APOD: 2026 May 14 Б The Messier Catalog at Uniform Scale
Explanation:
What are some of the most interesting astronomical objects you can see in the night sky?
Armed with a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you can look for the
very popular objects in the Messier Catalog.
Most of them, but not all, are also visible from the southern half of the Earth.
The featured image shows all 110 objects in the catalog at uniform scale -- the same magnification.
Charles Messier created the catalog in the 18th century.
He was interested in comets, and his catalog was a list of known comet-like "objects to avoid" in the sky when observing or hunting for comets.
The deep sky objects in the catalog include a supernova remnant (the
Crab Nebula, M1), other galaxies (such as
Andromeda, M31), nebulae (e.g. the
Orion Nebula, M42, a star-forming region) and stellar clusters (such as the
Pleiades, M45, a bright young open cluster).
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
