2 - The Messier Catalogue
from Part 1 - Handbook
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
Summary
Lists of non-stellar heavenly bodies – galaxies, clusters and nebulae–were common in Messier's time. Ptolemy compiled one of the earliest such lists in the second century AD. Tycho Brahe had published a list of six nebulae in 1601, as did Edmond Halley in 1715. Abbe Nicholas-Louis de la Caille (Lacaille) produced a tabulation of forty-two objects in the southern sky in 1755, and John Bode published seventy-five objects in 1777.
Perhaps no one was in a better position to compile such a catalog than comet hunter Charles Messier. He had both the means and a motive. Countless nights under the sky sharpened his knowledge of the location and appearance of the objects. This was augmented by his mapping skills.
Messier's main motive for assembling his Catalogue seems to be best summed up in his memoir in the journal Connaissance des Temps for 1801. In it he wrote:
What caused me to undertake the catalogue was the nebula I discovered above the southern horn of Taurus on September 12, 1758, whilst observing the comet of that year. This nebula had such a resemblance to a comet in its form and brightness that I endeavored to find others so that astronomers would not confuse these same nebulae with comets just beginning to appear.[…]
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- Information
- The Observing Guide to the Messier MarathonA Handbook and Atlas, pp. 11 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002