Atlas of the Messier Objects

Ronald Stoyan was born in Dresden in 1972. A geographer by education, he became interested in visual astronomical observation at the age of 16. He has since developed an international reputation as an experienced planetary and deep-sky observer and drawer. He was the founding director of the German deep-sky organization 'Fachgruppe Deep-Sky' and served as Jupiter and Saturn recorder for the German-speaking planetary observers. For twenty-four years he was editor-in-chief of interstellarum, one of the country's main astronomical magazines, which he founded in 1994, and senior editor for its successor, Abenteuer Astronomie. In 2000, he founded Oculum-Verlag as Germany's first exclusive astronomical publishing company. He has authored and coauthored more than a dozen books on practical astronomy, the best known of which are the interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas and its companion, the interstellarum Deep Sky Guide.

The first edition of this stunning reference atlas was hailed as the most comprehensive, detailed, and beautiful account of the Messier objects then available. The second edition of the Atlas continues this trend, with thoroughly updated astrophysical, historical, and observational information and new large-scale color photos for every object.

Preface, User guide; Charles Messier; The Observations; The catalog; Statistics of the Messier objects; Observation of the Messier objects; Beyond Messier: The Herschel 100; The 110 Messier objects; Glossary of technical terms; Index of figures; Index of sources.