Messier Difficulty Ratings

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Messier Difficulty Ratings

Following is a table of the Messier catalog excerpted from my book, The NexStar User's Guide II. I have rated each object with a difficulty rating:

Easy	easily visible with any aperture, even in most city skies
Medium	easily visible with small apertures (60-90mm) under dark skies, just visible in moderate aperture (4-6 inches) in suburban skies, visible in larger aperture (8 inch or more) in most city skies
Hard	just visible with small apertures under dark skies, easily visible with moderate aperture under dark skies, just visible in large apertures in suburban skies

Note that this rating system expects great conditions and indicates you can see the object, not necessarily any detail. Great conditions include a night of good transparency with no moon and the object is high in altitude - not possible for all objects from some northern latitudes. In particular northern observers will have difficulty with the objects in Sagittarius, Scorpius and other low-lying constellations.

Email your opinion on Messier difficulty ratings to swanson.michael@usa.net

Object Number	Name	Type	Difficulty
1	NGC 1952 Crab Nebula	Supernova Remnant	Medium
2	NGC 7089	Globular Cluster	Easy
3	NGC 5272	Globular Cluster	Easy
4	NGC 6121	Globular Cluster	Medium
5	NGC 5904	Globular Cluster	Easy
6	NGC 6405 Butterfly Cluster	Open Cluster	Easy
7	NGC 6475 Ptolemy¹s Cluster	Open Cluster	Easy
8	NGC 6523 Lagoon Nebula	Diffuse Nebula	Medium
9	NGC 6333	Globular Cluster	Medium
10	NGC 6254	Globular Cluster	Medium
11	NGC 6705 Wild Duck Cluster	Open Cluster	Easy
12	NGC 6218	Globular Cluster	Medium
13	NGC 6205 Hercules Globular Cluster	Globular Cluster	Easy
14	NGC 6402	Globular Cluster	Medium
15	NGC 7078	Globular Cluster	Easy
16	NGC 6611 Eagle Nebula Cluster	Open Cluster	Easy
17	NGC 6618 Omega, Swan, Horseshoe Nebula	Diffuse Nebula	Medium
18	NGC 6613	Open Cluster	Easy
19	NGC 6273	Globular Cluster	Easy
20	NGC 6514 Trifid Nebula	Diffuse Nebula	Medium
21	NGC 6531	Open Cluster	Easy
22	NGC 6656	Globular Cluster	Easy
23	NGC 6494	Open Cluster	Easy
24	NGC 6603 Milky Way Patch	Star Cloud	Easy
25	IC 4725	Open Cluster	Easy
26	NGC 6694	Open Cluster	Easy
27	NGC 6853 Dumbbell Nebula	Planetary Nebula	Medium
28	NGC 6626	Globular Cluster	Medium
29	NGC 6913	Open Cluster	Easy
30	NGC 7099	Globular Cluster	Medium
31	NGC 224 Andromeda Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Easy
32	NGC 221 Satellite of M31	Elliptical Galaxy	Medium
33	NGC 598 Triangulum/Pinwheel Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
34	NGC 1039	Open Cluster	Easy
35	NGC 2168	Open Cluster	Easy
36	NGC 1960	Open Cluster	Easy
37	NGC 2099	Open Cluster	Easy
38	NGC 1912	Open Cluster	Easy
39	NGC 7092	Open Cluster	Easy
40	Winecke 4	Double Star	Easy
41	NGC 2287	Open Cluster	Easy
42	NGC 1976 Great Orion Nebula	Diffuse Nebula	Easy
43	NGC 1982 de Mairan¹s Nebula	Diffuse Nebula	Medium
44	NGC 2632 Beehive Cluster (Praesepe)	Open Cluster	Easy
45	Pleiades, Subaru, Seven Sisters	Open Cluster	Easy
46	NGC 2437	Open Cluster	Medium
47	NGC 2422	Open Cluster	Easy
48	NGC 2548	Open Cluster	Medium
49	NGC 4472	Elliptical Galaxy	Hard
50	NGC 2323	Open Cluster	Easy
51	NGC 5194 Whirlpool Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
52	NGC 7654	Open Cluster	Medium
53	NGC 5024	Globular Cluster	Medium
54	NGC 6715	Globular Cluster	Medium
55	NGC 6809	Globular Cluster	Medium
56	NGC 6779	Globular Cluster	Medium
57	NGC 6720 Ring Nebula	Planetary Nebula	Easy
58	NGC 4579	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
59	NGC 4621	Elliptical Galaxy	Hard
60	NGC 4649	Elliptical Galaxy	Medium
61	NGC 4303	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
62	NGC 6266	Globular Cluster	Medium
63	NGC 5055 Sunflower Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
64	NGC 4826 Blackeye Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
65	NGC 3623	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
66	NGC 3627	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
67	NGC 2682	Open Cluster	Medium
68	NGC 4590	Globular Cluster	Hard
69	NGC 6637	Globular Cluster	Medium
70	NGC 6681	Globular Cluster	Medium
71	NGC 6838	Globular Cluster	Hard
72	NGC 6981	Globular Cluster	Hard
73	NGC 6994 Group of 4 stars	Group/Asterism	Easy
74	NGC 628	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
75	NGC 6864	Globular Cluster	Medium
76	NGC 650 Little Dumbbell, Cork, Butterfly Nebula	Planetary Nebula	Medium
77	NGC 1068 Cetus A	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
78	NGC 2068	Diffuse Nebula	Medium
79	NGC 1904	Globular Cluster	Medium
80	NGC 6093	Globular Cluster	Medium
81	NGC 3031 Bode¹s Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
82	NGC 3034 Cigar Galaxy	Irregular Galaxy	Medium
83	NGC 5236 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
84	NGC 4374	Lenticular (S0) Galaxy	Hard
85	NGC 4382	Lenticular (S0) Galaxy	Hard
86	NGC 4406	Lenticular (S0) Galaxy	Hard
87	NGC 4486 Virgo A	Elliptical Galaxy	Hard
88	NGC 4501	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
89	NGC 4552	Elliptical Galaxy	Hard
90	NGC 4569	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
91	NGC 4548	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
92	NGC 6341	Globular Cluster	Easy
93	NGC 2447	Open Cluster	Medium
94	NGC 4736	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
95	NGC 3351	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
96	NGC 3368	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
97	NGC 3587 Owl Nebula	Planetary Nebula	Medium
98	NGC 4192	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
99	NGC 4254	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
100	NGC 4321	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
101	NGC 5457 Pinwheel Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
102	NGC 5866 Spindle Galaxy	Lenticular (S0) Galaxy	Medium
103	NGC 581	Open Cluster	Easy
104	NGC 4594 Sombrero Galaxy	Spiral Galaxy	Medium
105	NGC 3379	Elliptical Galaxy	Hard
106	NGC 4258	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
107	NGC 6171	Globular Cluster	Medium
108	NGC 3556	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
109	NGC 3992	Spiral Galaxy	Hard
110	NGC 205 Satellite of M31	Elliptical Galaxy	Hard