Can you tell the Physical Properties of a Messier Object?

[Atominate]

Can you tell any physical properties of a Messier object by its name, such as M1 or M42? I know this may sound like a silly question, but I am doing an Astronomy GCSE and I thought that maybe there was a better way of just looking it up online and remembering it.
Thanks.

 

[Bandersnatch]

No, you can't. The list was compiled at a time when nobody even had an idea what a galaxy is, so all those objects were just 'nebulae' (or, as Messier would probably explain to you: 'not comets'). If you look at the list of Messier objects, there's just no order to it: type, place in the sky, brightness, distance - all jump around pretty much randomly.

I hope they're not expecting you to memorize all of them?

 

[Atominate]

Thanks. I was just wondering if there was an easier way.

I hope they're not expecting you to memorize all of them?

Ha! I sure hope not!

 

[snorkack]

One simple rule of thumb, though: the first 45 M objects are generally brighter than the rest.