Ansiaume (1729—1786) / Public domain
Charles Messier 1730 – 1817 was a French astronomer who observed the night sky for many years and published an astronomical catalogue consisting of nebulae, galaxies and star clusters. These are commonly known as the Messier objects. Messier used telescopes of various kinds which had focal lengths typically between 1 foot and 30 feet. Observing with these long bodied instruments must have been a real challenge and there was no reliable way to repeat positioning. Nowadays with the software models available even on modest amateur mounts, observing the sky is very easy indeed by comparison.
