{"id":35245,"date":"2022-08-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&#038;p=35245"},"modified":"2022-09-12T11:13:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T11:13:03","slug":"the-periodic-table-of-messier-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2022\/08\/11\/the-periodic-table-of-messier-objects\/","title":{"rendered":"The periodic table of Messier objects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-uagb-section uagb-section__wrap uagb-section__background-color uagb-block-8bc48316-d423-48fc-8302-a066a0b0a6fb\"><div class=\"uagb-section__overlay\"><\/div><div class=\"uagb-section__inner-wrap\">\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-ccp-white-color\">The periodic table of Messier objects<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center sans-serif article-full-lead has-ccp-white-color has-text-color\">Observing deep-sky objects just got a little bit easier thanks to <strong>Tom Urbain\u2019s <\/strong>at-a-glance guide to the targets of the Messier Catalogue<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"no-tts wp-block-image is-resized article-in-image photo is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-35244\" width=\"862\" height=\"411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-300x143.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-1024x489.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-768x366.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-1536x733.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 862px) 100vw, 862px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap article-full-body sans-serif has-ccp-white-color has-text-color\">Charles Messier began his catalogue of observing targets in the mid-18th century to list items that would distract him and his assistant, Pierre M\u00e9chain, from their real aim of discovering comets. In the centuries since, the targets listed in the Messier Catalogue have undoubtedly become the most observed deep-sky objects in the night sky by amateur astronomers and astrophotographers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif has-ccp-white-color has-text-color\">First published in 1781 containing 103 objects, historical research in the 20th century identified a further seven objects that were observed by the French astronomers, bringing the catalogue up to today\u2019s total of 110 targets. To present this quantity of intriguing astronomical objects in a more understandable way, amateur astronomer Tom Urbain has transformed the list into a periodic table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif has-ccp-white-color has-text-color\">\u201cThere are quite a lot of Messier objects, so I created the infographic to visually organise them into five different groups according to viewing difficulty, from very easy to very hard,\u201d says the UK-based astro-imager. \u201cI based this on using a mid-range telescope, such as a refractor of 8-inch aperture.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif has-ccp-white-color has-text-color\">\u201cEach cell contains the Messier object\u2019s number, the best viewing season and the apparent magnitude,\u201d he continues. \u201cThe cells are also colour-coded depending on the object type, so it\u2019s easy to see which is a galaxy, a nebula, an open cluster or a globular cluster. Within each difficulty group, the objects are also organised from brightest at the top to dimmest at the bottom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif has-ccp-white-color has-text-color\">The graphic offers structure to the challenge of finding and observing the Messier objects. \u201cIt makes the \u2018trial and error\u2019 phase that we all go through a little easier when starting out,\u201d says Tom. \u201cBeginners can therefore refrain from trying to observe very faint Messier objects with a 4- or 6-inch telescope and wondering what went wrong when they can\u2019t see anything.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Observing deep-sky objects just got a little bit easier <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":35244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"40","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"40","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_40-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_40-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"September-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"September-2022","purple_external_id":"September-2022-40-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"September-2022-40-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086556||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086556||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.208","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.208","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.208","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.208","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020.jpg",2048,977,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-300x143.jpg",300,143,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-768x366.jpg",768,366,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-1024x489.jpg",800,382,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020-1536x733.jpg",1536,733,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/bd738ddf-5082-480b-9d99-df50e9606020.jpg",2048,977,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Observing deep-sky objects just got a little bit easier","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35245"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35939,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35245\/revisions\/35939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}