Messier and his objects

[Akyra]

How did Messier actually find his objects? Its easy for us now because we already know where they are and what to look for, but that poor chap was on his own in his days.

Did he just pan around looking at the stars for months, maybe even years, when suddenly things would just appear in his eyepiece? Not all of his objects are naked eye visible, so how in the world did he find them in the first place?

Hat off to the man, he has given us all great things to look at.

[Black Shuck]

I think Charles Messier was a comet hunter?? He began cataloging DSO's as they were confusing his search for comets. I will try a Google and see what I turn up.

Cheers

Bill£

[GazOC]

How did Messier actually find his objects? Its easy for us now because we already know where they are and what to look for, but that poor chap was on his own in his days.

Messier didn't 'find' all the Messier objects - many were allready ready known, he cataloged them. Of those that were newly found some were dicovered by his assistant, Mechain(sp?).

[Helen]

Akyra,

You might find this useful - its the Messier Challenge! It gives a good background on both Charles Messier and the objects he catalogued, as well as details of how to find each one and a space to log your observations.

http://www.minds.may.ie/~astro2/IFASData/IFASMessierHandbook.pdf

Enjoy!

Helen

[Akyra]

Ok then, so how did his assistant find them? And also how were the 'first' objects found?

Thankyou Helen thats a great little ebook, might print it out so I can write on it.

EDIT : Just been reading from the above link, and it says Messier was looking for a comet called Halley, the guy that made the calculations made an error so Messier was looking in the wrong place. But he found his own comet and also several diffuse objects, which brought about his catalogue. All very interesting stuff!

[GazOC]

Ok then, so how did his assistant find them? And also how were the 'first' objects found?

The 'first' objects we're found by the ancients. I assume Messier and Mechain found their objects by some sort of systematic search and probably odd piece of good fortune.

He had pretty advanced telescopes/ facilities for his day, I don't picture him panning around the sky aimlessly on the off chance of finding something. He'd have def. had a schedule and observing plans/ records.

[mhc]

Hi Akyra,

I recently read and would recommend "The History of Astronomy", part of the "A Very Short Introduction" series. It covers (briefly!) from prehistory upto and including Newton's era.

HTH,

Mark

[Black Shuck]

Found this - seems quite an extensive biography? Also confirms Gaz's comment about Mechain

http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/history/CMessier.html

Cheers

Bill£

[mark.of.andromeda]

thats a great link HUsher thanks for posting it

found my first messier object last week m13 what a sight

once the weather clears and i get the time I'll be hunting some more

and good question Akyra iv always wondered the same about how messier found his objects

[Helen]

They do a novice and binocular challenge too http://www.irishastronomy.net/observers/challenges/index.php . I found them very helpful.

Helen

[CH]

Husher- really useful link cheers

[Astroman]

The links say most of it, but simply put, the "big money" in the 18th century was in comet studies, so that's where Messier went. He did catalog known objects, but many were discovered by him and his assistant, Mechain. It's funny that he's remembered now mostly for his non-comet objects, which he considered nuisances at the time, and not for the 50 some comets he DID discover!