M 102

Galaxy M102

missing‘,

or doubty, Messier object. This means that two opinions on the identity of

this object are common:

1. M102 may be a duplication of the

   Spiral Galaxy

   M101 (NGC 5457)

   in Ursa Major,

   due to an error of either the catalog author Messier,

   or its `discoverer’ Mechain.

2. M102 may be the

   Lenticular Galaxy

   NGC 5866

   in Draco,

   also sometimes called the Spindle Galaxy,

   as Messier’s catalog description indicates, together with the position

   he added later by hand.

The authors of this page think that there is enough evidence that both

Mechain and Messier have probably observed NGC 5866 in context of this

catalog entry. Therefore, it should be considered to take this last

missing object back into the catalog.

Please note our discussion of

more details on this topic.

---

Hartmut Frommert

([email protected])

Christine Kronberg

([email protected])

Last Modification: 7 Apr 1999, 12:32 MET