Charles Messier's Catalog
Students learn how Charles Messier, a comet hunter in 1700s Paris, listed fuzzy objects that were not comets, and tour famous entries that turned out to be supernova remains, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, ending with how amateurs run a Messier Marathon.
Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops9 stops
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What students will see and do
Students begin at Earth, then fly to the Crab Nebula (M1), M13, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Orion Nebula (M42), the Pleiades (M45), the Ring Nebula (M57), and the Sombrero Galaxy (M104), before returning to Earth. Aetherion pauses three times: at the Crab Nebula (how a list of things to avoid became useful), at the Pleiades (choosing objects for a beginner's sky guide), and at Earth (planning a Messier Marathon).
Learning objectives
- Explain why Messier made his catalog and how he told fuzzy objects apart from comets.
- Identify at least four kinds of objects in the Messier catalog, such as galaxies, globular clusters, open clusters, and nebulae.
- Compare the distances of a nearby open cluster, a nebula, a globular cluster, and a distant galaxy.
- Describe how observations recorded long ago remain useful to scientists and sky watchers today.
NGSS connections
| MS-ESS1-3 | Students compare the scale and distance of clusters, nebulae, and galaxies in the catalog. |
|---|---|
| MS-ESS1-1 | The Messier Marathon depends on Earth's orbit, which changes which objects are visible at night through the year. |
| MS-PS4-2 | Faint objects look like fuzzy smudges because of how little light reaches small telescopes. |
Stops on this journey
- A Comet Hunter in Paris
- Number One: The Crab Nebula (discussion stop)
- M Thirteen: A Ball of Stars
- M Thirty One: Another Galaxy
- M Forty Two: The Orion Nebula
- M Forty Five: The Seven Sisters (discussion stop)
- M Fifty Seven: The Ring Nebula
- M One Hundred Four: The Sombrero
- The Messier Marathon (discussion stop)
Vocabulary
- comet
- catalog
- nebula
- globular cluster
- open cluster
- galaxy
- supernova
- light-year