Charles Messier was born on June 26, 1730 in Lorraine, France. In 1744 at age fourteen, he saw the “Great Comet” appear in the skies above Lorraine and four years later in 1748, witnessed an annular solar eclipse. Perhaps it was these inspiring events that led Charles to a lifelong love of astronomy. In 1751, his excellence in handwriting brought him a job as assistant to Navy Astronomer, Joseph Delisle at the Paris Observatory. It was there that Messier learned to keep accurate records of astronomical observations and the first known entry made by Messier was the transit of Mercury across the Sun in 1753.
At the time, discovering a comet made an astronomer not only noteworthy in the eyes of their peers, but quite famous as well. In 1757 the big search was on for the Comet Halley – predicted to return during that year. While Charles wasn’t the first to locate it, he quickly came to realize during his “sweeps” that there were many objects which could be mistaken as cometary – yet remained in fixed positions. Thus began the Messier Catalog, and its first entry in 1758 was M1, the “Crab Nebula”. While Messier was compiling his catalog of non-cometary objects, he also discovered a genuine comet in 1763 and two more in 1764.
It isn’t long before the novice astronomer becomes aware of the “Messier List” – and rightly so. This wonderful collection of deep sky gems are easily accessible to a small telescope and most can even be perceived in binoculars. A large majority of the objects can be conquered easily with modest instruments under less than perfect sky conditions, a few can be seen with the unaided eye and some are quite challenging. As a whole, they make for great nights of study, piquing both interest and intellect, as well as observing skills. They range from vague misty patches to grand swaths of stellar landscape!
Charles Messier (archival image), Messier Objects Poster courtesy of SEDS.
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