These great hollow globes of artificial super-metals, and artificial transparent adamant, ranged in size from the earliest and smallest structures, which were no bigger than a very small asteroid, to spheres considerably larger than the Earth. (Olaf Stapledon, STAR MAKER)
Friday, October 23, 2015
Most Definitely Not a Comet
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is another item from the Messier catalog, Messier 94 in the constellation of Canes Venatici. The Messier catalog was a list compiled by Charles Messier (and Pierre Mechain, who reported this one to Messier). Comet hunting was all the rage in Messier's day, and he kept coming across these faint fuzzy objects that (sometimes if you *really* stretch the imagination in some cases!) looked like comets. He compiled the list of "false positives" and, ironically, while his comets are largely forgotten, his list lives on, especially among amateur astronomers!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment