The first Messier Marathons ever were held in 1978-1979 after it was realized that almost all the objects on this list could be viewed on a single night for a one week period in March. Of the 110 ...

Messier's frustration with finding "fuzzy" bodies that weren't comets resulted in his famous list of 103 objects, published in 1781, later revised by other astronomers to 110 objects. His list ...