Celestial Catalogues
Messierin kohdeluettelot
I started my hobby with the goal of discovering Messier objects. Among the deep-sky object catalogs, the catalog compiled by the Frenchman Charles Messier (1730-1817) almost 300 years ago holds a special historical position. Although Messier wrote them down to avoid confusing them with comets, the catalog is familiar to all deep-sky observers. Messier's catalog contains a total of 110 deep-sky objects. The most famous objects are, in numerical order, the globular cluster of Hercules M13, the Andromeda galaxy M31, the Orion nebula M42, and the open star cluster of the Sibelius M45.
Thanks to Slooh, I was able to complete the hunt for Messier objects in less than half a year and I have uploaded ten nicely successful objects to this page. Some of the objects I have taken myself and some I have received from colleagues during their shifts.
Messier's 110 objects
Since the images in parade size would take up too much space on the site, they have been considerably reduced, but I have also made a separate page, where each object has more detailed descriptions and you can compare the images with the results of the international Aladin Lite interactive starry sky.
Caldwell's object lists
The English Sir Patrick Caldwell Moore (1923-2012) was a prolific amateur astronomer and writer, who became famous as the host of the BBC documentary series The Sky at Night for over 40 years. He believed that Charles Messier's 18th-century catalogue of nebulae, galaxies and star clusters had perhaps become too popular. Those who focused on Messier objects may have missed many of the wonderful deep-sky objects. In addition, some of the Messier objects were inaccessible in the Southern Hemisphere, as Messier only saw the sky over central Europe.
That is why Moore created the Caldwell catalog, which lists 109 deep-sky objects that stretch practically from pole to pole. It is irrelevant whether you live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, as everyone has their own Caldwell objects to observe. Most of the objects in Patrick's collection are excellent for binoculars. The name of the catalog comes from Patrick Moore's middle name.
I also managed to collect the entire Caldwell catalog with Slooh telescopes and made the Patrick Moore Tribute to YouTube
