Ok I looked in two dictionary and could not find "Messier Objects".

Would one of you kind astronomers give a layman's definition to me.


Hi:

The Messier Objects are those deep sky objects (nebulae, galaxies, star
clusters) discovered or at least catalogued by Charles Messier (1730-1817). The
original "purpose" of Messier's list, which, depending on who you listen to,
contains between about 100 and 110 objects, was to aid comet hunters. Messier,
a comet hunter himself, wanted to list fuzzy objects that could be mistaken for
comets by those seeking them. Since many of the DSOs Messier put in his
catalogue could not have been mistaken for comets, even with the telescopes of
his age, it seems that he went beyond his original idea to make the list of
"interesting" objects we still enjoy today.


Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
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