Historical Publications Online

• Messier Catalog: As printed:
  • Translation of Messier's Catalog of 1771 (M1-45):
  • Translation of Messier's Catalog of 1780 (M1-68): Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Étoiles. Connoissance des Temps for 1783 (published 1780), p. 225-254. Also, the announce of the discovery of M69 and M70, p. 408.
  • Translation of Messier's Catalog of 1781 (M1-103): Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Etoiles. Connoissance des Temps for 1784 (published 1781), p. 227-272.
  Commented:
  • Messier Catalog Homepage
  • Introduction
  • Nebulae reported by others, but not found by Messier
  • Reprint of Lacaille's Catalog
  Unpublished:
  • List of Messier Objects 1-70 ordered by Right Ascension
  • New Nebulae, found after 1783 (M69-97, 108, 109)
• Lacaille's Catalog
  • Translation of the original 1755 catalog, Sur les Étoiles Nébuleuses du Ciel Austral. Mémoires de l'Académy Royale for 1755 (published 1761), p. 194-199.
  • As reprinted as appendix to Messier's Catalog
• Messier's Publications
  • Comet observed in 1780. Connoissance des Temps for 1784, p. 176.
• Flammarion 1917:
• Connoissance des Temps for 1783
  • Titlepage
  • Translation of Messier's Catalog of 1780 (M1-68): Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Étoiles. Connoissance des Temps for 1783 (published 1780), p. 225-254. Also, an announce of the discovery of M69 and M70, p. 408.
• Connoissance des Temps for 1784
  • Titlepage
  • Comet observed in 1780. Connoissance des Temps for 1784, p. 176.
  • Translation of Messier's Catalog of 1781 (M1-103): Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Etoiles. Connoissance des Temps for 1784 (published 1781), p. 227-272.
• Translation of Pierre Méchain's 1783 Letter to Bernoulli, Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres, année MDCCLXXXII (1782), p. 46-51. Translation of Bode's publication of Pierre Méchain's letter, Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1786, p. 231-237, 1783.
• Translation of Bode's Original Catalog. Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1779, p. 65-71 & Tab. IV, Fig. 1-15, Berlin, 1777.
• Translation of De Chéseaux's Original Catalog. From G. Bigourdan, Observations of 1884. Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris (Observations), G.1-G.15, 1892.
• Translation of De Mairan's descriptions of Nebulae, of 1731: Traite physique et historique de l'Aurore Boréale. Par M. de Mairan. Suite des Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Année M.DCCXXXI [Physical and historical treatise of the Aurora Borealis. By M. De Mairan. Series of the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, for the year 1731]. Royal Printing Office, Paris, 1733. Pp 259-263 & plate XV after p. 298.
• Transcript of Derham's Original Catalog. Phil. Trans. XXXVIII, 70 (1733).
• Transcript of Halley's Original List of 6 "Nebulae". Phil. Trans. XXIX, 390 (1716).
• Translation of Koehler's Original Catalog. Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1782, p. 155-157 Berlin, 1779.
• Translation of the Report of Oriani's Deepsky Discoveries. Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1784, p. 181-182, 1781.
• Transcript of Edward Pigott's article on his discovery of M64, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. LXXI (1781), p. 82-83. With an account of the 2002 recovery of this discovery by Bryn Jones, and related work by Hartmut Frommert.
• Transcript of John Mallas' letter on the identification of M40, Sky and Telescope, August 1966, p. 83.
• Transcript of William C. Williams' letter on the identification of M91, Sky and Telescope, December 1969, p. 376.

Last Modification: May 19, 2002