Messier 1 (The Crab Nebula) (Bicolor)

The first item in the Messier catalogue is the famous Crab Nebula, a remnant of a supernova explosion observed and recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054. The supernova itself was brilliant and with a peak magnitude of –7 was easily visible in daylight. Today, it still rates as one of the brightest natural stellar events ever recorded. Roll on 950+ years and the initial explosive has long since faded but the aftermath – the nebula – remains visible. At mag. +8.4 and with an apparent size of 7×5 arc minutes, it’s a relatively easy target under dark skies and can be spotted with a pair of binoculars. M1 is located in the zodiacal constellation of Taurus. It’s not difficult to find as it’s positioned just a degree northwest of mag. +3.0 star Zeta Tauri (ζ Tau). The remnant was first observed by John Bevis in 1731. Charles Messier observed it in September 1758 and the appearance of this dying remnant inspired him to begin compiling a list of nebulae that possibly could be mistaken for comets. The list eventually became his famous catalogue. The following century, William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse made a drawing of M1 (around 1844) and christened it the Crab Nebula due to its wispy filamentary structure.