Messier's catalog

This article presents the famous catalog of celestial objects of the French astronomer Charles Messier, illustrated by images of amateur astrophotographers. Its goal is to introduce new visitors to this site to the different types of deep sky objects (galaxies, clusters, nebulae, etc.) through this relatively small catalog, as well as a sample of the images produced. in the world of amateur astrophotography.

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Messier was only interested in finding  comets and  he created a list of non-cometary objects so as not to confuse them with new comets. The compilation of this list, in collaboration with his assistant  Pierre Méchain , is known as the Messier catalog. It is one of the best known astronomical catalogs and if its  first edition of 1771 contained 45 objects, Messier will end up in the final version by referencing 103 objects. Later, other astronomers, using the notes of Messier's texts, ended up adding up a list of 110 objects.

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As for the Caldwell catalog by 141 astrophotographers presented on this site, I contacted a large number of astrophotographers in order to collect enough images to illustrate these 110 objects by as many participants as possible, of all levels and all approaches. The search for image quality was not a criterion, the only one being to be able to easily recognize the morphology of the object and, ideally, its colors. In the end 135 images from 135 different astrophotographers were used.

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If it is obvious that certain objects of Messier are stars of the deep sky often imaged by the amateurs at their beginnings, they often end up returning there, with more experience or material, to try to put them as much as possible value.

Other Messier objects, on the other hand, are very poorly imaged, either because of their small size requiring large focal lengths, or because of the lack of interest in their morphology for astrophotographers who like beautiful images. 

However, many astrophotographers  amateurs have already had fun creating their own Messier catalog, also trying to capture the lesser known and more difficult to access, out of simple interest in this catalog and its objects rather than looking for aesthetically more convincing objects.

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The article is intentionally purified without too many explanations, both on the objects (characteristics) and on the photographs (exifs), it is  simply a reminder in pictures of the nature and morphology of the objects of  Messier. The summary descriptions will allow people with no knowledge of astronomy to familiarize themselves with the basics, and connoisseurs to remember them eventually.

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The different sensitivities and / or approaches to astrophotography of the contributors are the main richness of this article which shows the different ways of imaging a deep sky object and of processing images. Maybe some little-known objects will make some people want their list of objects to photograph!  

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