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Messier 91 , the missing galaxy


elpajare

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On March 18, 1781, Charles Messier discovered eight nebulous objects near the border of Virgo and Coma Berenices. He catalogued the last of these objects as M 91, but recorded its position erroneously. Thus, for a long time, M 91 was a "missing" Messier object. Although catalogued by William Herschel as H II.120 in 1784, Herschel found nothing there, and instead suspected that M 91 might have been the faint, magnitude 11.3 spiral galaxy NGC 4571 (Herschel's H III.602). Others suggested that M 91 was that was a duplicate observation of some other Messier object (Owen Gingerich suspected M 58), or that M 91 was actually a comet.

Texas amateur William C. Williams finally figured it out in 1969. Messier had recorded M 91's position relative to M 89, rather than M 58, as he had thought; and the true identity of M 91 was finally uncovered as NGC 4548.

 

M 91 Y NGC 4548 / GX / COMA BERENICES / Expo=23X15" stack / FWHM=2,8 / Altit=42º/  Moon=0

Skywatcher f4/ ATIK Infinity color + Infinity software

M 91 Y NGC 4548 GX COMA BERENICES 23X15 S=2,8 42º L=0.jpg

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