The Messier Catalog

Galaxies through Space and Time - NASA

French comet-hunter Charles Messier publishes the first version of his catalog of non-stellar objects, which eventually includes over three dozen galaxies even though he has no idea of their nature or great distances. 1845 William Parsons, Ireland’s third Earl of Rosse, uses the world’s largest telescope of the time

  Catalog, Ansas, Messier