Messier 1 - NGC 1952

No dss image available for Messier 1
 
Aladin viewer for the region around Messier 1
Crab Nebula, Crab SNR, Taurus A
Bode 11, h 357, GC 1157, Sh 2-244, 3C 144, LBN 833, SN 1054A

Type  Supernova Remnant
Magnitude  8.4
Size  8' x 6' @ 128°
Right Ascension  5h 34' 31.9"  (2000)
Declination  22° 0' 52" N
Constellation  Taurus
Description  vB, vL, E135, vglbM, r
Observing Notes

Andrew Cooper
Dec 29, 2019    Kaʻohe, Mauna Kea, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 175x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Large, bright, oval, 4'x6' northwest-southest, with a skyglow filter and averted vision the nebula becomes somewhat larger and begins to show some internal structure

Andrew Cooper
Sep 14, 2015    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
15cm f/5 Newtonian, Makaʻiki @ 19x
Seeing: 8 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

A small patch of nebula about 1° from ζTau, faint but very distinct, about 5' across, no detail

Andrew Cooper
Aug 28, 2011    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 175x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

An oval patch without detail, about 5'x3' northwest-southeast, averted vision reveals mottling and uneven edges

Andrew Cooper
Oct 22, 2006    TIMPA, Avra Valley, AZ (map)
12x36 Canon Image Stabilized Binoculars

Very faint but unmistakable, an ill-defined hazy patch, small, visible with direct vision

Andrew Cooper
Jan 12, 2002    Las Cienegas NCA, Pima Co., AZ (map)
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet

Rough oval patch, surface mottled with lighter areas, fading smoothly into the background, in a field of dim stars but no stellar object visible within the nebula, no core or pattern to the structure of the nebula

Andrew Cooper
Sep 19, 1988    NASP, Chino Valley, AZ (map)
20cm f/10 SCT

Oval patch, no detail visible, edges more distinct than a galaxy

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)
24cm Reflector

oblong; pale; 1° np ζ. Crab neb. of E. of Rosse, who considered it resolvable, with fringes, not, however, subsequently confirmed there. Se. obtained a similar result. Granular, 9-1/3in. spec. D'A., 5½ x 3½, not resolved. First seen by Bevis, 1731. Its accidental re-discovery by M., while following a comet in 1758, led to the formation of the earliest catalogue of nebulæ. Winlock, gaseous spect.
― Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, T. W. Webb, 1917

Captain William Henry Smyth
Dec 28, 1836    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A large nebula, pearly white, about a degree north-west of the star ζ on the tip of the Bull's southern horn, and on the outskirts of the galaxy. It is of an oval form, with its axis-major trending np and sf, and the brightest portion towards the south.

Sir John Herschel registers this in his Catalogue of 1833, as a "barely resolvable cluster;" and figures it with a fair elliptical boundary. He applied his 7, 10, and 20-foot reflectors, and endeavoured to ascertain its relative distance by a modification of their space-penetrating capacity. " As all the observations," he concludes, "of the large telescopes agree to call this object resolvable, it is probably a cluster of stars at no very great distance beyond their gauging powers; its profundity may therefore be of about the 980th order." All this shows the difficulty of what, to my view, is rather a milky nebulosity than a cluster. The powerful telescope constructed by Lord Rosse, however, not only displays the component stars distinctly, but also shows several fringy appendages around, and a deep bifurcation to the south. So do sidereal wonders increase with our means of optical practice!

This fine nebula is remarkable as having been discovered by M. Messier—the comet-ferret of Louis XV.—while observing ζ Tauri and a comet in 1758, when he caught up a "whitish light, elongated like the flame of a taper." This accident induced him to form his well-known and useful Catalogue of nebulæ and clusters, from the observations of himself, La Caille, and Mechain, in order to prevent astronomers from mistaking any of those objects for comets; and the List of 103 which he furnished to the public, was considered to have scraped them all together, as far as climate permitted.

Whence D'Alembert, speaking of Messier, observed, "on ne peut s'empêcher de regretter qu'un Observateur si exact et si plein de zèle, n'ait pas été placé dans un climat plus heureux." But the progress of astronomy has not depended upon climate, as the names of Tycho, Römer, Flamsteed, Bradley, Hevelius, Huygens, Schroeter, Olbers, and others of the ιερα φαλανξ, abundantly testify. Indeed, in the department before us, within twenty years of Messier's publication, the illustrious Sir William Herschel increased the 103 by 2500 new members, in the decried climate of England, thus affording a strong instance how moral causes can control the physical. Piazzi, whose observatory in the Conca d'Oro was to the eye most charmingly situated, was so troubled with a peculiar flickery hot aerial refraction, that one night he exclaimed to me, "Ah, Greenwich is the paradise for an observer!"

It is rather curious, on recollecting that this nebula was first caught up in seeking the comet of 1759, that it was also a mare's nest to more than one astronomical tyro in August, 1835, when on the look-out for the return of Halley's comet, in the very month in which it had first been seen seventy-seven years before: and ζ Tauri was also the star which served as a "pointer," on that interesting advent.
― A Cycle of Celestial Objects Vol II, The Bedford Catalogue, William Henry Smyth, 1844

John Herschel
Feb 24, 1827    

Very large; extended; very gradually brightening a little toward the middle; mottled; 4' long, 3' broad; position angle of longer axis north preceding to south following. A fine object.

Charles Messier
Sep 12, 1758    

Nebula above the southern horn of Taurus, it doesn't contain any star; it is a whitish light, elongated in the shape of a flame of a candle, discovered while observing the comet of 1758. See the chart of that comet, Mem. Acad. of the year 1759, page 188; observed by Dr. Bevis in about 1731. It is reported on the English Celestial Atlas
― Connaissance des Temps, 1781
Other Data Sources for Messier 1
Nearby objects for Messier 1
5 objects found within 120'
Σ 740 HD 37387 NGC 1988
o Tauri Tianguan
Credits...

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

A complete list of credits and sources can be found on the about page

Messier 1