Charles Messier (June 26, 1730 ? April 12, 1817 ) was a French astronomer who is remembered for publishing a list of famous objects in space that came to be called the 103 " Messier objects ".

Messier's life [ change | change source ]

Messier was born in Badonviller in the Lorraine region of France . Six of his brothers and sisters died as children and in 1741, his father died. Charles became interested in astronomy after he saw the great six-tailed comet in 1744 and by a solar eclipse on July 25, 1748 .

In 1751 he started working for Joseph Nicolas Delisle , the astronomer of the French Navy , who told him to write down everything he saw.

Messier discovered thirteen comets : ^[1]

• C/1760 B1 (Messier)
• C/1763 S1 (Messier)
• C/1764 A1 (Messier)
• C/1766 E1 (Messier)
• C/1769 P1 (Messier)
• D/1770 L1 (Lexell)
• C/1771 G1 (Messier)
• C/1773 T1 (Messier)
• C/1780 U2 (Messier)
• C/1788 W1 (Messier)
• C/1793 S2 (Messier)
• C/1798 G1 (Messier)
• C/1785 A1 (Messier- Mechain )

Related pages [ change | change source ]

• Messier object
• List of Messier objects
• Messier marathon

References [ change | change source ]

1. ↑ "Maik Meyer. Catalog of comet discoveries" . Archived from the original on 2008-07-16 . Retrieved 2009-03-11 .

Other websites [ change | change source ]

• Amateur Photos of Charles Messier Objects Archived 2012-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Messier Marathon Archived 2011-09-02 at the Wayback Machine Tries to find as many Messier objects as possible in one night.
• New General Catalog and Index Catalog revisions
• Clickable table of Messier objects Archived 2014-10-20 at the Wayback Machine