this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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Astrophotography

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

M40 was a mistake actually. Messier was looking for a previously reported nebula in the area and only saw this optical double. He marked it as M40 anyways.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My understanding is that all of Messier's catalogue are 'mistakes': he was looking for comets, and making notes of things that weren't but might be mistaken for comets.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The name of his catalog is: Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters

The Messier catalog was all the things that weren’t the comets that he was looking for. By mistake I meant that M40 isn’t a star cluster or nebula yet Messier added it anyways.