Back in the late 18th and early 19th centuries — long before anyone had any real idea of all that lay out there among the stars — a French astronomer spent his nights scouring the sky for his prey.

Charles Messier, despite his fame for the Messier Catalogue of deep-sky objects, was a prolific comet discoverer throughout the 18th century, independently discovering at least 13 comets and ...

The Messier catalog contains more than 100 of the most remarkable sights in the heavens. (Creators.com illustration) At this time of year, early evening stargazers can tour one of the richest pieces ...

The author, a writer with interests in astronomy and history, acquired a seven-volume set of Pierre Gassendi's works, signed and bookplated by Charles Messier in 1756. The acquired set includes ...

NASA has just added a set of spectacular new images to its catalog of deep-sky objects named after the French astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817). Messier's main line of work was identifying new ...

Anyone spotting a globular star cluster like M13 for the first time through an amateur telescope will recognize a fascinating white spot, which at first glance could also be a comet without a ...

NASA has released a breathtaking gallery of images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, showcasing celestial objects contained in the Messier catalog. The Messier collection was initially compiled ...

This new image of the rose-colored star forming region Messier 17 was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. It is one of the ...

Messier 47 is located approximately 1600 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Puppis (the poop deck of the mythological ship Argo). It was first noticed some time before 1654 by Italian ...