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 1
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
The Crab Nebula
Degree of difficulty 3 (of 5)
Minimum aperture 50mm
Designation NGC 1952
Type Galactic nebula
Class Supernova remnant
Distance 6200 ly (1999) 5250 ly (proper motion, 1993)
Size 10 ly
Constellation Taurus
R.A. 5h 34.5min
Decl. +22° 1′
Magnitude 8.4
Surface brightness 20mag/arcsec2
Apparent diameter 6′×4′
Discoverer Bevis, 1731
History On the 4th of July 1054 or maybe even earlier, in April or May that year, a new bright star near the Sun was observed in the constellation of Taurus by witnesses in Italy, Armenia, Iraq, China, Japan, and North America. The unusual object appeared with a magnitude between –4 and –7.5 and was visible to the naked eye, even in the daytime sky. Apparently, maximum brightness coincided with the solar conjunction. Chinese astronomers observed the star in daylight until the 27th of July 1054, and they were able to see it in the night sky until the 17th of April 1056, before it faded from naked-eye visibility. In Europe, sightings of the supernova were probably censored, since the catholic church saw this celestial event as a bad omen in connection with the split from the orthodox church in the same year.
In 1731, the English physician and self-taught astronomer John Bevis, without any knowledge of the related historic observations, discovered a nebula at the position of the supernova. Independently, Charles Messier found the nebula on the 28th of August 1758, while following a comet for the first time. In fact, at first he took M 1 for the comet. Messier wrote: “Nebula, contains no star; it is a whitish light, elongated in the shape of a candle's light.” Only later did Messier learn of Bevis' observation and recognized the Englishman's priority on the discovery.
William Herschel described the object as “very bright, of irregular figure, full 5' in longest direction,” and he speculated that “it consists of stars.” His son John described M 1 as a “fine object, very large, extended, very gradually brightening a little toward the middle, mottled, 4' long, 3' broad.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Atlas of the Messier ObjectsHighlights of the Deep Sky, pp. 71 - 75Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008