Charles Messier was an early comet hunter back during the 1700's. During the long hours that he would spend searching the sky, he would periodically run across objects that looked similar to a comet's apprearance in the crude telescopes of his day, but which turned out to be something else. Generally, he would have to spend a long time, perhaps hours, carefully watching an object through his telescope to try to detect movement of the object relative to the background star field. If the object moved, it was a comet; if not, it was something else. Messier was only interested in finding comets, so he did not want to waste time studying an object waiting to see if it moved, only to find out that it was the same object he had previously wasted time on in a prior observing session. During his career, Messier discovered 20 comets.
The Messier Catalog was a list of objects compiled by Messier that were not comets. For his purposes, the catalog was a list of objects to be avoided. The list was compiled as an aid to prospective comet hunters of his day. He added objects to the list in the order in which he discovered and cataloged them. Some of the objects were first seen by other astronomers of the day, and were reported to Messier. Although the list was compiled as a list of objects to be avoided, Messier effectively created a list of the best and brightest deep sky wonders visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Each of the thumbnail images at the top of this page are Messier objects.
When first published in 1769, the list only included 45 objects. Additional objects up to M68 were added in a subsequent publication in 1780. The third version of the catalog was published in 1781, and included objects up to M103. Today, we commonly attribute 110 objects to the Messier list. The identity of some of the objects on the list is controversial. M102 was likely a duplicate observation of M101, although some people speculate that it might have been NGC 5866. M91 may have been a mistaken observation of M58. In the list provided below, M91 corresponds to NGC 4548. The last object on the list, i.e., M110, was a companion galaxy to the Andromeda Galaxy that was found by Messier on August 10, 1773, but never added to his catalog. M104 was discovered by Pierre Mechain and reported to Messier for inclusion in the catalog, but was never added by Messier prior to his death. Messier did, however, add M104 to his personal copy of the catalog. Similarly, M105 was discovered by Mechain in March 1781 and reported to Messier, but was overlooked and misssed the final published catalog. Thus, the last objects on the list were added to the catalog afterwards based on Messier's records and papers. The last object to be discovered was M107, which was found by Mechain in April 1782. The objects listed as M108, M109, and M110 were discovered earlier than M107, but were added to the list later.
There are 36 to 38 objects on the Messier list that can be seen with the naked eye. The list of naked-eye deep-sky objects includes M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7, M8, M11, M13, M15, M16, M17, M20, M22, M23, M24, M25, M31, M33, M34, M35, M36, M37, M38, M39, M41, M42, M44, M45, M46, M47, M48, M50, M67, M81, and M93. Two objects that might possibly be included as naked-eye objects are M83 and M92. However, it takes an expert observer with keen vision under very dark skies to see some of the objects on this list. Most, if not all, Messier objects can be detected with a good pair of binoculars under reasonably dark skies. Some of them are truely awesome sights through a telescope.
Two craters on the Moon were named after Charles Messier.
M1 Crab Nebula
M2 globular cluster
M3 globular cluster
M4 globular cluster
M5 globular cluster
M6 Butterfly Cluster
M7 Ptolemy's Cluster. This is the most southernly Messier object, with a declination of -34d 47'.
M8 Lagoon Nebula
M9 globular cluster
M10 globular cluster
M11 Wild Duck Cluster
M12 globular cluster
M13 Hercules Globular Cluster. This image was published in the June 2009 issue of Astronomy Magazine at page 51.
M14 globular cluster
M15 globular cluster
M16 Eagle Nebula
M17 Omega Nebula
M18 open cluster
M19 globular cluster
M20 Trifid Nebula
M21 open cluster
M22 globular cluster
M23 open cluster
M24 Milky Way star cloud
M25 open cluster
M26 open cluster
M27 Dumbbell Nebula
M28 globular cluster
M29 open cluster
M30 globular cluster
M31 Andromeda Galaxy
M32 galaxy
M33 Triangulum Galaxy
M34 open cluster
M35 open cluster
M36 open cluster
M37 open cluster
M38 open cluster
M39 open cluster
M40 double star
M41 open cluster
M42 Orion Nebula
M43 part of the Orion Nebula
M44 Praesepe open cluster
M45 Pleiades. This is the closest Messier object to the planet Earth, at a distance of about 440 light-years away. It is also the brightest object in the Messier catalog.
M46 open cluster
M47 open cluster
M48 open cluster
M49 galaxy. This image was published in the April 2016 issue of Astronomy Magazine, at page 33.
M50 open cluster
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
M52 open cluster
M53 globular cluster
M54 globular cluster
M55 globular cluster
M56 globular cluster
M57 Ring Nebula
M58 galaxy
M59 galaxy
M60 galaxy
M61 galaxy
M62 globular cluster
M63 Sunflower Galaxy
M64 Blackeye Galaxy
M65 galaxy
M66 galaxy
M67 open cluster
M68 globular cluster
M69 globular cluster
M70 globular cluster
M71 globular cluster
M72 globular cluster
M73 open cluster
M74 galaxy
M75 globular cluster
M76 Little Dumbell planetary nebula. This is one of the faintest Messier objects at magnitude 10.1.
M77 galaxy. This is the most distant Messier object from the planet Earth, and is more than 60 million light-years away.
M78 reflection nebula
M79 globular cluster
M80 globular cluster
M81 Bode's Galaxy
M82 Cigar Galaxy. This is the most northernly Messier object, with a declination of +69d 41'.
M83 galaxy
M84 galaxy
M85 galaxy
M86 galaxy
M87 galaxy
M88 galaxy
M89 galaxy
M90 galaxy
M91 galaxy. At magnitude 10.1, this galaxy ties with M76 and M98 as the faintest objects on the Messier list.
M92 globular cluster
M93 open cluster
M94 galaxy
M95 galaxy
M96 galaxy
M97 Owl Nebula
M98 galaxy. This is one of the faintest objects in the Messier catalog (magnitude 10.1).
M99 galaxy
M100 galaxy
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
M102 (see M101 - M102 is considered to be a mistaken duplication of M101)
M103 open cluster
M104 Sombrero Galaxy
M105 galaxy
M106 galaxy
M107 globular cluster
M108 galaxy. This image was designated by Astronomy Magazine as the "Picture of the Day" for May 17, 2005 and published in the May 20, 2005 issue of the Astronomy Magazine Newsletter.
M109 galaxy
M110 galaxy
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