M64 The Black Eye Galaxy / Copyright 2012 Robert D. Vickers, Jr.
I have consolidated all of my Messier object sketches onto a new page entitled (not surprisingly) Messier Sketches. These observations and sketches were made between 21 November 1998 and 5 September 2001.
Charles Messier (1730-1817) was a comet hunter who made a list of over one hundred objects that might be, at first glance, mistaken for a comet. Messier didn’t know what these objects were, just that they were not comets. As it turns out they were distant star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies – many of the best and brightest in the night sky. Who knew?
Observing all the objects on his list is nowadays taken as a rite of passage for beginning deep sky observers. I decided to sketch them just for fun and to have a better record of my observations.
Bob, very nice work on the sketches. Haven’t had the chance to check them all out, but looking forward to it.
Thanks, Rodney. Those were done several years ago. I’ve got a notebook of Caldwell Objects that I am scanning in now. I will upload them next.
Bob