Messier Catalogue of Sky Objects
from Steven Banchard

Charles Messier (June 26, 1730 – April, 1817)

1.     Born in Badonviller, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France

2.     10^th of 12 children

3.     Father died when 11

4.     Finished education on own

5.     Interest in astronomy at 14

·        A great 6-tailed comet appeared

·        Furthered by annular Solar eclipse on July 25, 1748

6.     Went to Paris in October, 1751 (age 17)

·        Employed by the astronomer of the Navy – Joseph Nicolas Delisle

·        First Job – copying a large map of China

·        Introduced into the observatory on Hotel de Cluny by Delisle’s secretary, Libour

·        Introduced to elementary astronomy by Delisle and convinced of usefulness of exact positions of all observations – setup for success of his catalog.

·        Regularly employed as a Depot Clerk of the Navy – 1754

7.     Searched for Comet Halley in 1757.

·        1757- Reported observation of M32 – companion to the Andromeda galaxy

·        Used Delisle’s calculations and his own fine star chart to search for Halley’s expected 1758 return.

·        Delisle’s calculation were in error, looked in wrong place – failed

·        Discovered  another comet on August 14, 1758

·        Observed with telescopes to November 2, 1758

·        During the comet observations discovered another comet-like patch that didn’t move in Taurus on August 28, 1758

·        Was a nebula, not a comet

·        Measured it’s position on September 12, 1758

·        Later became his first entry – M1 – 1054 supernova remnant, “Crab Nebula”

·        Triggered Messier to:

·        Look for comets with telescopes – inventing “telescopic comet hunting”

·        Compile his catalog of nebulous objects that could be mistaken for comets

·        Comet Halley finally discovered by Johann George Palitzch on December 25-26, 1758

·        Messier independently found Halley on January 21, 1759 when doubting Dilisle’s data

·        Delisle didn’t believe the error and refused to announce the discovery.

·        When Delisle finally announced the discovery on April 1, 1759, other French astronomers didn’t believe it

·        Delisle refused to publish a comet discovered by Messier in early 1760

·        Delisle finally supported Messier and let him do his own observations

8.     Messier recorded 2^nd catalog object – M2 (previously discovered by Maraldi)

·        Plotted on a chart showing Comet Halley’s track

9.     1751

·        Observed Venus transit of the Sun

·        Observed the appearance of Saturn’s rings

10.       Observed Comet 1762 Klinkenberg from May to July, 1762

11.       Discovered Comet 1763 Messier on September 28, 1763

12.       Discovered Comet 1764 Messier on January 3, 1764 – as bright as magnitude 3.0

13.       After his discovery of his 3^rd “nebula” object (globular cluster M3) he undertook serious scans of the skies for these objects – they could fool comet hunters

·        Cataloged objects M3 – M40

·        19 original Messier discoveries

·        Used catalogs and lists of:

·        Edmond Halley – 6 objects

·        William Derham

·        Lacaille’s Catalog of Southern  “Nebulae” of 1755

·        Maraldi

·        Le Gentil

·        References to De Che’seaux

·        Looked for several non-existent Nebulae from other catalogs  - may explaine the double star M40 in his catalog

14.       In correspondence with astronomers and academics in:

·        Britain

·        December 6, 1764 – made a foreign member of the Royal Society of London

·        Germany

·        Russia

·        Frederick La Harpe – Swiss exile and member of the Acadamy of Sciences

·        Via recommendation appointed to the Academy of St.Petersburg

15.       1765:

·    Found the star cluster M41

·    Delisle retired – Messier continued to observe from the Hotel Cluny

16.       March 8, 1766, discovered a new comet

17.       April 8 1766, co-discovered a new comet

18.       1767:

·  Only naval journey of his life – astronomical observations in the Baltic

·  During absence Lelande continued the observation program at Cluny

19.       1769:

·        Decided to publish his fist version of his catalog

·        Enlarged his number of objects to include M42 – M45 (Orion Nebula, Praesepe, and the Pleiades)

20.       August 8, 1769:

·        Discovered a new comet – 1769 Messier – the Great Comet of that year, sent a description and map to the King of Prussia

·        Under the king’s influence was made a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences

21.       1770:

·        Elected into the Paris Academie Royale des Sciences (Academy of Sciences)

·        2 weeks after discovering a comet (Comet Lexell)

·        Comet named after Anders Lexell – calculated it’s orbit

·    November 26 – Age 40, married Marie-Francoise de Vermauchampt

22.       1771:

·        January 10 – Independently co-discovered the Great Comet of that year

·        3 days after presentation of his 1^st version of his catalog, measured M47 – M49

·        M47 and M48 were missed due to reduction of positional data until the 20^th century

·        M49 was the first Virgo Cluster galaxy discovered

·    April 1 – discovered Comet 1771 Messier

·        13^th comet

·        12^th independent

·        7^th original discovery

·    June 7^th – discovered M62

·    Officially made Astronomer of the Navy, taking Delisle’s old position

23.       March 15, 1772 – Madame Messier gave birth to a son, both died within 11 days

24.       1772:

·        March 26 – April 3 – observed a comet discovered by Jean-Francois de Laharpe

·        April 5 – Added the cluster M50 to his list

25.       1773:

·        Discovered the second bright companion galaxy to the “Andromeda Nebula”, M110 but did not catalog it.

