24 Jan
2010
24 Jan
'10
3:47 p.m.
Rosse’s sketch illustrates just how subjective visual astronomy can be. He was trying to see this supernova remnant as a cluster embedded in nebulosity like M8 the lagoon or M16. He also tried to extend the nebulosity into faint filaments. He was wrong on both counts as seen in any modern astrophoto. My own vision of M1 in a medium size dob is that it looks like a finger print. The internal structure is just starting to be resolved, but the density of field stars is the same inside and outside of the glowing gas, and the gas has a well defined edge and a shape. But then I’ve seen the pictures so I know what it really looks like. DT