Messier catalog

Also called: Messier, M.

Charles Messier's list of 110 bright nebulae and clusters, made in the 1700s — the classic first targets.

Charles Messier was a French comet hunter who listed fuzzy objects that could be mistaken for comets, so he could ignore them. His list became the greatest hits of the northern sky: the Andromeda Galaxy is M 31, the Orion Nebula M 42, the Pleiades M 45. Seeing all 110 is a classic goal — some do it in one night in March, the Messier marathon.