Friday, May 29, 2026
Issue 617: The Messier Project Runs with the Hunting Dogs
Though, by midmonth, I began to wonder if I would bag a
single M for you. Our formerly dry spring is a thing of the past down here in the ‘Swamp; as
that old Moon waned, the rains came—did they ever. I had to strategize.
The SeeStar images here are older ones, both dating back to the time when
The Suzie first came to stay at Chaos Manor South. I figgered it was best to
concentrate on visual in the limited amount of time I’d have under the stars.
That visual telescope? I won’t lie; Unk was awful
lazy. It’s already warm tending to hot, even into the dark hours—when they get
here, damn this DST—and so humid that I felt like I could cut the air with that
proverbial knife. So, no 10-inch Dob. The scope of choice would be a Dobsonian,
yes, but Little Debbie, the 6-inch f/5 SkyWatcher. Also in the interest
of making best use of the time I had under the stars, I would use Debs in full
goto mode. While she is easy to use manually, or in “Freedom Find” mode (like
digital setting circles), I knew I couldn’t dawdle on these late April evenings.
Canes Venatici is an unassuming little constellation
consisting of two medium bright stars, Chara (Asterion) and Cor Caroli, lying just
northeast of the Dipper/Plough handle. You’d think the average deep sky hound
wouldn’t give these dogs a second look. Ha! This is one time when looks sure
can be deceiving. The constellation’s small area contains some of the most
stupendous deep sky objects in the heavens.
Tonight, we’ll be back to comparing what Unk saw from the
back 40 of Chaos Manor South, to what John Mallas saw from a dark site on
long-ago nights. I enjoyed seeing what ace observer Sue French thought of the
objects I viewed last time, but I guess John Mallas’ The Messier Album is just a touchstone with me and always
will be.
Messier 51
M51, NGC 5194, was first recorded by, yes, Charles
Messier. He spotted it on October 13, 1773: "Very faint nebula, without
stars." Finally! So far in this series, there haven’t been a
lot of Messier objects actually discovered by Messier. To be clear, he saw M51,
and only M51, not its famous companion, NGC 5195. That had to wait
until 1781 when Chuck’s bestie, Pierre Méchain, saw that M51 was “a double
galaxy.”
The Whirlpool appearance? That took even more time,
until 1845, when Bill Parsons, the Earl of Rosse saw its spiral structure with
his 72-inch dob-like scope. The galaxy’s starkly visible spiral arms (with
enough aperture and dark skies) is one of the things that make the Whirlpool so
striking. The other being the companion galaxy, NGC 5195.
There it rested for many a long year. Nobody knew what this funny “spiral nebula” was. Some
thought it might be a Solar System in the process of forming. Most admitted
they had no idea what M51 and the similar spiral nebule scattered across
the sky were. Knowledge of that had to wait until the 20th Century, the
coming of the giant California telescopes, and Edwin Hubble and his contemporaries.
Brass tacks on M51? It is a near face-on spiral of Hubble
type SA(s)bc pec. From its spot in Canes not far from the Dipper’s handle, it
shines at a magnitude of 8.10. That doesn’t sound bad at all, but remember,
that’s how bright this 11’12” x 8’24” object would be if it were compressed
down to the size of a star. As is, its surface brightness is 12.77, not terrible,
but it will not put your eye out. The companion?
NGC 5195, an SB0 peculiar galaxy, shines at magnitude 9.55 and subtends 4’21” x
4’23”.
You don’t have to know much about galaxies to know why
M51 has that “pec” (peculiar) tag in its Hubble type. It and NGC 5195 are
interacting. In deep images, it’s clear the “bridge” connecting the two,
which has been pulled off the galaxies by their encounter, is accompanied by
clouds of matter/stars flung off into intergalactic space. One thing not so obvious? NGC 5195 is in the background and is receding from M51.
