Messier Object Discovery Statistics

Discoverers are given together with their scores (format: Number of Original Discoveries "+" Number of Independent Re- or Codiscoveries) and the objects discovered (codiscoveries in parentheses, uncounted "other" pre-discoveries in brackets). Here ordered alphabetically by name.

It is certainly known that the discoveries of some objects may be disputed and thus the list modified. Note we take NGC 5866 as M102.


Discoverer Score Objects
Al Sufi 1 31 Aratus [44] Aristotle [39?][41] Bevis 1+1 1 (35) Bode 5 53 64 81 82 92 Cassini GD [50] Cysatus +1 (42) Darquier 1 57 De Cheseaux 6+1 4 (6) 16 17 25 35 71 De Mairan 1 43 Flamsteed +1 [8] (41) Halley 1 13 Herschel C +2 (48)(110) Herschel W +9 (47) (91)(102)(104)(105)(106)(107)(108)(109) Hesiod 1 45 Hevelius [40] Hipparchus 1 44 Hodierna 8+1 6 33 34 36 37 38 41 (42) 47 Huygens +1 (42) Ihle 1 22 Kirch 2 5 11 Koehler 3+3 59 60 67 (71) (81) (82) Lacaille 3+3 (4) (6) (7) 55 69 83 Le Gentil 2+2 8 32 (36) (38) Maraldi 2 2 15 Marius +1 (31) Mechain 28+4 63 65 66 68 (71) 72 74 75 76 77 78 79 (80) (81) (82) 85 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 Messier 40+20 (1) (2) 3 (5) 9 10 12 14 (16) (17) 18 19 20 21 23 24 (25) 26 27 28 29 30 (33) (34) (35) (37) 39 40 46 (47) 48 49 50 51 52 (53) 54 56 (57) 58 (59) (60) (61) 62 (64) (67) 70 73 80 84 86 87 88 89 90 91 (92) 93 (102) 110 Oriani 1+1 (60) 61 Peiresc 1 42 Ptolemy 1 7
Total 110
Ordered by score, the original discoverers of the Messier Objects are:
Messier (40), Mechain (28), Hodierna (8), De Cheseaux (6), Bode (5), Koehler and Lacaille (3 each), Kirch, Le Gentil and Maraldi (2 each), and Al Sufi, Bevis, Darquier, De Mairan, Halley, Hesiod, Hipparchus, Ihle, Oriani, Peiresc and Ptolemy (1 each).

Independent discoveries, including co-discoveries, of Messier Objects lead to the following ranking:

Messier (60), Mechain (32), William Herschel and Hodierna (9), De Cheseaux (7), Koehler and Lacaille (6 each), Bode (5), Le Gentil (4), Bevis, Caroline Herschel, Kirch, Maraldi and Oriani (2 each), and Al Sufi, Cysatus, Darquier, De Mairan, Flamsteed, Halley, Hesiod, Hipparchus, Huygens, Ihle, Marius, Peiresc and Ptolemy (1 each).


Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)