Charles Messier
18th- and 19th-century French astronomer · France · Scientists · Lived 1730 to 1817 · aged 86
Charles Messier is read about 197 times a day, in 76 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He was hunting comets but kept hitting the same fuzzy blurs - so he made a list of 110 things NOT to waste time on. Astronomers still use his catalogue of annoyances as a guide to the sky's greatest hits.
Also in Deutsch
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Awards
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About this person
Charles Messier was a French astronomer born 26 June 1730. His work centered on distinguishing permanent celestial objects from the transient ones that interested him more. He published a catalogue of 110 nebulae and star clusters - the Messier objects, each tagged M1 through M110 - intended as a reference for observers trying to tell what was fixed in the heavens from what merely passed through. The list became a cornerstone of deep-sky observation. He died 12 April 1817.
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