September 9th, 2011

Sixteen months or so ago I suggested that you subscribe to the Astronomy Photo of the Day. You’ve been subscribed ever since, right?

On 1 September the featured photo was of M27 a nebula first cataloged simply as being ‘not a comet’ by Charles Messier in 18th century France in his catalog of things that definitely were not comets.

This sort of thing astounds me. Some guy in the 18th century was able to create a catalog of celestial objects when I, in this century, have a hard time using my telescope to focus on the moon!