Charles Messier was a French astronomer that lived from 1730 - 1817. While he is known mostly for his catalog he was a comet hunter at heart. It was during his comet hunts that he observed some of the diffused objects he was seeing were stationary instead of moving like a comet would. He set out to catalog all of these objects with his assistant, Pierre Méchain, so that other observers would not mistake them for comets. In all he and Pierre managed to catalog one hundred and ten different objects in the night sky. 

What did Charles see through his refractor telescope?

• 39 galaxies

• 4 planetary nebulae

• 7 other types of nebulae

• 26 open star clusters

• 29 globular star clusters

Today amateur astronomers around the world setup telescopes in their backyards to see and photograph the Messier Objects, astronomy clubs hold public star gazes where you can see some of the Messier Objects, and professional astronomers are viewing and studying these objects to this day. 

Charles helped open the universe to us. I hope to encourage you to look up and enjoy it.

You can see some wonderful images of most of the catalog captured by the Hubble Space Telescope here.