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Which Messier objects are visible?

Fabien Chéreau et al. Stellarium Off-topic Messier Objects Observing Lists
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Anton Viola avatar
Anton Viola avatar
It often happens to me that I am puzzling out with for instance Stellarium or other apps when certain Messier objects are visible. That's why I decided to build a ‘morsel’ that allows me to show, based on date, time, location and azimuth/altitude limits, which Messier objects meet the criteria.

See attachment: Messier Visibility V1.0.xlsx Anton
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Jean-David Gadina avatar
Jean-David Gadina avatar
Oh thanks a lot, this is really helpful!
Anton Viola avatar
Anton Viola avatar
Good to hear, thanks for the feedback!
SouthWestAstro avatar
SouthWestAstro avatar
Very nice. Thanks !
Benny Colyn avatar
Benny Colyn avatar
While an achievement building this yourself, if you don't know the website Telescopius yet you're in for a treat

https://telescopius.com/

Use the Targets->Deep Sky menu 

Filter for things like:
  • visibility during a given time window (including minimum altitude)
  • catalog (Messier, NGC, IC, ...)
  • object type (galaxy, nebula, ...)
  • distance from the moon
  • surface brightness
  • etc, etc, etc


When clicking on an object's page there's also a tool for consulting DSS images and checking framing

I really like it to scout for potential targets.
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Anton Viola avatar
Anton Viola avatar
Thank you, very interesting! But it was actually fun to develop this. Added the link on my website, thanks again.

Anton
Ed Dixon avatar
Ed Dixon avatar
You can do that directly with Stellarium by adding a horizon image to the system.  This will show all items visible, by time date, and other factors…including any obstructions on your imaging location.  There are a number of posts on the details on how to do this.   Stellarium can both go forward in time as well as backwards.
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Anton Viola avatar
Anton Viola avatar
Thank you for this tip!