 1 Googol = 10100

 1 light year = 9.46 x 1012 kms.

 MESSIER CATALOGUE
Charles Messier, a French comet hunter made a catalogue of fuzzy comet like objects in the
sky which were not comets. These objects looked like comets but unlike them remain fixed
relative to the starts. So they are not in our solar system. This catalogue he made contained
about 104 objects. Each object is assigned a catalogue number like M1,M2, and M3… etc. In
those days it was a handy guide for comet hunters. Except some star clusters, it was not
known what these fuzzy objects were. But now, we know that many of them are clouds of
gas and dust, while many are galaxies millions of light years away. Now the Messier
Catalogue is a popular guide for amateur astronomers to hunt for deep sky objects. So
whenever you see, say or listen M42 it means the Orion nebula and M31- the Andromeda
galaxy.
 STAR BRIGHTNESS
If we don’t bother about the distance of the star, its brightness as seen from the Earth is
called the apparent magnitude. A star of the 1 st magnitude is precisely 100 times brighter
than a star of the 6th magnitude. Objects brighter than the 1 st magnitude are given a negative
magnitude. Stars fainter than the magnitude 6, are given progressively positive magnitude.
 COLOURS OF THE STARTS
The colour of a star gives the information about the surface temperature of it. The following
table gives the approximate surface temperature according to the temperature of the star.

TYPE COLOUR TEMPERATURE EXAMPLE

O and B Blue 40,0000C-11,0000C Spica,Rigel,Regulus
A and F Blue and White 11,0000C-6,0000C Vega,Sirius and Polaris
G Yellow White 6,0000C-5,0000C Sun, Cappella
K Orange 5,0000C-3,5000C Areturus,Aldebran
M Red 3,5000C-3,0000C Antares,Betelguese