🔭 The Messier Catalogue

In the 1770s the French comet-hunter Charles Messier compiled a list of the fuzzy, comet-like objects that kept interrupting his searches — 110 of them in the final, expanded catalogue. Today they are the Messier objects: the brightest galaxies, nebulae and star clusters in the sky, and the backbone of every amateur astronomer’s “Messier marathon”. Every object is below, grouped by what it actually is, each linked to its own page and its home constellation.

Galaxys (40)

A vast, gravitationally-bound system of stars, gas and dust — from small irregular collections to giant spirals containing a trillion suns. Most Messier galaxies are island universes far beyond the Milky Way.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy · M32 Andromeda Satellite #1 · M33 Triangulum/Pinwheel Galaxy · M49 · M51 Whirlpool Galaxy · M58 · M59 · M60 · M61 Swelling Spiral Galaxy · M63 Sunflower Galaxy · M64 Black Eye Galaxy · M65 Leo Triplet · M66 Leo Triplet · M74 Phantom Galaxy · M77 Cetus A · M81 · M82 Cigar Galaxy · M83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy · M84 · M85 · M86 · M87 Virgo A · M88 · M89 · M90 Carabin Galaxy · M91 · M94 Crocodile Eye · M95 · M96 · M98 · M99 · M100 Mirror Galaxy · M101 Pinwheel Galaxy · M102 Spindle Galaxy · M104 Sombrero Galaxy · M105 · M106 · M108 Surfboard Galaxy · M109 Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy · M110 Andromeda Satellite #2

Globular clusters (29)

A dense, spheroidal ball of hundreds of thousands of old stars orbiting a galaxy’s halo. Through a small telescope they look like fuzzy stars; in a large one they resolve into glittering swarms.

M2 · M3 · M4 Spider Globular Cluster · M5 Rose Cluster · M9 · M10 · M12 · M13 Great Hercules Cluster · M14 · M15 Great Pegasus Cluster · M19 · M22 Great Sagittarius Cluster · M28 · M30 Jellyfish Cluster · M53 · M54 · M55 Specter Cluster · M56 · M62 Flickering Globular · M68 · M69 · M70 · M71 Angelfish Cluster · M72 · M75 · M79 · M80 · M92 · M107 Crucifix Cluster

Open clusters (26)

A loose, young family of a few dozen to a few thousand stars born together from the same gas cloud and drifting apart over time. The Pleiades are the most famous example.

M6 Butterfly Cluster · M7 · M11 Wild Duck Cluster · M18 Black Swan Cluster · M21 · M23 · M25 · M26 · M29 Cooling Tower Cluster · M34 Spiral Cluster · M35 Shoe-Buckle Cluster · M36 Pinwheel Cluster · M37 Salt and Pepper Cluster · M38 Starfish Cluster · M39 Pyramid Cluster · M41 Little Beehive Cluster · M44 Beehive Cluster · M45 Pleiades · M46 · M47 · M48 · M50 Heart-Shaped Cluster · M52 Scorpion Cluster · M67 King Cobra · M93 Critter Cluster · M103

Diffuse nebulas (7)

An interstellar cloud of gas and dust — glowing where hot young stars energise it (emission), reflecting nearby starlight, or silhouetted against brighter clouds.

M8 Lagoon Nebula · M16 Eagle Nebula · M17 Omega · M20 Trifid Nebula · M42 Great Orion Nebula · M43 · M78

Planetary nebulas (4)

Not a planet at all: the glowing shell of gas a sun-like star sheds at the end of its life, its exposed hot core lighting the cast-off envelope blue-green.

M27 Dumbbell Nebula · M57 Ring Nebula · M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula · M97 Owl Nebula

Supernova remnants (1)

The expanding wreckage of a star that exploded — a shock-fuelled bubble of shredded stellar material, often still racing outward at thousands of kilometres a second.

M1 Crab Nebula

Deep-sky objects (3)

A fainter or more ambiguous fuzzy patch in the sky — a star cloud, double star or object whose nature was debated long after Messier logged it as a comet-like smudge.

M24 Small Sagittarius Star Cloud · M40 Winnecke 4 · M73

Data: Messier catalogue, via English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) · stored statically.