in M106 in August 1981.

M108Spiral GalaxyRight Ascension:

11h11.5m

Declination: +55°40m

Visual Brightness: 10.0 mag

Apparent Dimension: 8 x 1 arc min

Exposure time of image: 90s

M108NGC 3556 within Ursa Major.

Discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781.

Appears to have no bulge and no pronounced core at

all.

Approximately 45 million light years away.Has a a detail-rich mottled disk with heavy

obscuration along the major axis.A type II supernova 1969B occurred in M108 on Jan

23, 1969.

Sky conditions the night of the Messier Marathon.

At 11pm sky was clear.Not very dark, some light pollution.The moon was in a smaller phase (meaning

not full and not too bright).Around 3am we started getting some patches

of clouds.At 4:10pm the sky was fully clouded and

seemed less darker.

ConclusionAll of these images where taken at the Bowling Green State

University Observatory with the 0.5 meter telescope.To get a quality image while taking pictures with a CCD

camera a lot of things need to be considered:Visual magnitude of object

Lof the object in the skyExposure timeHighest count possible with CCD cameraFilters being used.

The goal is to take the best picture possible when using the CCD camera and the factors mentioned before affect the focus and saturation of the image. It take practice, comfort and patience to achieve this goal.

Works CitedFrommert, Hartmut, and Christine Kronberg. “The Messier

Catalog.” The Munich Astro Archive. 30 Aug. 2007. SEDS. 28 Feb. 2009 < http://www.maa.clell.de>

However I used a more specific link created from this website. One for each Messier object, which are the following:

http://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m035.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m042.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m044.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m053.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m064.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m065.html

Works Citedhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m066.html

http://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m067.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m081.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m082.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m094.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m095.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m098.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m105.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m106.htmlhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/m108.html