Posts Tagged ‘Charles Messier’
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Renown 18th century astronomer Charles Messier described this 9th entry in his famous astronomical catalog as "Nebula, without star, in the right leg of Ophiuchus ...". But Messier 9 (M9) does have stars, known to modern astronomers as a globular cluster of over 300,000 stars within a diameter of about 90 light-years. It lies some 25,000 light-years distant, near the central bulge of our Milky Way galaxy. Messier 9 ... Full Story
Sky Tonight—January 22, Faint, fuzzy object near
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org A reader wrote, "On November 4, I went to study the constellation Orion, but first I had to see the star Sirius and there was a glimmer below Sirius and upon looking, it seemed to be a very nice comet. Has anyone else seen this? I am a newby … (and) would like someone to verify if they see this. I am quite up and excited." It was not a comet, but very likely was a lovely star cluster called M41. So, the ... Full Story
Earthsky Tonight, January 11, 2010: Fuzzy object near
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org A reader wrote, On November 4, I went to study the constellation Orion, but first I had to see the star Sirius and there was a glimmer below Sirius and upon looking it seemed to be a very nice comet. Has anyone else seen this? I am a newby … (and) would like someone to verify if they see this. I am quite up and excited. It wasn’t a comet, but very likely was a lovely star cluster called ... Full Story
