messier Cards for the observation of Messier objects

[Israel Sevilla]

Hi!

As I wrote in my welcome message I have acquired an expensive (at least for me at south of Spain), weight and important telescope just 18 months ago.  Also, the effort to take it to the field is high (its main mirror + cell weights 30kgs), so I propose myself a simple but very rewarding challenge, to observe the Messier list again but with "other eyes". The images that showed the telescope with an aperture that I was not used to left me almost speechless, so I decided to create some cards that help to understand what can be seen visually with large apertures.

I sincerely believe that it is something that, in as much detail as I am dedicating to it, had not been done before and the result seems to me that it can be very useful for many. Unfortunately I only have 13 cards created but I will expand it as the days go by, even so I would like to share it with you in case you find it useful.

My main goal is to create a tool that helps the slow and detailed observation of the Messier list, because I feel if I do not share what I do it does not make sense at all. So here you have the web and its cards: https://theferretofcomets.com/index.php/en/messier-catalog/

Please let me know your ideas about it, any kind of criticism is most welcome.

Best, Israel

[wookie1965]

Just found this the cards are brilliant and a very good resource they would be great for newbies to show what they will see through their scopes. 

[Guest]

That is a very cool thing you have going on there.  Well done. 

[Marvin Jenkins]

Imagine having that in a laminated, spiral bound guide. Bravo Isreal.

[Guest]

On 16/08/2022 at 15:22, Marvin Jenkins said:

Imagine having that in a laminated, spiral bound guide. Bravo Isreal.

That's what i was thinking

[Israel Sevilla]

Thank you so much @wookie1965, @Marvin Jenkins and @Mike Q. I have been doing some maths and I think I will complete Messier catalogue at the end of 2025 😞 I have done 22% of the catalogue (25 objects) in around one year (indeed in 11 months), so please be patient 🙂 

Best, Israel

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Israel Sevilla said:

Thank you so much @wookie1965, @Marvin Jenkins and @Mike Q. I have been doing some maths and I think I will complete Messier catalogue at the end of 2025 😞 I have done 22% of the catalogue (25 objects) in around one year (indeed in 11 months), so please be patient 🙂 

Best, Israel

Well i am glad you are doing this.  Is it ok to download and print this out for personal use? 

[Israel Sevilla]

Of course @Mike Q. These cards are created under CopyLeft license, specifically https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ so you are free to download, copy, modify, whatever... if you do not make money with them 🙂

I'm very glad they are useful for you guys, it is my small contribution to the community because I have learnt a lot from others and it is my way to return something...

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, Israel Sevilla said:

Of course @Mike Q. These cards are created under CopyLeft license, specifically https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ so you are free to download, copy, modify, whatever... if you do not make money with them 🙂

I'm very glad they are useful for you guys, it is my small contribution to the community because I have learnt a lot from others and it is my way to return something...

Thanks i may do just that as they provide ba wonderful image of what you actually see.  

[Israel Sevilla]

Hi again!!

Sorry for recovering this old post from the bottom of the forum but recently I have modified all my cards (specially those ones of galaxies). In a conversation with David Knisely in Cloudy Nights I have learnt about the use of gamma in pictures. I see myself as a medium-good visual stargazer but a TERRIBLE, BAD, POOR and CRAPPY astrophotograh because I am very bad in the treatment of the images. I don't have the knowledge or the patience to spend minutes with any software fiddling around until I get the image I want. So I follow a few simple rules to try to represent what I have seen in my telescope as best I can.

So, the use of the gamma curve to reduce the brightness of the image has been AMAZING (thank you to David) and I have re-done my cards with this new treatment. I hope you enjoy them and they are a little bit more useful (if at some point they were).

https://theferretofcomets.com/index.php/en/messier-catalog/

Clear and dark skies, Israel

[Guest]

What you are doing is a real help to those of us who are new to this.  Keep it up.