CHARLES, a skilful astronomer, born at Badonviller in Lorraine, on the 26th of June 1730. He came to Paris at the age of twenty to seek his fortune. Having learned to write a good hand and to draw, Delisle employed him as a copyist in the observatory, and Libour, his secretary, taught him to make use of the common instruments of astronomy, to observe eclipses, and to look out for comets, which was the principal business of his subsequent life, for he was never much of a theoretical or philosophical astronomer. Delisle obtained for him a clerkship in the hydrographical department of the navy, previous to his appointment as astronomer to the admiralty.

After having discovered twelve comets, he obtained a seat in the academy in 1770. He had afterwards the honour of being made an academician of Berlin; and through Lalande's interest he obtained the same distinction from St 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, in the neighbourhood of Cepheus. When Herschel had discovered the Georgian planet Messier was very diligently engaged in observing its motions; but his studies were unfortunately interrupted by an accident, from the effects of which he was long of recovering. He received a pension on this occasion from the royal bounty, of which, however, he was soon after deprived by the Revolution. 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 died on the 11th of April 1817.

A variety of his observations, especially of Comets, are published in the Mémoires des Savans étrangers, v. vi., and in the Memoirs of the Academy from 1771 to 1790. 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. He also contributed some articles to the Connaissance des Temps and to the Astronomical Ephemerides.