Charles Messier was a French astronomer who lived from 1730 to 1817. Charles compiled a list of over 100 deep-sky objects with the original purpose of providing a resource to identify objects that were often mistaken as comets. Today, the Messier catalog stands for a collection of almost all of the magnificent deep-sky nebula, galaxies, and star clusters that can be seen through a small amateur telescope. For a more detailed biography and a tour through all 110 Messier objects, visit SEDS :

• SEDS Messier Database

The NGC catalog was originally published in 1887 by J.L.E. Dreyer. It contains nearly 8,000 entries of galaxies, nebula, asterisms, star clusters, etc..., and also has its fair share of mislabeled numbers that correspond to a blank area of sky. Almost all of the deep-sky objects that a backyard astronomer will view are part of Messier's catalog, although every once in a while a decent NGC number will pop up (The double star cluster in Perseus, for example).

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