The celebrated French astronomer Charles Messier became famous in his lifetime for the discovery of 20 comets, 13 of which were original discoveries which were (and are still) credited to him. But today he is more famous for a list of 110 deep sky objects, The Messier Catalog. Messier was primarily a comet hunter and he made this list of objects so he wouldn't confuse them with comets. These deep sky objects are fixed in relation to stars whereas comets show movement over a short period of time. I say deep sky objects are fixed because their distance is so great that their movement cannot be determined except by observing them over a long period of time. Catalogs for stars and deep sky objects are updated every twenty five years to keep their positions current.

In the catalog I have put together I show a thumbnail image of each object followed by it's M number, the New General Catalog number, Type ( Globular and Open Cluster - Galaxy - Nebula - Planetary Nebula ), Right Ascension, Declination, Constellation abbreviation, Size in arc minutes, Magnitude, Viewability rating, Binocular rating and lastly a comment. No comment usually means the object is not an exceptional target. Clicking on the Constellation will take you to a chart with all M objects shown for that particular constellation.

With the advent of modern 'Go To" telescopes the adventure of the hunt is missing but just in case you are making your first try at locating the Messier objects with an ordinary scope or pair of binoculars, this catalog and it's charts should keep you busy for quite some time.