Messier Catalogue

The Messier Catalogue is a famous catalogue in Astronomy. It consists of 110 deep sky objects, including open and globular star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, an asterism, a double star and even a supernova remnant. It was compiled in the 18th century by Charles Messier.

Messier was a comet hunter who was born in Badonviller, France on June 26, 1730. When searching for comets he was frustrated by fixed objects that looked like comets in the night sky but actually weren't. These fuzzy "comet" like objects hindered his searches so he catalogued them in order to avoid them in future.

The first version of his catalogue contained 45 objects and was published in 1774 in the journal of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris. Over the next 7 years he updated the catalogue and published the final version in 1781, containing 103 objects. Many of these objects he actually discovered himself.

On several different occasions between 1921 and 1966, astronomers and historians discovered evidence of another 7 deep-sky objects that were observed either by Messier or his friend and assistant, Pierre Mechain, shortly after the final version was published. These objects, numbered M104 to M110, are now accepted by astronomers as "official" Messier objects.

The Messier catalogue is still used by professional and amateur astronomers today: