The Messier List: Conquering the Virgo-Coma Region of Galaxies

Once you become interested in amateur astronomy, you´ll quickly run across Charles Messier´s list of 110 deep sky objects. In fact, many names were probably already familiar--the Crab Nebula (M1), the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Orion Nebula (M42/43), the Ring Nebula (M57) and perhaps the Hercules Cluster (M13). Our spring skies contain many galaxies in the Virgo-Coma Berenices region with 15 of them appearing on Messier´s list. How do you go about finding and identifying them in an area so small? Galaxies are hard enough to hunt by themselves but with so many, including numerous non-Messier objects, how do you avoid becoming frustrated in the search? See the complete article...

Messier Galaxies: Dim and Dimmer

Let's face it; galaxy hunting can be a daunting task. Many are dim, being slightly brighter than the background sky glow. They show little or no detail and their edges are not sharp. Often finding them is an accomplishment in itself. Published magnitude values indicate the total brightness of an object as if it was concentrated in a single point. They do not represent how an object would appear when that light is spread across its area. A galaxy with a relatively bright magnitude can appear very dim if its light is smeared across a large area. What is needed is a value that combines the total brightness of a galaxy with its total area. That value is known as surface brightness. There are two very large and seemingly very bright Messier galaxies which can be difficult targets to find. Their surface brightness values are the lowest among the 39 Messier galaxies. M33, even though its apparent size is larger than the full moon, is notorious for being difficult to detect. M101 is even worse. How to see these large dim objects, Messiers "Dim and Dimmer?" See the complete article...

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