M44 is an open cluster located about 610 ly away in the constellation of Cancer.
As it is so close it is best viewed with binoculars or wide-field telescope. It does appear to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch in the sky.
M44 is an open cluster located about 610 ly away in the constellation of Cancer.
As it is so close it is best viewed with binoculars or wide-field telescope. It does appear to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch in the sky.
M21 is an open cluster located about 3900 ly away in the constellation of Sagittarius.
At only 6.6 million years old the cluster will still have more massive, hot stars among the longer lived less massive, cooler stars.
NGC 2346 is a planetary nebula located about 4800 ly away in the constellation of Monoceros.
It is a bipolar PN, meaning it isn't round but has two lobes moving into space.
M66 (left) is a spiral galaxy located about 31 Mly away in the constellation of Leo.
Along with M65 (right) and NGC 3628, make up the Leo Triplet of galaxies.
M77 is a spiral galaxy located about 35 Mly away in the constellation of Cetus.
It is a type II Seyfert galaxy, meaning that is contains an active supermassive black hole in its core.
M57, The Ring Nebula, is a planetary nebula located about 2600 ly away in the constellation of Lyra.
Kinematic studies of M57 suggest that it is barrel shaped. It appears as a ring to us because we are looking down the barrel.
This shows that much of the way we see things in space can be a projection effect.
NGC 5866 is a lenticular galaxy located about 50 Mly away in the constellation of Draco.
NGC 5866 is the most likely candidate for M102, a Messier object the location of which is ambiguous.
Its blizzard-y out…
@W6KME I can't imagine doing the registration of two plates by hand...
One of the ways we search for objects in the solar system is to take an image, wait for a period of time, then take another image and see what moved.
This GIF animation shows Pluto on two separate nights. See if you can find it.
M47 is an open cluster located about 1600 ly away in the constellation of Puppis.
When Messier added this object to his list he put the wrong sign on how far it was from the star he used as a reference, causing confusion.