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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Charles_Messier.jpg |
Charles Messier was born on June 26th, 1730 and died on April 12th, 1817, living 86 years. Messier was French and lived in the city of Badonviller. It is said that his interested in astronomy was piqued by the pass of the "great 6 tailed comet" in 1744. This comet, as it's name would suggest, had 6 tails of dust and matter, and was very visible to the naked eye.
Messier found a job under French Navy Astronomer Joseph Nicoas Delisle. Under Delisle's tutelage, Messier's first major observation was a transit of mercury in 1753. later, as a member of the Royal Society, he worked in the French Academy of Sciences.
Messier's research focus was comet hunting, although he is ironically remembered for the opposite. While he did discover 13 comets, his greater legacy is his grand list of "not comets." As comets vary greatly in appearance, it was easy in Messier's day to mistake galaxies and nebulas for comets. As a byproduct of his comment hunt, Messier managed to accumulate a list of other objects that he initially considered comets but discarded later. By maintaining this catalogue, now known as the Messier Catalogue, Messier kept track of objects that he already knew were not comets. With the improvement of telescope technology, most of Messier's objects are now identified as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.
The 110 Messier objects (named M1, M2... M110) are popularly used for amateur astronomy, as each is very visible with a small telescope equal to Messier's when he found them.
My personal favorite Messier Objects is the somewhat cliche M51 whirlpool galaxy.
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Messier51_sRGB.jpg/1280px-Messier51_sRGB.jpg |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1744
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Messier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy
Nice history...
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