TheSkySearchers

Finally, all done, all 110 M's, and finished with M30, that's appropriate. Last bunch posted here, M73, M29, M30. Of this group, M73 is another of Messier's, fox pauses, just 4 unrelated stars. M29 is almost lost is a sea of milky way stars, and M30 is always last on everybody's Messier Marathon.
Just for reference, all with the 80 APO, M73 just 10/10sec subs, unguided, M29 10/1 min subs guided, M30 13 of 20/30sec subs used, unguided as the Bigdog was looking at the wall of my shed and the 80 on top just over as M30 was too far east, but I didn't want to stay up another hour for transit.

OK moderator, get out the medals and bling, need something for the wall of my den. BTW only 108 files in my Messier album, two have two subjects on them.

Steve

Congrats!

Opps, forgot to post a link to the gallery;

app.php/gallery/album/210

Should have noted that M42,43 and M84,86 are the twofers in the 108 files.

Clear skies,
Steve

Your badges will show up magically very soon.

To me, this is a very worthy accomplishment. It takes a lot more work than most folks realize. Congrats.

Great job,
JT

Congrats Steve. Yes, it does take some time and effort to get all 110. I'm about 17 M's short of my M110. Waiting for the skies to clear enough to finish them off. Some will be gone for the year if I have to wait too long.

Congratulations!
:Clap:

Congratulations Steve.

Regards

Graeme

Yes, Congrats. The M's I have left are low on the southern horizon and I can not get them from my house. And the last couple of years my annual trip to Cherry Springs State Park in PA have always co-coincided with a bright moon in the same area of the sky whilst they were still above the horizon. Been trying to get them all for 5 years now so I know hard it is.

Thanks all,

Completed this faster than I originally thought possible, from end of December to start of July. Some images are not up to the quality that I would even think of hanging on the out-house wall, but all there, will have to work on the poor stuff. But, actually, only had to get two dozen, or so, as the rest were done by accident years ago and dredged up from the archives. So really didn't go for the marathon of all in one night like my astro pal in Tucson did this spring, now that's a real accomplishment.

Thanks again, and it is fun, everyone should do it,
Steve

Congrats, Steve, on the achievement.

I did it once about five years on the old forum. I was thinking of doing it again for this forum. You and others have reminded me of how difficult it is to get all 110.

BABO

That is a really fine accomplishment Steve!

I really need to start collecting images. Nice collection!

Well done Steve.

Actually, as it turns out, M73 is not truly a faux pas on Messier's part. He described it as a cluster of four stars with some nebulosity. Which is understandable given his small aperture and less than great optics. Clumps of stars close together can sometimes appear nebulous visually. Even William Herschel included it in his General Catalogue, and it was later added to the NGC as #6994. Though John Herschel did not see any nebulosity and doubted its status as a cluster.

What many may find interesting is that a 2000 study of this object conducted by L.P. Bassimo, et al, found evidence of it being a sparse old cluster with a minimum angular diameter of 9 arc minutes versus the typically listed 3 arc minutes. Their measurements indicate a distance of approximately 2202 LY and an age of 2 to 3 billion years. So basically they determined that, and I quote, "According to the results, NGC 6994 belongs to the old open cluster population located in the outer disk and at large distances from the Galactic plane, and must have suffered significant individual dynamical evolution, resulting in mass segregation and evaporation of low mass stars.”

So ultimately Messier seems to have gotten it right on this one. Of course during his time the ability to ascertain a star group's true status as a bound cluster was non-existent.It could only be assumed a grouping was a cluster because of the proximity of the stars to one another in the sky. But we have learned a great deal since those early days of discovery.

Thanks Alan,

Learn something new every day, ain't life great!

Steve