Messier's catalog of 110 star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies is the most popular list of deep sky gems. 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 continues this trend, with thoroughly investigated and updated astrophysical, historical, and observational information for every object. The main object photos have all been replaced with more than 150 new images from some of the world's best amateurs displaying the objects' splendor through large-scale color images. Historical sketches from classical observers from the nineteenth century are presented, alongside the author's modern deep-sky drawings. Extensive information is given on visual observation from using the naked eye and binoculars through to large modern amateur telescopes. Astronomers of all abilities will delight in the Atlas's return as your guide to the sky's finest objects.

Autorentext
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. Klaus-Peter Schroeder is a professor of astrophysics at the Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico. His research is focused on stellar activity, spectroscopy, stellar evolution and red giant stars, using the TIGRE robotic telescope since 2013. His work has been published in over 100 articles in refereed astrophysical journals of high impact. As an avid amateur astronomer and photographer since youth, he has also written several books on astrophotography and is a regular contributor to amateur astronomy magazines.

Zusammenfassung
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.

Inhalt
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.