Charles Messier

Charles Messier (June 26, 1730 –  April 12, 1817) was a French astronomer most notable for publishing an astronomical catalog consisting of deep sky objects such as nebulae and star clusters that came to be known as the 103 "Messier objects". The purpose of the catalogue was to help comet hunters (like himself) and other astronomical observers to distinguish between permanent and transient objects in the sky.
See more at Wikipedia.org...