The Messier Objects

Charles Messier (1730-1817) was a comet hunter, who from his tower observatory at the Hotel de Cluny In Paris, is said to have discovered 21 of them. In the course of his nightly searches for comets, he came upon many comet-like objects which might conceivably be mistaken for the real thing. He published a list of these non-cometary objects in 1771 to prevent other comet hunters from wasting time on them. This list has been added to over the years and many of the objects included were not discovered by Messier himself or, like the Pleiades, were well known. The messier Catalog contains some of the most spectacular deep space objects visible In the Northern Hemisphere +tat are easily accessible to amateur astronomers. There Is continual reference to this catalog throughout the literature of astronomy, most often simply a number prefaced by the letter 'M." (for example: M.31, the Andromeda Galaxy). The types of objects in this table use the following abbreviations:

CL = Open Star Clusters
Di = Diffuse Nebulae
EL = Elliptical Galaxies
GB = Globular Star Clusters
IR = Irregular Galaxies
PL = Planetary Nebulae
SP = Spiral Galaxies

Copyright (c) 1997-99 Michael Erlewine