FAS Observatory Director Dr. Bill Rankin has captured images of all 110 Messier Objects. Messier objects were compiled by Charles Messier back in the 1700s as objects to avoid when searching for comets. However, today, they are very popular targets for amateur astronomers. Most of us observe, much less image, only a fraction of these. However, Bill has managed to visit and capture images of them all.
Bill completed his journey in July of this year after a two year effort and received his certificate from the Astronomical Society. He was also featured in a recent article from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Bill started in astronomy as a teenager in the Rocket City Astronomical Association where he received an award from Dr. Werner Von Braun. He now has his own observatory with a RedCat 71 and Ultra-Cat 108 from Williams Optics. He also takes out his ZWO Seestar S50 from time to time. Many of the Messier objects were captured with his Seestar, a RedCat 51, and a ZWO 107mm refractor (replaced by the Ultra-Cat 108).
We can’t show all of Bill’s Messier images, but we’d thought we would include a few. You can find more of Bill’s astrophotography on his AstroBin page.
Again, congratulations to Bill for quite an accomplishment!
Find out more about Deep-Sky objects, including those in Messier’s catalog, here:
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