When I bought my first telescope in 2008 I knew that I wanted to use it to do astrophotography. So as a learning exercise I set myself the task of photographing all of the Messier objects. The above mosaic of images is the results of that exercise.

While most of the images are pretty rough, I live in Louisville, Kentucky, not a great place for astronomy to say the least, the exercise was a very productive one for me on several levels. I learned a great deal about my equipment, it's strengths and limitations, and the process of modern day astrophotography, from capturing to processing. I also learned a lot about the Messier objects themselves. It's one thing to read about them or see pictures of them in a book, it's something else to photograph them yourself. I found that I gained a much more intimate knowledge through the exercise.

This mosaic serves as a handy overview of the Messier objects. Along with the Messier Data Bank this page is a place to quickly reference info about the Messier objects, the most prominent celestial objects in the northern sky.