“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.” -Neil Gaiman
"The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy." -Ezra Pound
It's time for another Messier Monday, where we profile one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier catalogue! This was the first large, accurate catalogue of fixed, non-transient objects to be assembled, and it makes for a delightful collection of targets for skywatchers all across the globe.
“We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end.” -Blaise Pascal
By now, you've probably learned that Messier objects and galaxies in particular come in a huge, rich variety of types, structures and compositions. But sometimes, the simplest structure of all is the rarest.