MESSIER (CHARLES), a celebrated astronomer, born at Badonviller, in Lorraine, 26th June 1730.
He was the tenth of twelve children, and lost his father when he was 11 years old. He came to Paris at 20, and had then to seek his fortune, having only learned to write a good hand, and to draw. Delisle employed him as a copyist in the observatory. Libour, his secretary, taught him to make use of the common instruments of astronomy, to observe eclipses, and to look out for comets; and this was the principal business of his subsequent life; for he was never much of a theoretical or philosophical astronomer. Delisle obtained for him an appointment as clerk in the Hydrographical Department of the Navy, and gave him his board and lodging in his own house: and he claimed in return the singular gratification of keeping all Messier's observations of comets secret for his own private amusement, until their novelty was completely lost.
Messier had already discovered 12 comets when he lost his wife; his attendance on her sick-bed prevented his discovering a 13th: and it is said that the circumstance added not a little to his grief for
her loss. He afterwards became Astronomer to the Navy, instead of being only a clerk in the department. He obtained a seat in the Academy with some difficulty, and not till 1770; being considered as too mechanical an observer to have a very strong claim to that distinction. He was fond of drawing charts of the paths of comets, and of other astronomical phenomena; one of these procured him the honour of being made an Academician of Berlin, and another, with Laharpe's interest, obtained him the same distinction from Petersburg. He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, in 1764. The highest compliment that he ever received was paid him, perhaps without sufficient reason, by Lalande, who inserted, in his celestial globe of 1775, a constellation with the name of Messier, or Messium custos, The Harvest Man; in the neighbourhood of Cepheus. When Herschel had discovered the Georgian planet, he was very diligently engaged in observing its motions; but, in the mean time, his studies were interrupted by an unfortunate accident: he fell into an ice-house, in a garden, which he mistook for a part of a grotto, and fractured an arm and a thigh. He was long in recovering, and he obtained a small pension on the occasion, from the royal bounty, by the solicitations of Mr Sage and some others of his friends, who had interest. He was, however, soon deprived of it by the Revolution; but he continued his pursuits as a private individual, and he amused the last days of the President de Saron by communicating to him his observations, which Saron continued to compute during the imprisonment that was terminated by his barbarous execution. Messier was in some measure compensated for his pecuniary losses by being made a Member of the Institute, of the Bureau des Longitudes, and of the Legion of Honour. He lived, without disease or material infirmity, to the age of 82, when his sight began to fail him, and he required a deep glass, which he found it fatiguing to use. He had afterwards a paralytic attack; but he lived to be near 87, and died of a dropsy, or probably rather of old age, the 11th of April 1817.
1. A variety of his observations, especially of Comets, are published in the Mémoires des Savans étrangers, V. VI.
2. After his admission into the Academy, he was a constant contributor to its Mémoires from 1771 to 1790. His papers consist almost entirely of Observations of comets and eclipses, with some Accounts of Aurorae Boreales. There is also a Catalogue of Nebulae in 1771; An Account of points of light seen on Saturn's ring in 1774; and of An apparent fall of globules over the sun's disc, 1777.
3. In the Connaissance des temps, there is a collection of his Observations of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. He had an excellent sight, and excellent telescopes; and he made the duration of the eclipses almost always shorter than other astronomers.
4. He contributed some articles to the Astronomical Ephemerides of Professor Hell, published at Vienna.
5. The Voyage de Courlanvaux sur la frégatte l'Aurore, 4. Paris, 1768, was written by Pingré:
the observations are Messier's: the purpose of the voyage was to make trial of several astronomical instruments.
6. His only separate publication was entitled Grande comète qui a paru à la naissance de Napoléon le Grand, 4. Paris, 1808. It was probably not calculated for immortality, even if it was a genuine work of Messier.
7. Delambre is in possession of a number of his unpublished observations of the solar spots; but he found their results, when computed, somewhat unsatisfactory.
[Delambre in Biographie Universelle, XXVIII. 8. Paris, 1821. See also Eloge de Delisle, by Lalande, in Nécrologe des hommes célèbres de France. 12. Paris, 1770.] (x. A.)