The (Uninteresting) History of Messier45.com

My name is Mikkel Steine and I'm an amateur astronomer based in Blaker, Norway (11°21'36" east, 59°58'22" north and 156m elevation to be exact), not far from Norway's capitol Oslo, but far enough to experience good dark skies. I observe regularly--when the weather permits--with a homemade 10-inch Dobsonian and 14x100 binoculars. My prime interest in astronomy is deep sky observing and astrophotography. Currently (winter 2004/2005) I'm also building a 12.4-inch Dobsonian with a much better mirror than the 10-inch.

The interest for deep sky observing really got hold of me in 1996 when I met my good friend Arild Moland. He had the telescopes and the experience, and put me on the right track as a visual observer. A couple of years later I bought a pair of 14x100 Wachter binoculars, which has been great fun to use. It might seem strange to begin with a huge 14x100, but I don't regret it one bit. Besides I already had good experience with larger telescopes, and I love the wide field. Many of the objects I specialize in are perfect for my binoculars.

Messier and Herschel 400

I started creating the Messier Gallery and Herschel 400 mainly to help my own observing, but I decided to post them on the Internet so that amateur astronomers around the world could make use of them. Soon I wanted to expand and add more functionality. The site grew as my observing progressed and I soon learned Perl and Java to make it possible to realize my dreams for this site. The Virtual Observatory, as I called it, seemed to be a great success. It had about 1000 visitors every day. It also got recognition in great magazines like Sky & Telescope (November 1999) and EDL, Equatorial Dust Lane (#2 1998), which I greatly enjoyed.

Messier45.com and Deep Sky Browser

Then I ended my studies and had to move the site. I didn't want it to disappear. So, then the Virtual Observatory changed name to Messier45.com and now has a permanent address. As I never feel quite finished and I had to expand on the Virtual Observatory, which then was a rather simple search engine for deep sky objects with few deep sky objects, and soon the Deep Sky Browser was born.

If you would like to share experiences as an amateur astronomer, request features that would improve this site or what ever, please drop me an e-mail. My address is mikkel at messier45 dot com (a futile attempt at stopping spam!)

Credits and Sources

Many people have inspired me and helped me with the site and its predecessor the Virtual Observatory. Some of the more prominent helpers and inspirators include Arild Moland of Norway, Fr. Lucian Kemble of Canada and Niels Zagers of the Netherlands. Thank you very much for your friendship, help and guidance. I would also like to thank all those who give me feedback and inspire new changes in the Deep Sky Browser and Messier45.com.

Data for the List Generator

• Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg [CDS]
  Provides tons of astronomical data as well as a great reference to originators of the specific data.
• Astronomical Data Center [ADC]
  Like [CDS] it provides a huge amount of astronomical data. Data from [CDS] and [ADC] are added to my database regularly.
• The NGC/IC Project [NIP]
  [NIP] is an effort to correctly identify all NGC and IC numbers with the right objects. This is a continous effort, and is far from finished. Finding the right indentifications is often very difficult or even impossible due to the bad original data. All published corrections from this project have been incorporated into the Deep Sky Browser.
• The Arizona Database [AZD]
  [AZD] was used originally as a source of data. Unfortunatelly much of the data was erraneous, and most of it has been replaced with newer and more precise data from the above sources.
• SEDS Messier Catalog [SEDS]
• The Deep Sky Field Guide for Uranometria [DSFGU]
  [DSFGU] has been used sporadically for some data, mostly as sort of a reference.
• Uranometria 2000.0 Volume I & II [URA]
• Sky Catalogue 2000.0 Vol. 2 [SkyCat]

The Observing Guide and Help pages

• Lucian J. Kemble, Improving Observing Skills, 1998 [LK98]
  Fr. Lucian Kemble kindly provided his article via e-mail.
• Malcolm J. Thomson, Observing The Planetary Nebulae, The Webb Society Quarterly Journal, #23, Jan. 1976 [MT76]
  Some of Thomson's tips in this article regarding planetary nebulae and making visual observations in general was included in the Observing Guide.