Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- User Guide
- Charles Messier
- The Observations
- The Catalog
- Statistics of the Messier objects
- Visual observation of the Messier objects
- Photography of the Messier objects
- The 110 Messier objects
- M 1
- M 2
- M 3
- M 4
- M 5
- M 6
- M 7
- M 8
- M 9
- M 10
- M 11
- M 12
- M 13
- M 14
- M 15
- M 16
- M 17
- M 18
- M 19
- M 20
- M 21
- M 22
- M 23
- M 24
- M 25
- M 26
- M 27
- M 28
- M 29
- M 30
- M 31
- M 32
- M 33
- M 34
- M 35
- M 36
- M 37
- M 38
- 39
- M 40
- M 41
- M 42
- M 43
- M 44
- M 45
- M 46
- M 47
- M 48
- M 49
- M 50
- M 51
- M 52
- M 53
- M 54
- M 55
- M 56
- M 57
- M 58
- M 59
- M 60
- M 61
- M 62
- M 63
- M 64
- M 65
- M 66
- M 67
- M 68
- M 69
- M 70
- M 71
- M 72
- M 73
- M 74
- M 75
- M 76
- M 77
- M 78
- M 79
- M 80
- M 81
- M 82
- M 83
- M 84
- M 85
- M 86
- M 87
- M 88
- M 89
- M 90
- M 91
- M 92
- M 93
- M 94
- M 95
- M 96
- M 97
- M 98
- M 99
- M 100
- M 101
- M 102
- M 103
- M 104
- M 105
- M 106
- M 107
- M 108
- M 109
- M 110
- Glossary of technical terms
- Index of figures
- Index of sources
M 56
from The 110 Messier objects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- User Guide
- Charles Messier
- The Observations
- The Catalog
- Statistics of the Messier objects
- Visual observation of the Messier objects
- Photography of the Messier objects
- The 110 Messier objects
- M 1
- M 2
- M 3
- M 4
- M 5
- M 6
- M 7
- M 8
- M 9
- M 10
- M 11
- M 12
- M 13
- M 14
- M 15
- M 16
- M 17
- M 18
- M 19
- M 20
- M 21
- M 22
- M 23
- M 24
- M 25
- M 26
- M 27
- M 28
- M 29
- M 30
- M 31
- M 32
- M 33
- M 34
- M 35
- M 36
- M 37
- M 38
- 39
- M 40
- M 41
- M 42
- M 43
- M 44
- M 45
- M 46
- M 47
- M 48
- M 49
- M 50
- M 51
- M 52
- M 53
- M 54
- M 55
- M 56
- M 57
- M 58
- M 59
- M 60
- M 61
- M 62
- M 63
- M 64
- M 65
- M 66
- M 67
- M 68
- M 69
- M 70
- M 71
- M 72
- M 73
- M 74
- M 75
- M 76
- M 77
- M 78
- M 79
- M 80
- M 81
- M 82
- M 83
- M 84
- M 85
- M 86
- M 87
- M 88
- M 89
- M 90
- M 91
- M 92
- M 93
- M 94
- M 95
- M 96
- M 97
- M 98
- M 99
- M 100
- M 101
- M 102
- M 103
- M 104
- M 105
- M 106
- M 107
- M 108
- M 109
- M 110
- Glossary of technical terms
- Index of figures
- Index of sources
Summary
Degree of difficulty 3 (of 5)
Minimum aperture 50mm
Designation NGC 6779
Type Globular cluster
Class X
Distance 27,390 ly (2003)
Size 55 ly
Constellation Lyra
R.A. 19h 16.6min
Decl. +30° 11′
Magnitude 8.4
Surface brightness –
Apparent diameter 7′
Discoverer Messier, 1779
History Charles Messier found M 56 on the 19th of March 1779, on the same night that he made an independent discovery of a comet, which had been previously found by Bode without his knowledge. On the 23rd, when he finally reobserved M 56 to measure its position, he noted: “nebula without star, has little light, near to it is a star of 10th magnitude.” Five years later in 1784, John Herschel succeeded in resolving this globular cluster into individual stars, thereby proving Messier's note wrong. Herschel described M 56 as a “fine compressed cluster, round, inclining to triangular form, brighter towards the middle, stars of 12th to 14th magnitude.”
Observing with an 11-inch refractor, d'Arrest noted: “A star cluster, which contains a large number of stars, none of which is brighter than 12th to 13th magnitude. With 356× magnification resolved into minute stars.” Reverend Webb even thought he had resolved M 56 with his very modest 3.7-inch refractor.
Curtis'description of the photographic appearance reads: “Rather bright, condensed cluster, 3' in diameter. Probably globular.”
Astrophysics M 56 is a poorly concentrated globular cluster of the Shapley class X. Only M 55 and M 71 are even less concentrated. Shapley was the first to notice the slightly elliptical shape of M 56 in PA 45°.
Its very eccentric, but low-inclination, orbit around the galactic center takes M56 out to distances of 40,000 light-years. But then, 125 mil lion years later, it gets as close as just a few thousand lightyears to the galactic core. The current distance of M 56 from us is 27,000 light-years, as it passes through the outer half of its orbit.
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- Atlas of the Messier ObjectsHighlights of the Deep Sky, pp. 215 - 216Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008