Messier was born inBadonviller in theLorraine region ofFrance, in 1730, the tenth of twelve children of Françoise B. Grandblaise and Nicolas Messier, aCourt usher. Six of his brothers and sisters died while young, and his father died in 1741. Charles' interest in astronomy was stimulated by the appearance of thegreat six-tailed comet in 1744 and by an annularsolar eclipse visible from his hometown on 25 July 1748.
In 1751, Messier entered the employ ofJoseph Nicolas Delisle, the astronomer of theFrench Navy, who instructed him to keep careful records of his observations. Messier's first documented observation was that of theMercury transit of 6 May 1753, followed by his observations journals atCluny Hotel and at the French Navy observatories.
Near the end of his life, Messier self-published a booklet connecting the great comet of 1769 to the birth ofNapoleon, who was in power at the time of publishing. According toMaik Meyer:[2]
As hard as it may seem to accept, the memoir is an ingratiation to Napoleon in order to receive attention and monetary support. It is full of servility and opportunism. Messier did not even refrain from utilizing astrology to reach his goal. Messier comes quickly to the point on the first page of the memoir, by stating that the beginning of the epoch of Napoleon the Great ... coincides with the discovery of one of the greatest comets ever observed.
The Orion Nebula as drawn by Messier, and which he gave the designationM 42 in his catalogue
Messier's occupation as acomet hunter led him to continually come across fixed diffuse objects in the night sky which could be mistaken for comets. He compiled alist of them,[3] in collaboration with his friend and assistantPierre Méchain (who may have found at least 20 of the objects[4]), to avoid wasting time sorting them out from the comets for which they were looking. The entries are now known to be 39 galaxies, 4 planetary nebulae, 7 other types ofnebulae, 26 open star clusters and 29 globular star clusters.
Messier did his observing with a 100 mm (four-inch)refracting telescope from Hôtel de Cluny (now theMusée national du Moyen Âge), in downtown Paris, France. The list he compiled only contains objects found in the area of the sky Messier could observe, from the northcelestial pole to a declination of about −35.7° . They are not organized scientifically by object type, or by location. The first version of Messier's catalogue contained 45 objects and was published in 1774 in the journal of theFrench Academy of Sciences in Paris. In addition to his own discoveries, this version included objects previously observed by other astronomers, with only 17 of the 45 objects being discovered by Messier himself.[5] By 1780 the catalog had increased to 80 objects.
The final version of the catalogue was published in 1781, in the 1784 issue ofConnaissance des Temps.[6][7][8] The finallist of Messier objects had grown to 103. On several occasions between 1921 and 1966, astronomers and historians discovered evidence of another seven objects that were observed either by Messier or by Méchain, shortly after the final version was published. These seven objects,M 104 throughM 110, are accepted by astronomers as "official" Messier objects.
The objects' Messier designations, fromM 1 toM 110, are still used by professional andamateur astronomers today and their relative brightness makes them popular objects in the amateur astronomical community.
^Messier, Charles (1781). "Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Étoiles".Connoissance des Temps Pour l'Année 1784 (Published 1781):227–267.Bibcode:1781cote.rept..227M.
"Messier marathon".Attempts to find as many Messier objects as possible in one night
"Revisions of the New General Catalog and Index Catalog". Archived fromthe original on 27 February 2010. Retrieved1 July 2007.NGC/IC Project is a collaborative effort between professional and amateur astronomers to correctly identify all of the original NGC and IC objects, such that the identity of each of the NGC and IC objects is known with as much certainty as we can reasonably bring to it from the existing historical record.
