Charles Messier is best remembered for the objects he largely tried to avoid and help others avoid. Messier was first and foremost a comet hunter, and he dedicated clear, moonless nights to this pursuit. He was quite successful in his search, having found some 15 comets, though only 12 bear his name (with some exceptions, comet names were not officially used until the twentieth century). In his time, comet hunting was intensely competitive, and Messier was inspired not only by the search but also by the fame new comet discoveries would bring him. The fuzzy, noncometary objects he encountered intrigued him, in part, because they fooled him, if only briefly. Messier created his renowned catalogue largely to benefit comet hunters, so they would not confuse these nebulous glows with comets. But it’s also possible Messier knew he would reap fame by discovering new nebulae.

Messier’s first list of 45 objects, published in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences for the year 1771, was well received by his friends and colleagues. In the introduction to the work, astronomer Jerome de Lalande praised Messier, saying the task could only have been undertaken by an indefatigable and experienced observer. William Herschel, in particular, regarded Messier’s catalogue as an excellent collection of clusters and nebulae, and it apparently prompted Herschel to undertake his own search for similar deep-sky objects. (Herschel employed much larger telescopes in his survey, which led to the additional discovery of more than 2,000 objects.) Nevertheless, legitimate questions can be raised about why certain objects made it into Messier’s catalogue and other seemingly obvious ones did not.