Charles Messier

From South Dublin Astronomical Society

Charles Messier was born in Lorraine, France on June 26th 1730. Son of a tax collector, he was one of 12 children who grew up in a working-class family. Six of his brothers and sisters died at a young age and when Charles was only 11 his father died also. It is reported that Charles first became interested in astronomy when he was 14 years old. In that year Comet De Cheseaux appeared in the sky which featured up to 11 tails in a fan-like shape and was bright enough to see during daylight hours (Mag. -3). Only 4 years later an annular solar eclipse was visible from Charles’ home town. These two events helped to inspire one young boy to become one of the most famous astronomers of all time.

In October 1751 Charles left home for Paris. He went to work for Joseph Nicolas Delisle, the Navy’s astronomer. Delisle hired Charles not so much for his observing skills but rather his fine writing abilities to work on the cartography of the various countries under exploration by the French Navy at the time. While in Paris, Charles stayed in the Hotel de Cluny with Delisle which also had an observatory. Here Charles began some detailed astronomical studies with Delisle and his first documented observation was of the Mercury transit of 1753. In 1757, Charles started to look for Comet Halley. Delisle had calculated the return orbit of the comet and Messier plotted these positions on a star chart. Unfortunately for Messier, Delisle had made an error in his calculations and so he spent that year searching for Comet Halley in the wrong location. However, his efforts weren’t completely in vain. Despite not finding Comet Halley until too late, Charles continued his hunt for comets and in 1758 had discovered his own.

While searching for comets, Charles came across several diffuse objects with his little telescope. The first of these was in Taurus. When he realised this was not a comet due to it remaining in the same location night after night, Charles started what has now become known to us all as the Messier Catalogue. The purpose of this catalogue was not to identify interesting objects in the night sky, but rather to tabulate the objects which Messier saw which could be confused as a comet. His first one to record was M1 in Taurus – what has now more recently been understood to be a supernova remnant. In 1769, Charles published the first version of his catalogue of comet-like objects. This was further revised in 1771 when it was called the “Catalog of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars”. This detailed the first 45 objects in his catalogue. Charles continued his comet hunting for many years and at the age of 71 he found his final comet in 1801. This led to a total of 20 comet discoveries – 13 his own and 7 independent codiscoveries. Charles didn’t quit observing altogether. However, with deteriorating eyesight and old age, his level of work slowly diminished. In 1815, Charles suffered a massive stroke which left him partly paralysed. He never fully recovered from this and eventually died in 1817, age 87. Although he was a discoverer of comets, he is remembered by most today for creating the now famous Messier Catalogue. He has also been further honoured with two small craters on the Moon named in his honour.

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