Also in 1757, Charles reported his observations of the companion to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), which would later become M32 on his list.
Failing to be the first to observe Comet Halley may have inspired Messier to begin a systematic search for comets. On the 28 th of August, 1758, he tracked his co-discovery, Comet De la Nux C/1758 K1 (August 14), past the Crab Nebula--a supernova remnant first observed in 1054--and thought he had discovered another comet when he sighted the nebula. After confirming the object did not move against the starry background, he began his list of static and inconsequential “embarrassing objects” to avoid while searching for the desired comets, very much like the objects Guillaume Le Gentil had begun illustrating in the Memoires. The Crab Nebula later became M1 when he decided to formalize his catalogue and appeared on the comet’s charts in 1759.
He sighted the Great Comet of 1760, C/1760 A1 Chevalier, on January 8 th, which passed by three objects he later observed and would record as M41 (1765), M42 (1769), and M50 (1772) and included on this comet’s charts published in 1772. Also in 1760, he plotted the position of M2, discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746, on a chart for Halley’s Comet.
Delisle’s plans for the Venus transit were underway, and along with several other French astronomical expeditions, Charles was scheduled to observe the 1761 transit from the Dutch colony of Batavia. However, the Dutch East India Company did not respond with transport and instead he stayed in Paris to observe the event.
On his first attempt in 1763, Charles just missed being accepted for membership in the Academy of Sciences. This was another great disappointment for him. On a positive note, he did make another comet discovery on September 28, C/1763 S1 Messier, and on the associated chart published in 1764 appears M5.
Messier’s Rising Star and The Catalogue Begins
The year 1764 started with another discovery on January 3 rd, comet C/1764 A1 Messier, with his naked eye. Later, on May 3 rd, Charles discovered M3 and decided to compile a catalogue to include forty objects, with thirty-nine verified by his own observations and nineteen of them as his original discoveries. Sources and references for the list came from catalogues made by Edmond Halley, Le Gentil, Maraldi, de Lacaille via the Memoires of 1755, Hevelius’ (Johannes Hewelcke) Prodromus Astronomiae via William Derham who added other objects and was translated by Maupertius for the 1734 Memoires, and possibly De Chéseaux via Le Gentil who mentions the list in 1759. A sub list was started for objects reported by other observers, usually by Hevelius, that he could not find. In this same year he was accepted into the Academy of Harlem, Netherlands, and the Royal Society in London.
By early 1765, his list extended to forty-one objects and he was also given membership in the Institute of Bologne and Academy of Auxerre. His boss Delisle retired, but Charles would not succeed him as Astronomer of the Navy until 1771.
On March 28 1766, he “perceived on Saturn’s globe two darkish belts; they were indeed extremely faint, and difficult to be discerned, directed, however, in a right line parallel to the longest diameter of Saturn’s ring.” As with many observers of his day, he did work outside of his specialty, in this case planetary observations. Earlier in the year on March 8 th, he discovered comet C/1766 E1 Messier–which passed close to M74 which he did not detect at the time--and co-discovered another soon after on April 8 th with his naked eye, Comet Helfenzrieder D/1766 G1.
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