·        October 13 – discovered another comet “just visible” the the naked eye

26.       1774:

·        Found M51 and M52

·        Observed Comet 1774 Montaigne

·        Introduced to Pierre Mechain, the leading French astronomer at that time

27.                   February, 1777: – discovered M53, discovered 2 years earlier by Johann Elert Bode

28.       1778 – Found M54 and M55, reported by Lacaille, which Messier had looked for in vain in 1764

29.       1779:

·        January 19 – co-discovered Comet 1779 Bode which passed the Virgo Cluster

·        January 19 – May 19 – observed 6 objects M56 – M61

·        Burst of “nebulae” discovery

·        April 11 - Johann Gottfried Koehler discovered M59 and M60

·        April 15 – Messier discovered M58 and found Koehler’s previous two

·        May 5 – Oriani discovered M61, Messier found it the same day but thought it was the comet.  He realized it wasn’t by May 11

·         Messier finally got a good position on M62 he had discovered in 1771

·        June 14 – Mechain’s first discovery – M63

30.       1780:

·        January – Found M64 which had been discovered previously in 1779 by Bode

·        March – Found M65 and M66 which had been previously discovered by Mechain

·        April – Observed two additional objects M67 and M68 completing his 2^nd version of the catalog that was published in 1780

·        August – Together with Mechain, began a vigorous effort to catalog more nebulae

·        By the end of the year had entries up to M79 and discovered a new comet 1780 I Messier

31.       1781:

·        March – Mechain’s discovered M105 but it was overlooked during the final publication

·        April – The list in increased to 100 objects.

·        Hastily added 3 more observed by Mechain without personally validating (M101 – M103) to complete his final publication.

·    May 11 – Added M104 to his personal copy and positions for M102 & M103 and the previously mentioned nebulae at M97, which now became M108 & M109

·    July – Mechain discovered M106

·    November 6 – An accident in his ice cellar interrupted his observing until November of the following year

32.       1782:

·        April - Mechain discovered M107

·        August – Stimulated by Messier’s catalog, William Hershel and his sister Caroline began to observe deep sky objects.

·        September 7 - Discovered his first deep sky object NGC 7009 – Saturn Nebula

·        October – began an extensive deep-sky survey and catalogued over 1000 objects by 1786 and over 2500 by 1802

·        Famous Hershel Catalog

33.       1783:

·        Mechain communicated to Bernoulli, editor of the Astromisches Jahrbuch, to include M105 – M107 with Messier’s catalog and disclaimed M102.  He thought it was a duplicate of M101 but may have been NGC 5866 that matches Messier’s description and may have been due to a data reduction error.

·        Messier dropped deep-sky searches and returned to comet searches, probably due to Hershel’s efforts.

·        His catalog was not corrected until the 20^th century by identifying 3 of the missing objects, adding the late discoveries of M104 – M109 and the uncataloged discovery of M110

34.       1785:

·        January 7 – Discovered comet 1785 I Messier-Mechain, a comet at about magnitude 6.5

·        Appointed as associate editor of the Connaissance des Temps and held this position until 1790.  Mechain also became an associate editor in 1786.  Both successfully continued their search for comets

35.       The French Revolution began on June 14, 1789.  Four years later was the “Year of Terror” where the French king Louis XVI and later Messier’s friend , ex-president de Saron were guillotined.  Messier lost his salaried and pension.

36.       1801 – At age 71, took part in an observing project of occultations of the star Spica by the moon

·        July 12 – Last comet – co-discovered Comet 1801 Pons bringing his total to 20.

37.       Messier’s catalog was purely for comet hunting.  In an article from Messier in 1801 he wrote:

 “What caused me to undertake the catalog was the nebula I discovered above the southern horn of Taurus on September 12, 1758, whilst observing the comet of that year.  This nebula had such a resemblance to a comet in its form and brightness that I endeavored to find others, so that astronomers would no more confuse these same nebulae with comets just beginning to appear.  I observed further with suitable refractors for the discovery of comets, and this is the purpose I had in mind in compiling the catalog.

After me, the celebrated Herschel published a catalog of 2000 which he has observed.  This unveiling the heavens, made with instruments of great aperture, does not help in the perusal of the sky for faint comets.  Thus my object is different from his, and I need only nebulae visible in a telescope of two feet (focal length).  Since the publication of my catalog I have observed still others:  I will publish them in the future in the order of right ascension for the purpose of making them more easy to recognize and for those searching for comets to have less uncertainty.”

38.       In his older days, Messier in 1805 was presented the Cross of Legion of Honor by Napoleon.  In turn, in a memoir he devoted Napoleon the great comet of 1769, damaging his scientific reputation.  As Admiral Smith put it: 

“The last comet put astrologically before the public by an orthodox astronomer”

39         In 1815, Charles Messier suffered a stroke which left him partially paralyzed.  He passed away on the night of April 11-12, 1817 at the age of 87.

40         The astronomical community has lately honored Messier by naming a Lunar crater and Asteroid 7359 after him.  During his lifetime Lalande had proposed to name a constellation after him, Custos Mesium, between Cepheus, Cassiopeia and Camelopardalis 

To Top of Page