Charles Messier's Comets

Messier's devotion was looking for, discovering, and observing comets. He was considerably successful in this endeavour, scoring with 13 first discoveries and 6 more independent co-discoveries (according to Don Machholz).

Original discoveries

  • 1759 II Messier
  • 1763 Messier
  • 1764 Messier
  • 1766 I Messier
  • 1769 Messier
  • 1770 I Lexell (Gary W. Kronk's comet Lexell resource.)
  • 1771 Messier
  • 1773 Messier
  • 1780 I Messier
  • 1785 I Messier-Mechain
  • 1788 I Messier
  • 1793 I Messier
  • 1798 I Messier

    Independent co-discoveries

  • 1759 I Halley
  • 1759 III "Great Comet"
  • 1766 II Helfenzrieder (Gary W. Kronk's comet Helfenzrieder resource)
  • 1770 II "Great Comet"
  • 1779 Bode
  • 1801 Pons

    Mechain's comet discoveries

    Messier's younger colleague and close friend, Pierre Mechain, who had contributed a lot to Messier's catalog in the later times, was also a successful hunter of comets and became Messier's "most serious" rival in this field in the 1780s and 1790s; he discovered 8 comets:

  • 1781 I Mechain
  • 1781 II Mechain
  • 1785 II Mechain
  • 1786 I Encke
  • 1787 Mechain
  • 1790 II Tuttle
  • 1799 II Mechain
  • 1799 III Mechain

    So of the 44 comet discoveries in the time between 1758 and 1801, when Messier was successfully observing, the two astronomers were involved in 27.

    Gary W. Kronk's resources include the stories of historic observations, so among others, those of Charles Messier.

    More data on Messier's comet discoveries can be found in Don Machholz's book, The Messier Marathon Observer's Guide, page 2.

  • Comet links
    Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
    Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

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    Last Modification: 7 Feb 1998, 18:10 MET