250th anniversary of Messier's first discovery coming up

[Martin Meredith]

In a few weeks time it will be the 250th anniversary of Messier's first discovery of what became known as a Messier object!

On the 3rd May 1764 Messier discovered the 'nebula' M3 -- actually a globular, of course -- in Canes Venatici. He said "it does not contain any star, its center is brilliant and its light fades insensibly, it is round" … He later said "In a good sky one can see it with a refractor of one foot" [focal length]  Messier used a variety of scopes in producing the descriptions in the catalogue (most likely a 6" f/5 for M3) but probably made the discovery with a smaller comet-hunting scope. (*)

Between May and October 1764 (sensible guy!) he compiled the first 40 members of his catalogue, of which 19 were his own discoveries. With the addition of M41 to M45, this made up the first release of a list that has inspired millions of amateur astronomers and resulted in objects that have been extensively studied by professionals. 

I wonder if it would be fun as a kind of tribute to start a thread collecting together observations, sketches, photos of M3 with different instruments in the coming weeks -- ideally on May 3 itself, weather permitting? M3 will be conveniently-placed for dobs and fracs at around 60 deg alt between the hours of 10 and midnight on the 3rd, at least for most of Europe.

To set the ball rolling at a low level ;-) here's an image captured last night (7th April) with an 80mm Stellarvue Nighthawk achromat operating at f6. Its a single 30s 'near-live' exposure taken with a Lodestar-C guide camera on the AZ-EQ6 mount in alt-az mode using the LodestarLive software. 

I plan to re-observe M3 properly (star-hopping, eyepieces) nearer the event.

Its an interesting thought that at an estimated distance of 5640 light years, the light leaving M3 when we observe it now had already travelled 95% of its journey by the time Messier discovered it 250 years ago.

Martin 

(*) taken from Stoyan's Atlas of the Messier Objects, Cambridge University Press, 2008 -- a brilliant book, heartily recommended not just for its extensive Messier history but for details of observation, astrophysics and gorgeous photos! Not cheap, but by far the best of the Messier books I've seen).

[Martin Meredith]

Just to correct the distance (not sure where that came from), current estimates put M3 at around 34-40000 light years, so the light we observe now was substantially less than 1% behind that seen by Messier himself.

Martin

[Siriusmeg]

That's an interesting idea and a significant anniversary to mark.

Really enjoyed observing M3 last night - gorgeous cluster  

[JamesF]

Here's an image of mine from last June:

James

[Martin Meredith]

Great image James.  Thanks for sharing it.

[lguise]

Excellent post Martin, I will remember this over the next few weeks an interesting anniversary.

Linton

[Kirscovitch]

Sounds like fun. I'm game!