It's really interesting to see that most of the objects are very close to earth except for the globs and galaxies. As for the globs, I was really surprised to see how they are all over the map, especially when compared to the other types. Finally, for the galaxies, it makes sense that most of them make an angle greater than ~45 degrees wrt the plane of the galaxy. Thanks for the great tip! I really like to visualize the relative location of the objects we look at. Tom -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Polakis Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 4:09 PM To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AZ-Observing] Messier Object Location App Texas amateur astronomer Bill Tschumy has written a very nice little Java application that shows the physical location of all of the Messier objects with respect to the Milky Way's disc. The software is named "WhereIsM13." http://www.thinkastronomy.com/software/software.html Symbols for the selected Messier objects are plotted against edge-on and face-on views of our home galaxy. Next time you're doing a Messier marathon, you can gain some perspective on where you're actually looking. Tom -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.