Messier Objects Cards Review

[philip d]

One thing that has frustrated me about various field guides and star charts is that when they have a complete listing of the Messier objects, it's often just a list at the back, and one has to hunt down individual objects by flipping back through the books to find the appropriate constellations. And as much as I like planispheres, I've not yet seen one that had all or even most of the Messier objects listed on it.

Sky & Telescope publishing has put out a dew resistant 9"x12" (23cm x 30.5 cm) laminated card style star map that has all the Messier objects shown in their constellations on one side and a complete list of all 110 of them on the other side. The list includes RA and Dec for equinox 2000, constellation name, type, magnitude and size. The star map side is white stars on black background for easy use with a red light. Constellation names are absent on the starmap to keep it from being too cluttered, but connective lines are shown for reference. I found it fun to check my (limited) knowledge of constellations by looking at the stick drawings of them on the card and trying to name them all without resorting to looking at them on a named resource. At any rate there's no labels in the night sky either. ;-)

The Messier Card is a well executed reference, and it's just what I've been looking for. It retails for $5US. With it and a $15 planisphere, a binocular or small telescope user would have plenty of interesting targets to hunt in a quick and easy to use package that takes up almost no room. I recomend the Messier Card to anyone that's wanting to complement their planisphere or field guides. Note that many of the objects require a small telescope, but many, if not most can be seen with a good pair of astro binoculars.

[Falcon]

I completely agree, I've had both the Messier card and it's countepart Caldwell Card for over a year now, and they've become my single most used refrences. They're a perfect combination of a quick refrence, starmap, and the size and laminated finish make them trouble free in the field and they don't take up space on my observing table because I can just set whatever I want on top of them. I cant say enough good things about these cards, and hope they come out with other lists in a similar format, my only suggestion for improving them would be to include constilation lables and names of bright refrence stars like Vega, Rigel, Betlegese, Deneb....etc. Highly reccomended as a "must have" refrence for every amateur with a any size instrument, from binoculars to big-dobs!