BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Charles Messier – Comet Ferret

The Crab Nebula is M1 and the Andromeda Galaxy is M31. Over a hundred deep-sky objects with "M" numbers are listed in the Messier Catalogue. Charles Messier, 18th-century comet hunter, is known today less for his comets and more for his catalog of things that aren't comets.

Charles Messier – Comet Ferret

I wonder sometimes how Messier would feel about his astronomical fame being based not on his prowess as a comet hunter, but on his catalogue of distractions. He never showed any interest in these "nebulae" or seemed to speculate about what they were. However the Herschels carried out a major survey of the deep-sky objects, cataloging nearly 2500 of them.

Besides William Herschel's interest in them, he had the further advantage of a very large reflecting telescope designed to show quite dim objects and a wide area of sky. Here is Herschel's 20-foot reflector with which he carried out the sky survey. (The tube was 20 ft long.)

Messier did his observing with a 4- inch refracting telescope. You can see that the tube is long - the 4" (100 mm) is the size of the aperture (opening).

A mystery.

A portrait of Messier, aged 40, .

Distinguished astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich took a photo of the original painting (in private hands) and identified it as painted by Desportes in March 1771. Gingerich further said that


Interesting, because the only French painter Desportes I could find was Alexandre-François Desportes who specialized in animal paintings. He died when Messier was 13.

Some sources still tell the discredited story that Messier was so keen on the comets that he was annoyed to miss out on one as he was at the bedside of his dying wife. Supposedly a disliked rival found it instead.

There isn't a comet discovery that fits in the time frame - but don't let that stand in the way of a story.

Well no, let's let that stand in the way. Apparently, Messier was quite devoted to Mme Messier. Their marriage scarcely lasted two years. She was pregnant and after the birth of their son became extremely ill - probably puerperal fever, though Messier's private life is scarcely documented at all. Both she and the infant were dead in less than two weeks.

Very sad.

Messier Marathon

Here is a plot showing the locations of Messier objects in the sky. Declination and right ascension are the celestial equivalent of latitude and longitude. This doesn't show the whole sky. Messier included only objects that were visible from Paris, his observing location, around 49 degrees N. But, of course, most are visible from a wide range of latitudes, including the southern hemisphere.

A Messier marathon involves trying to locate as many of the Messier objects as possible in one night. You can well imagine that this is a demanding test of sky knowledge and stamina. Such events are often organized by astronomy clubs.

Sounds pretty strenuous to me - is there such a word as mastrochist, I wonder.

On August 28, 1758, Charles Messier independently found the Crab Nebula when he was looking for Comet Halley on its first predicted return. He was unaware that the nebula had been previously discovered by John Bevis in 1731. Messier acknowledged the prior, original discovery by Bevis when he learned of it in a letter of June 10, 1771. Most importantly, it was the discovery of this object which caused Charles Messier to begin the compilation of his catalogue.

Messier 20 and Messier 21

The Trifid Nebula (Messier 20) is about 40 light years across and 5000 light years away. This colorful object is trisected by dust lanes that give it flowery look. In the top left of the image is the open star cluster Messier 21.

Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

The European Space Agency (ESA) reminds us that on August 28, 1758 Charles Messier independently found the Crab Nebula when he was looking for Comet Halley on its first predicted return. It was this object which prompted Messier to start his catalogue. The Crab Nebula was the first object and listed as M1. When he learned about the prior discovery a quarter of a century before, he gave due credit to John Bevis.

Here's the iconic Hubble Space Telescope image of the Crab Nebula.