Editing Messier object (section)

==Lists and editions==
[[File:Charles Messier.jpg|upright=1|thumb|[[Charles Messier]]|alt=Painting of Charles Messier]]

The first edition of 1774 covered 45&nbsp;objects ([[Crab Nebula|M1]] to [[Pleiades|M45]]). The total list published by Messier in 1781 contained 103&nbsp;objects, but the list was expanded through successive additions by other astronomers, motivated by notes in Messier's and Méchain's texts indicating that at least one of them knew of the additional objects. The first such addition came from [[Nicolas Camille Flammarion]] in 1921, who added [[Messier 104]] after finding a note Messier made in a copy of the 1781 edition of the catalogue. [[Messier 105|M105]] to [[Messier 107|M107]] were added by [[Helen Sawyer Hogg]] in 1947, [[Messier 108|M108]] and [[Messier 109|M109]] by [[Owen Gingerich]] in 1960, and [[Messier 110|M110]] by Kenneth Glyn Jones in 1967.<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=Patrick  |last=Moore
 |date=1979
 |title=The Guinness Book of Astronomy
 |publisher=[[Guinness Superlatives]]
 |isbn=0-900424-76-1
 |url=https://archive.org/details/guinnessbookofas00moor
 |url-access=registration
 |via=archive.org
}}
</ref> [[Messier 102|M102]] was observed by Méchain, who communicated his notes to Messier. Méchain later concluded that this object was simply a re-observation of M101, though some sources suggest that the object Méchain observed was the galaxy [[NGC 5866]] and identify that as M102.<ref>
{{cite press release
 |last=Frommert  |first=Hartmut
 |date=10 May 1995
 |title= Messier&nbsp;102
 |website=MSFC X-Ray Astronomy (InterNetNews)
 |via=[[Students for the Exploration and Development of Space|SEDS]]
 |url=http://www.messier.seds.org/xtra/supp/m102art.txt
 |access-date=24 February 2019
}}
</ref>

Messier's final catalogue was included in the {{Lang|fr|[[Connaissance des Temps]] pour l'Année 1784}} [''Knowledge of the Times for the Year 1784''], the French official yearly publication of astronomical [[ephemerides]].<ref name=Messier-1781-Connaissance-1784/><ref name=SEDS-Messier-1771/>

Messier lived and conducted his astronomical work at the Hôtel de Cluny (now the [[Musée national du Moyen Âge]]), in [[Paris]], France. The list he compiled contains only objects found in the sky area he could observe from the north [[celestial pole]] to a celestial latitude of about −35.7°. He did not observe or list objects visible only from farther south, such as the [[Large Magellanic Cloud|Large]] and [[Small Magellanic Cloud|Small Magellanic Clouds]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |last=English |first=Neil
 |date=2018
 |title=Chronicling the Golden Age of Astronomy: A history of visual observing from Harriot to Moore
 |page=91
 |publisher=Springer
 |isbn=978-3319977072
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9p1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA91
 |access-date=9 October 2019
}}
</ref>