Learn about Charles Messiers Catalog of Objects

Learn about Charles Messier's Catalog of Objects In the mid-18th century, astronomer Charles Messier began studying the sky under the direction of the French Navy and its astronomer Joseph Nicolas Delisle. Messier was taxed with recording the comets he saw in the sky. Not surprisingly, as he studied the heavens, Messier came across a large number of objects that werent comets. Key Takeaways: The Messier Objects The Messier Objects are named for astronomer Charles Messier who compiled his list in the mid 1700s while searching for comets.  Today, astronomers still refer to this catalog of objects as the M objects. Each is identified with the letter M and a number.The most distant Messier object that can be seen with the naked eye is the Andromeda Galaxy, or M31.The Messier Objects catalog contains information about 110 nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies. Messier decided to compile these objects into a list that other astronomers could use as they searched the sky. The idea was to make it easier for others to ignore these objects as they, too, looked for comets. This list eventually became known as the Messier Catalog, and contains all objects Messier viewed through his 100-mm telescope from his latitude in France. First published in 1871, the list has been updated as recently as 1966. What Are the Messier Objects? Messier cataloged an amazing array of objects that astronomers still refer to today as the M objects. Each is identified with the letter M and a number. M13 is the brightest of the globular clusters in Hercules. It is the 13th object in Messiers list of faint fuzzies.. Rawastrodata, via Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0.   Star Clusters First, there are the star clusters. With todays telescopes, its fairly easy to look at many of Messiers clusters and pick out individual stars. Yet, back in his day, these collections of stars probably looked fairly fuzzy through his telescope. Some, such as M2, a globular cluster in the constellation Aquarius, are just barely visible to the naked eye. Others are easy to see without a telescope. These include the globular cluster M13, visible in the constellation Hercules, also known as the Hercules Star Cluster, and M45, commonly known as the Pleiades. The Pleiades is a good example of an open cluster, which is a grouping of stars that travel together and are loosely bound together by gravity. Globulars contain hundreds of thousands of stars and are globe-shaped collections Nebulae Clouds of gas and dust are known as nebulae and exist throughout our galaxy. While nebulae are much dimmer than stars, some, such as the Orion Nebula or the Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius, can be seen with the naked eye under good conditions. The Orion Nebula is a starbirth region in the constellation Orion, while the Trifid is a cloud of hydrogen gas that glows (it is called an emission nebula for that reason), and has stars embedded in it as well.  Ã‚   The Orion Nebula as seen by the collection of instruments aboard Hubble Space Telescope. NASA/ESA/STScI The Messier list also contains information about supernova remnants and planetary nebulae. When a supernova explodes, it sends clouds of gas and other elements hurtling through space at high speed. These catastrophic explosions occur only when the most massive stars die, those that are at least eight to ten times the mass of the Sun. The best-known M object that is a supernova explosion remnant is called M1 and is more commonly known as the Crab Nebula. It is not visible to the naked eye but can be viewed through a small telescope. Look for it in the direction of the constellation Taurus.  Ã‚   Hubble Space Telescopes view of the Crab Nebula supernova remnant. NASA/ESA/STScI Planetary nebulae occur when smaller stars like the Sun die. Their outer layers dissipate while whats left of the star shrinks to become a white dwarf star. Messier charted a number of these, including the famous Ring Nebula, identified as M57 on his list. The Ring Nebula is not visible to the naked eye but can be found using binoculars or a small telescope in the constellation Lyra, the Harp.   You can see a white dwarf at the heart of the Ring Nebula. This is a Hubble Space Telescope image. The Ring Nebula consists of a white dwarf at the center of an expanding shell of gases expelled by the star. It is possible our star could end up like this. NASA/ESA/STScI. Messiers Galaxies There are 42 galaxies in the Messier Catalogue. They are classified by their shapes, including spirals, lenticulars, ellipticals, and irregulars. The most famous is the Andromeda Galaxy, which is called M31. Its the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and can be seen with the naked eye from a good dark-sky site. Its also the most distant object that can be seen with the naked eye. It lies more than 2.5 million light-years away. All other galaxies in the Messier Catalogue are visible only through binoculars (for the brighter ones) and telescopes (for the dimmer ones).   At 2.5 million light-years, the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. The term light-year was invented to handle the immense distances between objects in the universe. Later, parsec was developed for truly huge distances. Adam Evans/Wikimedia Commons. A Messier Marathon: Viewing all the Objects A Messier Marathon, wherein observers try to view all the Messier objects in one night, is only possible once a year, usually from mid-March to mid-April. Of course, the weather can be a factor. Observers typically begin their search for Messier objects as soon after sundown as possible. The search starts in the western part of the sky to catch a glimpse of any objects that are about to set.  Then, observers work their way east to try and see all 110 objects before the sky brightens near sunrise the next day.   A successful Messier Marathon can be quite challenging, particularly when an observer is trying to find those objects embedded in the vast star clouds of the Milky Way. Weather or clouds can obscure the view of some of the dimmer objects. People interested in doing a Messier Marathon usually do them in conjunction with an astronomy club. Special star parties are organized each year, and some clubs give out certificates to those who manage to capture them all. Most observers practice by observing Messier objects throughout the year, which gives them a better chance of finding them during a marathon. Its not really something a beginner can do, but it is something to strive for as one gets better at stargazing. The Messier Marathons website has helpful hints for observers wanting to pursue their own Messier chase.   Seeing Messier Objects Online For observers who dont have telescopes, or the ability to get out and observe Charles Messiers objects, there are a number of online image resources. The Hubble Space Telescope has observed most of the list, and you can see many of the stunning images in the Space Telescope Science Institutes Flickr catalog. Sources Astropixels.com, astropixels.com/messier/messiercat.html.â€Å"Charles Messier - Scientist of the Day.†Ã‚  Linda Hall Library, 23 June 2017, www.lindahall.org/charles-messier/.Garner, Rob. â€Å"Hubbles Messier Catalog.†Ã‚  NASA, NASA, 28 Aug. 2017, www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog.Torrance Barrens Dark-Sky Preserve | RASC, www.rasc.ca/messier-objects.

