Charles Messier was a French astronomer and comet hunter who discovered 13 comets independently and codiscovered a half-dozen others. While hunting for comets, Messier compiled a list of fuzzy objects that were not comets in order to avoid them. These catalog entries were later identified as star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. These objects became the Messier Catalog. Published in various versions beginning in 1771, the catalog grew to 103 objects by 1781. Charles Messier lived from June 26, 1730 to April 12, 1817.