Messier Catalog

Charles Messier (26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817) was a French astronomer whose passion was finding comets. As he observed the sky in his search for comets, he would note the position of anything he saw that might be a comet.

Returning later to see if the object had moved, he gradually developed a list of objects that remained stationary. He used this list of things that were not comets to prevent confusion in his search. In 1774, he first published his list of 45 objects so that other comet hunters would not waste time with these. Each of the target had the simple designation 'M' followed by a sequential number.

By 1784, his published list had grown to 103 targets. The list was later expanded to 110 targets which is now the accepted official list.

The Messier list, as it came to be known, includes many of the brightest and most interesting objects that can be seen. Some objects are visible with the naked eye and most of these can be viewed with binoculars.