What did I think of M51 in my salad days? When I got past the novice stage, it wasn’t one of the tougher galaxies for me. Hell, I once saw it from a spot just a mile or so from our big 1960s shopping center, Bel Air Mall, with a 6-inch f/8 Newtonian. It looked like nothing more than two blobs—a big blob and a smaller blob—but it was there and easy enough to see. So it was on the April evening of 2026 when I turned Little Debbie to it: two blobs. It was maybe easier to see for me than it was years ago, both because of years more observing experience and because f/5 Debbie’s shorter focal length made it easier to find an eyepiece that frames the pair well.
John Mallas was a master observer with a dark
observing location. I know that, but what he brought home with a long focal
length achromat, his f/15 Unitron, amazes me still. While John says his
observation of the bridge and spiral pattern were possibly spurious and due to
his familiarity with photographs of the Whirlpool, I believe he saw traces of
both, quite a coup for that old-fashioned refractor. I certainly agree with his declaration that M51
is “one of the finest objects in the
heavens.” That being the case, get outside and have a look at it ASAP. It is
riding high in early evening right now, but will all too soon be crashing into the west.
Messier 63
M63, the Sunflower Galaxy, is mostly deservedly a
renowned deep sky object. Like M62 over in neighboring Coma Berenices, this
galaxy hold up well under light polluted skies. Its discoverer, Pierre Méchain,
didn’t have to worry about light pollution, but he was hampered by his
telescope’s crude design and small aperture. Nevertheless, he saw it. This
was his very first discovery of a Deep Sky Object when he spotted it on June
14, 1779. He must have been excited, since he passed the discovery on to his
friend Charles that very evening.
Messier 63, NGC 5055 is an SA spiral galaxy of magnitude 8.60
and a size of 13’10” x 7’56”. Despite its relatively large size, the galaxy remains
bright thanks to its intermediate inclination to us. The Sunflower name is due
to its multiple, dusty, patchy arms which supposedly make it look like an
enormous cosmic blossom.
From dark sites with my 12-inch Dobsonian or C11, M63’s arms
were easy enough to see. But whether in the eyepiece or in long exposure
images, I’ve always had a hard time imagining this as a sunflower. Oh, the
bright, elongated core does sorta look like a flower’s pistil, and I
suppose the patch arms are the petals…but… What has it looked like to me most
of the time? With most of my observing over the decades being done from light
polluted backyards? What I saw one long gone spring evening with the old C11, Big Bertha, was typical:
M63 doesn’t reveal any of its spiral arms in the
12.5-inch Dobsonian. The disk is fairly large…and I can see both a smooth
brightening towards its center and the occasional hint of a tiny, point-like
nucleus. After trying a variety of eyepieces…I begin to think I am seeing spiral
structure, but it is incredibly subtle and may have more to do with what I
remember from photos…than with what I’m actually seeing.
John Mallas saw more with his 4-inch than I did with my
12-inch. He was using that Unitron from a dark site under drier conditions
than I usually have, though. Nevertheless, seeing the spiral detail he recorded
(his drawing of the galaxy is not much different from the book’s photograph by co-author,
Evered Kreimer) is quite a feat and is one reason I keep coming back to this
book all these long years down the road.
Messier 106
M106, NGC 4258, is strange. Mostly that
strangeness concerns the fact that here we have a bright and detailed Messier
galaxy that is rarely talked about by amateur astronomers. I can only suppose
that is because it’s in a rather barren area of Canes Venatici northeast of the
Dipper’s bowl.
M64 is a magnitude 8.40 Hubble Type SAB galaxy with an intermediate inclination to us. It’s large at 18’36” x 7’12”, but its inclination to our little rock keeps it quite prominent. In size and appearance, M106 is like M31. In other words, this is one big spiral in the eyepiece and in reality. M 106 is yet another discovery by Pierre Méchain. We don’t know much more about that than that he discovered it in 1781—presumably in the spring—and passed the info to Messier. Charles did not add it to his catalog, however. In fact, it was not a “Messier” until 1947 when Helen Sawyer Hogg added it to her version of the M-list.
