NYC Comets
Charles Messier Tower
Charles Messier, an 18th-century Parisian astronomer who was the first to have success in systematically searching the sky for comets, built an observatory above the entrance of the Hôtel de Cluny (the small tower shown here. The observatory was removed from the tower in the early 19th century. The tower is now part of the Musée National du Moyen Ages, a museum of artifacts from the Middle Ages. Messier is credited with the discovery of 12 comets (and independently discovered several more), but is best known for the catalog of deep-sky objects frequently mistaken for comets that bears his name.
Charles Messier Tower
Charles Messier, an 18th-century Parisian astronomer who was the first to have success in systematically searching the sky for comets, built an observatory above the entrance of the Hôtel de Cluny (the small tower shown here. The observatory was removed from the tower in the early 19th century. The tower is now part of the Musée National du Moyen Ages, a museum of artifacts from the Middle Ages. Messier is credited with the discovery of 12 comets (and independently discovered several more), but is best known for the catalog of deep-sky objects frequently mistaken for comets that bears his name.