Charles Messier's Object List by Right Ascension

This list was found by Camille Flammarion within the personal notes of Charles Messier, between his personal copies of his catalogs, and detailed notes on his observations. This list was very probably created somewhen after August 31, 1780, when Messier determined positions for M69 and M70, but before October 4, 1780 when he determined M71.

We give a translation here which is as close as possible to Messier's original.

         New
    Nos. Nos.     Right Ascension
    in   by                            Declin.
    Cat. order in Times  in Degrees   
               H. M. S.    D. M. S.   D. M. S.

     31    1    0 29 46     7 26 32   39  9 32  N   Andromeda Nebula.
     32    2    0 29 50     7 27 32   38 45 34  N   Small Neb. below And Nebula.
     33    3    1 40 37    20  9 17   29 32 25  N   Neb. near the N. Fish.
     34    4    2 27 27    36 51 37   41 39 32  N   Cluster of St. near the Head of the Medusa.
     45    5    3 33 48    53 27  4   23 22 41  N   Cluster. Pleiades.
     38    6    5 12 41    78 10 12   36 11 51  N   Cluster in the Charioteer [Auriga].
      1    7    5 20  2    80  0 33   21 45 27  N   Neb. in the horn of the Bull.
     36    8    5 20 47    80 11 42   34  8  6  N   Cluster in the Charioteer.
     42    9    5 23 59    80 59 40    5 34  6  S   Neb. in the sword of Orion.
     43   10    5 24 12    81  3  0    5 26 37  S   Small Neb. above that in the sword of Orion.
     37   11    5 37  1    84 15 12   32 11 51  N   Cluster in the Charioteer.
[30] 35   12    5 54 41    88 40  9   24 33 30  N   Cluster near the foot of Castor.
     41   13    6 35 53    98 58 12   20 33  0  S   Cluster near Sirius.
     50   14    6 51 50   102 57 28    7 57 42  S   Cluster near the Unicorn [Monoceros]
     46   15    7 31 11   112 47 42   14 19  7  S   Cluster near the head of the Great Dog.
     47   16    7 44 16   116  3 58   14 50  8  S   Cluster near the preceding.
     48   17    8  2 24   120 36  0    1 16 42  S   Cluster near the tail of the Unicorn.
     67   18    8 36 28   129  6 57   12 36 38  N   Cluster in Cancer.
     65   19   11  7 24   166 50 54   14 16  8  N   Neb. in the Lion.
     66   20   11  8 47   167 11 39   14 12 21  N   Neb. in the Lion.
     40   21   12 11  2   182 45 30   59 23 50  N   Two st. [near] tail of the Great Bear.
     49   22   12 17 48   184 26 58    9 16  9  N   Neb. in the Virgin.
     58   23   12 26 30   186 37 23   13  2 42  N   Neb. in the Virgin.
     68   24   12 27 38   186 54 33   25 30 20  S   Neb. near the Raven [Corvus].
     59   25   12 30 47   187 41 38   12 52 36  N   Neb. in the Virgin.
     60   26   12 32 28   188  6 53   12 46  2  N   Neb. in the Virgin.
     64   27   12 45 51   191 27 38   22 52 31  N   Neb. [in the] Hair of Berenice [Coma Berenices].
     63   28   13  4 22   196  5 30   43 12 37  N   Neb. [in the] Hunting Dogs [Canes Venatici]. Méch.
     51   29   13 20 23   200  5 48   48 24 24  N   Neb. [near the] eyes of the Greyhounds [Canes Venatici].
      3   30   13 21 25   202 51 19   29 32 57  N   Neb. near the Hunting Dogs.
      5   31   15  6 36   226 39  4    2 57 16  N   Neb. near Libra.
(2)  44   32    8 27 22   126 50 30   20 31 38  N   Cluster Neb. of Cancer.
      4   33   16  9  8   242 16 56   25 55 40  S   Neb. near Antares.
     13   34   16 33 15   248 16 56   25 55 40  S   Neb. near Antares.
