Sketches of the Messiers

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.