Messier Charts

There are two charts for each object:

1. An uninverted chart covering about 10° of sky, with a 5° circle, for use with binoculars
2. An E/W reversed chart covering about 5° of sky, with a 2° circle, for use with, e.g., an SCT with a diagonal.

If you are not familiar with the constellation in whicn the object lies, I recommend that you use the charts in conjunction (ghastly pun intended <g>) with a simple star atlas. The pocket-sized Collins Gem Night Sky is what I use – it is greatly underrated for "serious" use.
The RA and Dec on each chart is approximately that of the centre of the chart, and not necessarily the co-ordinates of the object..

The charts were made using Guide v6.0; this should be acknowledged if you reproduce any chart; please also abide by the Creative Commons License at the bottom of this page.

Some configurations of web browser may interpret the chart as a blank page. If this happens to you, save the chart to disk and view it with your graphics program. To save the chart directly to disk, hold down the shift key whilst clicking on the link, or right-click and choose the "Save" option from the menu..

Download the complete set of binocular charts.(586kb)
Download the complete set of telescope charts.(708kb)
(It is probably sensible to look at a few individual charts first to see if the format I like is what you want!)

Charts for individual objects

(or several objects closely grouped) (approx. 10kb each)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The Astronomical Unit