     12   35   16 34 53   248 43 10    1 30 28  S   Neb. in Ophiuchus.
(1)  10   36   16 44 48   251 12  6    3 42 18  S   Neb. in Ophiuchus.
     62   37   16 47 14   251 48 24   29 45 30  S   Neb. in the Scorpion.
(2)
     19   38   16 48  7   252  1 45   25 54 46  S   Neb. on parall. of Antares.
(3)   9   39   17  5 22   256 20 36   18 13 26  S   Neb. in Ophiuchus.
      6   40   17 14 42   261 10 39   32 10 34  S   Cluster near the bow of Sagittarius.
(4)  14   41   17 25 14   261 18 29    3  5 45  S   Neb. in Ophiuchus.
      7   42   17 38  2   264 30 24   34 40 34  S   Cluster. near the bow of Sagittarius.
     23   43   17 42 51   265 42 50   18 45 55  S   Cluster. near the bow of Sagittarius.
     20   44   17 48 16   267  4  5   22 59 10  S   Cluster near the Ecliptic.
      8   45   17 49 58   267 29 30   24 21 10  S   Cluster, near the bow of Sagittarius.
     21   46   17 50  7   267 31 35   22 31 25  S   Cluster near the bow of Sagittarius.
     24   47   18  1 44   270 26  0   18 26  0  S   Cluster, near the bow of Sagittarius.
     16   48   18  5  0   271 15  3   13 51 44  S   Cluster, near the Serpent.
     18   49   18  6 16   271 34  3   17 13 14  S   Cluster.
     17   50   18  7  3   271 45 48   16 14 44  S   Train of light, w/o st. [without stars]
     28   51   18  9 58   272 29 30   24 57 11  S   Neb. [in the] bow of Sagittarius.
     69   52   18 16 47   274 11 46   32 31 45  S   Neb. in the Archer [Sagittarius].
     25   53   18 17 40   274 25  0   19  5  0  S   Cluster, near Sagittarius.
     22   54   18 21 55   275 28 39   24  6 11  S   Neb. between the head and the bow of Sagittarius.
     70   55   18 28 53   277 13 16   32 31  7  S   Neb. in the Archer [Sagittarius].
     26   56   18 32 22   278  5 25    9 38 14  S   Cluster near Antinous.
     11   57   18 38 23   279 35 43    6 31  1  S   Cluster near Antinous.
     54   58   18 40 52   280 12 55   30 44  1  S   Neb. in Sagittarius.
     57   59   18 45 21   281 20  8   32 46  3  N   Neb. in Lyra, between Gamma and Beta.
(2)  61   60   12 10 44   182 42  5    5 42  5  N   Neb. in Virgo.
     56   61   19  8  0   287  0  1   29 48 14  N   Neb. near the Swan [Cygnus].
     55   62   19 26  2   291 30 26   31 26 27  S   Neb. near Sagittarius.
(2)  53   63   13  2  2   195 30 26   19 22 44  N   Neb. in Coma Berenices.
     27   64   19 49 27   297 21 41   22  4  0  N   Neb. in the Fox.
     29   65   20 15 38   303 54 29   37 11 57  N   Cluster in the Swan.
     15   66   21 18 41   319 40 19   10 40  3  N   Neb. near the head of Pegasus.
      2   67   21 21  8   320 17  0    1 47  0  S   Neb. in the head of Aquarius.
     39   68   21 23 49   320 57 10   47 25  0  N   Cluster, near the Swan.
     30   69   21 27  5   321 46 18   24 19  4  S   Neb. in the tail of Capricorn.
     52   70   23 14 38   348 39 27   60 22 12  N   Cluster in Cassiopeia.
          71
          72
          73

Notes by Messier:

(1) .. .. 3.7.1780
(2) Note. The numbers 32, 60 and 63 to be replaced in their order. [Very probably because the "100" digit in the RA in degrees, for which this table was apparently sorted, was misprinted first: 32 = M44, 226 instead of 126, 60 = M61, 282 for 182, 63 = M53, 295 for 195. ]
(3) b .. 3.7.1780
(4) b. .. 3.7.1780

Remark:

M35 has been misprinted "30" in these notes.

Messier's Original Catalogue

Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

Last Modification: 12 Jun 2001, 23:45 MET