Under dark skies with medium aperture instruments, M106 has
an odd look. That is due to the presence of one spiral arm that’s different in apprance
from the others. This large arm is yellowish and appears to have a preponderance
of older suns. There are also some large dusty patches toward M106’s center. I
can see these features from dark skies with larger instruments without difficulty.
From the ol’ backyard with a scope like Little Debbie, I must be satisfied
with a slightly elongated glow with a compact core. On the best nights,
fleeting arm detail pops in and out of view.
Our old friend John saw a strongly elongated galaxy looking
a little like NGC 7331 in shape. He also recorded “a fat central knot of fuzzy
light.” Not much different from what Debs showed me, but given his drawing,
Mallas was able to pick up the elongated disk with more ease than I could in my
backyard with my seventy-something-year-old eyes.
Messier 94
Many years ago, when I first moved to the old urban Chaos
Manor South, I began to call M94 “Old Reliable.” On most nights, I could
depend on seeing M94 with any telescope I turned to it. This Sab near-face-on
galaxy shines at magnitude 8.2 and, since it is only 11’12” x 9’6” (less is
apparent visually), it stands out very well indeed.
What makes this galaxy so bright? It is compact, sur, but what cranks it up is its center, a blazing disk. The galaxy
is thought to harbor a supermassive and (maybe) feeding black hole at its
center. The oddness doesn’t end there, outside the central regions is a ring
where a huge amount of star formation is taking place.
This beast is another Pierre Méchain discovery, with him
observing it on March 22, 1781. Pierre got word of his new find to Charles, who not only
added it to his catalog, but observed it with his small scope on March 24,
1781. To them, it was just a wee nebulous spot. As with other galaxies, its
nature wasn’t known until the last century.
For me? I was always happy to commune with M94, whose nickname
is “The Croc’s Eye Galaxy.” Under a dark sky with larger instruments, it does
begin to resemble a reptile’s eye with its bright center, star ring and other
faint details. For me and my little scope at Chaos Manor South, though, the
galaxy looked like nothing more than a distant, unresolved globular cluster, a
fuzzy spot of light with a bright center. From suburban sites my C11, however, could begin to pick up further
details including the inner ring and traces of the elusive arms.
John Mallas saw essentially what I saw with my 4-inch and
6-inch telescopes from my urban backyard, a disk with a bright center. He does
record one additional and interesting feature: an “extension,” a near straight “arm”
connected to the disk. What he saw I am not sure. One of M94’s tight spiral
arms at the very edge of detection? Maybe. Seeing even a trace of the Croc's spiral
detail is a stretch for a 4-inch achromat, I’m afraid, but…maybe…
Messier 3
Lo and behold, another M originally discovered by Charles,
who bagged it on May 3, 1764. Given his small telescope, what Messier
discovered was nothing more than a small nebulous ball. First resolution of M3
into stars was by the world’s greatest amateur astronomer, William Herschel,
in 1784.
I don’t believe I ever resolved M3 when I was a kid touring
the deep sky with a 4-inch Palomar Junior reflector. Likely because I didn’t
know how to resolve it, but not just that. In those days, amateur
astronomy gurus preached two things: "Don’t
use high magnification," and "Resolving globulars requires 6-inches of aperture." These things aren’t always or even often true. Some globs may require
that much aperture (all globulars are not the same, not hardly), but many only
require it at low magnification. I can begin to see resolution in M3 with a
3-inch apochromatic refractor at 150x. In my backyard, Debbie had no trouble
showing stars in the glob under our resolutely gray skies. The SeeStar, of
course, was not challenged.
Mr. Mallas? What he saw with his Unitron is like what I see
in my 3-inch William Optics fluorite refractor (an f/7), Some stars around the
periphery of the cluster, and mucho graininess across the core. M3 has long
been a fave of mine and is always a nice change of pace from spring’s dim
galaxies. By the time the season ends, I become convinced it is just as good as
M13. Of course, the first look I get of M13 as it climbs away from the horizon
disabuses your silly old Uncle of that notion.
Totals: 21 Down, 89 to Go
Next month? On to the dense galaxy forests of Coma Berenices.
