When looking at the night sky first fall on the brighter stars, the moon and the planets. On very clear nights, however, can also notice some blurry, milky, shimmering in the sky areas. Our galaxy is in clear, dark nights on immediately, but other, much smaller objects are clearly visible with the naked eye. End of the 18th to the top 19 Century, the Frenchman Charles Messier first
Catalog of this weak shimmering objects together. He wanted to prevent especially the confusion of these objects with comets, which were then the most interesting phenomena in the sky.
The Messier catalog includes 110 objects that are not systematically arranged. These primarily include galaxies, star clusters, nebulae and novae. Since Messier recorded only the brightest and most conspicuous objects in its collection,
includes its catalog for the most impressive amateur astronomers observing objects. Even today these items are marked with an "M" for Messier and their historical numbers.
