“Man must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.” -Socrates
It's hard to believe that it's been nearly two years since we started our Messier Monday series, and so with only 110 objects to go through, we're actually starting to run out of objects! The most numerous type of object in the Messier Catalogue are the galaxies, but only a handful of those remain.
Image credit: The Messier Objects by Alistair Symon, from 2005-2009, via http://www.woodlandsobservatory.com/messier_map.htm.
Still, the richest spot for those is the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, and this is maybe the best time of year for observers all over the world (even the Aussies and Kiwis) to check it out, and today's object -- Messier 84 -- has literally the best seat in the house.
Image credit: © 2006 — 2012 by Siegfried Kohlert, via http://www.astroimages.de/en/gallery/M84.html.
Go read (and view) the whole delightful story of this deep-sky wonder!
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Aaah, to get cracking,
with the photos and stacking
when the weather is clear once again.
To set up the 'scope
after SHE says 'no hope'
I'll get there after she's gone to bed.