Messier Catalogue: the complete list

The complete Messier Catalogue, including magnitudes and coordinates to find each one in the night sky.

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Published: September 13, 2020 at 10:00 am

The Messier Catalogue is perhaps the most famous astronomy catalogue there is, detailing deep-sky objects such as galaxies, globular clusters and nebulae. It’s a ‘what’s what’ of some of the best objects to see in the night sky with a telescope.

But the Messier Catalogue didn’t start out as a list of desirable astronomical objects: rather, it was comet-hunter Charles Messier’s record of targets to avoid in the night sky.

The iconic Whirlpool Galaxy, well-known due to its distinctive shape, seen here in a classic Hubble Space Telescope image. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy, is one of the most famous objects in the Messier Catalogue. This image of the galaxy was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Who was Charles Messier?

Charles Messier was born in Badonviller, eastern France, on 26 June 1730. Based at an observatory in the Hôtel de Cluny in central Paris, he became one of the most famous comet hunters of his time with at least 13 comets to his credit, along with observations of many others.

However, he was distracted by other ‘fuzzy’ objects in the heavens and in May 1764 decided to start keeping a record of them to avoid subsequently mistaking them for real comets.

His initial catalogue consisted of 41 entries, so he added several other previously known objects to bring the total to 45.

In later years its creator was helped by friend and colleague Pierre Méchain, who was responsible for most of the latter Messier objects.

Messier’s final catalogue, published in 1781, went up to 103 entries. Although he never added any more objects to his list before his death in Paris on 12 April 1817, he did leave notes on several more he had found.

Charles Messier, creator of the original Messier Catalogue. Credit: Ansiaume (1729—1786) – Stoyan R. et al. Atlas of the Messier Objects: Highlights of the Deep Sky. — Cambridge: Cambridge Univercity Press, 2008. — P. 15.

In modern times, these objects have become part of the Messier Catalogue. The work of other astronomers brought the total to 110, and has also uncovered one duplicate.

M102 is the second observation of M101 by Méchain, who confirmed this in a letter. Some observers like to include a faint galaxy in Draco as a substitute for the ‘missing’ M102.

Despite its age, the Messier Catalogue remains the first set of deep-sky objects that many aspiring astronomers view.

Though he was not in the least interested in these objects during his lifetime, it is for his catalogue of them that he will always be remembered.

Read more about Charles Messier in our guide The making of Charles Messier’s famous astronomy catalogue.

Below is the complete Messier Catalogue, including a description of what each object is, its limiting magnitude and coordinates to find it in the night sky.

If you don’t fancy trying to complete the entire list, try our 8 Messier objects to spot in the night sky.