Highlights of Late 19th Century Womens Labor Organizing

Highlights of Late 19th Century Women's Labor Organizing Some highlights of American womens labor organizing in the late 19th century: In 1863, a committee in New York City, organized by the editor of the New York Sun, began to help women collect wages due them that had not been paid. This organization continued for fifty years. Also in 1863, women in Troy, New York, organized the Collar Laundry Union. These women worked in laundries making and laundering the detachable collars stylish on mens shirts. They went on strike, and as a result won an increase in wages. In 1866, their strike fund was used to aid the Iron Molders Union, building a lasting relationship with that mens union. The leader of the laundryworkers union, Kate Mullaney, went on to become assistant secretary of the National Labor Union. The Collar Laundry Union dissolved July 31, 1869, in the the middle of another strike, faced with the threat of paper collars and the likely loss of their jobs. The National Labor Union was organized in 1866; while not exclusively focusing on womens issues, it did take a stand for the rights of working women. The first two national unions to admit women were the Cigarmakers (1867) and the Printers (1869). Susan B. Anthony used her paper, The Revolution, to help working women organize in their own interests. One such organization formed in 1868, and became known as the Working Womens Association. Active in this organization was Augusta Lewis, a typographer who kept the organization focused on representing the women on pay and working conditions, and kept the organization out of political issues such as woman suffrage. Miss Lewis became the president of the Womens Typographical Union No. 1 which grew out of the Working Womens Association. In 1869, this local union applied for membership in the national Typographers Union, and Miss Lewis was made corresponding secretary of the union. She married Alexander Troup, the unions secretary-treasurer, in 1874, and retired from the union, though not from other reform work. Womens Local 1 did not long survive the loss of its organizing leader, and dissolved in 1878. After that time, the Typographers admitted women on an equal basis to men, instead of organizing separate womens locals. In 1869, a group of women shoestitchers in Lynn, Massachusetts, organized the Daughters of St. Crispin, a national womens labor organization modeled on and supported by the Knights of St. Crispin, the national shoe workers union, which also went on record supporting equal pay for equal work. The Daughters of St. Crispin is recognized as the first national union of women. The first president of the Daughters of St. Crispin was Carrie Wilson. When the Daughters of St. Crispin went on strike in Baltimore in 1871, the Knights of St. Crispin successfully demanded that the women strikers be rehired. The depression in the 1870s led to the demise of the Daughters of St. Crispin in 1876. The Knights of Labor, organized in 1869, began admitting women in 1881. In 1885, the Knights of Labor established the Womens Work Department. Leonora Barry was hired as a full time organizer and investigator. The Womens Work Department was dissolved in 1890. Alzina Parsons Stevens, a typographer and, at one time, Hull House resident, organized the Working Womans Union No. 1 in 1877. In 1890, she was elected district master workman, District Assembly 72, Knights of Labor, in Toledo, Ohio. Mary Kimball Kehew joined the Womens Educational and Industrial Union in 1886, becoming a director in 1890 and president in 1892. With Mary Kenney OSullivan, she organized the Union for Industrial Progress, whose purpose was to help women organize craft unions. This was a forerunner of the Womens Trade Union League, founded in the early 20th century. Mary Kenney OSullivan was the first woman hired by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) as an organizer. She had earlier organized women bookbinders in Chicago into the AFL and had been elected a delegate to the Chicago Trades and Labor Assembly. In 1890, Josephine Shaw Lowell organized the Consumers League of New York. In 1899, the New York organization helped found the National Consumers League to protect both workers and consumers. Florence Kelley led this organization, which worked mainly through educational effort. Text copyright  © Jone Johnson Lewis . Image:  left to right, (front row): Miss Felice Louria, executive secretary of the New York City Consumers League; and Miss Helen Hall, director of the Henry Street Settlement in New York and chairman of the Consumers National Federation. (Back row) Robert S. Lynd, head of Department of Sociology, Columbia University; F.B. McLaurin, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Michael Quill, N.Y. City Councilman and president of Transportation Workers Union.