Messier 31 Andromeda Galaxy
Messier 31, which is better known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is a large spiral galaxy located in the constellation Andromeda. The Andromeda Galaxy was named after the area of the sky that it occupies, the…
Messier Objects
Messier 30
Messier 30 may originate from one of Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, as it moves in a retrograde orbit through the galaxy’s inner halo. It was created more than 13 billion years ago. Like many other…
Messier 29
Messier 29 is relatively small, occupying an area of 7 arc minutes in the sky, or a quarter the size of the full Moon. However, without the dust of the Milky Way obscuring the cluster,…
Messier 28
Messier 28 was the first globular cluster discovered to contain a milisecond pulsar, a pulsating, highly magnetized rotating neutron star emitting a beam of electromagnetic radiation with a rotational period between 1 and 10 miliseconds….
Messier 27 The Dumbbell Nebula
Spotted by Charles Messier in 1764, the Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) was the first planetary nebula ever discovered. With the planet-like appearance through a small telescope, it would seem that this is a bit of…
Messier 26
An interesting feature of Messier 26 is a region of low star density near the nucleus. A hypothesis was that it was caused by an obscuring cloud of interstellar matter between us and the cluster. Nevertheless, Messier 26, also…
Messier 25
Messier 25 contains 601 known members. The cluster is home to two giant stars of the spectral type G and appears to contain two M-class giants which are not really members of the cluster. With an…
Messier 24 Sagittarius Star Cloud
Messier 24, otherwise known as the Sagittarius Star Cloud, is an absolutely massive star cloud. It is claimed that viewing M24 through binoculars provides the observer with “the densest concentration of individual stars that can…
Messier 23
Messier 23 is a bright, large open star cluster located in the constellation Sagittarius. M23 has an estimated age of at least 220 million years, which makes it one of the older known open clusters in…
Messier 22 Sagittarius Cluster
With a visual magnitude of 5.5, M22 is the brightest globular cluster visible from the mid-northern latitudes. However, as it lies in the southern constellation Sagittarius, M22 never rises very high in the sky and…