While hunting for comets, 18th century French astronomer Charles Messier created a catalog of fuzzy sky objects which looked similar enough to comets to be confusing. Centuries later, this collection of "uninteresting" blurry spots in the sky have been revealed as some of the most fascinating objects visible to amateur astronomers. 

Here are some great pictures of some Messier Objects, Click each thumbnail to see the full size picture, then use your Web browser's Back button to return to this page.

Crab Nebula

Photographed in infrared, the Crab Nebula is the first item in Charles Messier's catalog. About 6,000 light-years from Earth, it is a remnant of a supernova explosion with a pulsar (a rapidly spinning neutron star) at its center. 

M-15

The globular cluster called M 15, about 37,000 light-years away, was a subject of study for the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. The Hubble was able to resolve individual stars in the dense core for the first time, which had collapsed together like bees in a swarm. 

Dumbbell Nebula

M 27, or the Dumbbell Nebula, is one of the brightest planetary nebulae in the sky. Planetary nebulae form when stars collapse and blow off their top layers. (The misnomer "planetary nebula" was applied to round gas clouds with sharp edges by early astronomers because they resembled dim planets.) Due to the nebula's diffuse nature, its distance from Earth is not well known. Estimates range from 800 to 3,500 light-years. 

Orion Nebula

One of the most photographed and studied objects in the sky, the Orion Nebula (M 42) is a stellar hatchery. Inside this collapsing gas cloud stars are being born. This image was taken by an amateur astronomer with a 12-inch (305-millimeter) telescope in visible light. 

Pleiades

One of the prettiest star groupings, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, are visible to the naked eye. But with a telescope, hundreds of dimmer stars in the cluster can be seen.

Ring Nebula

Another popular target for amateur astronomers is M 57, the Ring Nebula. Also the remnants of a dead star, its true shape is a matter of hot debate. Some believe that its shape is actually as doughnut-like as it appears. Others believe that we're seeing a cylinder of gas from one of its ends. 

M-61

M 61 is a barred spiral galaxy, with a bright central bulge, dark dust lanes and prominent clusters of star formation out in its limbs. 

M-65

Seen almost edge-on, M 65 shows off its dark lanes of dust between its arms. 

M-66

M 66 is one object of a collection of three galaxies, known as the Leo Triplet, about 35 million light-years away. Another of Messier's objects, spiral galaxy M 65, is also part of this trio.

M-74

M 74 is about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. It is very dim, and requires a powerful telescope to see it at all. 

M-77

M 77 is a Seyfert and a starburst galaxy all in one. Seyfert galaxies, cataloged by Carl Seyfert, are galaxies with very bright centers. A starburst galaxy is one in which intense star formation is taking place.