The start of Messier's catalogue (Andrew Lockwood)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Taurus (Tau) · Contains: Crab nebula · M 1 · NGC 1952

The start of Messier's catalogue, Andrew Lockwood

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The start of Messier's catalogue

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The start of Messier's catalogue

In 1054 a star exploded in the constellation Taurus. Contemporary records from Chinese and Arab astronomers indicate that it was visible during daylight hours for 23 days.

Some 700 years later, the French comet hunter Charles Messier thought he'd discovered the returning Halley's comet, but had in fact found the remnants of the 1054 supernova explosion. Irritated, he immediately began to catalogue all faint fuzzy things in the sky that could be potentially mistaken for comets through his relatively crappy telescope. Although he did discover a lot of comets - he's best known for this catalogue of 'deep sky' objects, of which M1 - the Crab nebula is the first entry.

There's a bit of noise in the media about the significant drop in the brightness of the star Betelgeuse potentially signalling the imminent demise of the star, and as it's only 500 light years away compared to the 6500 light years of 1054's 'guest star' event it's sure to be a good fireworks show. Although it's more likely that we are just seeing the coincidence of two of Betelgeuse's variable periods, I've been taking an interest in such things for 40 years or so, and I've never seen it this dim.

This image was acquired last night - and given the state of our house this morning, the quantity of empty bottles and my poor memory of even setting it off I'm very pleased with the robustness of my imaging system.

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