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| | Charles Messier (June 26, 1730 - April 12, 1817) |
 | | Charles Messier was born in Badonviller, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France (20 miles from Luneville), then part of the Principality of Salm, as the 10th of 12 children of Nicolas Messier, a catchpole in Badonviller, and Francoise b. |
 | | In the same year of 1771, Charles Messier was finally officially made the "Astronomer of the Navy", and granted a regular salary of 1700 francs annually (this was raised again in 1774 to 2000 francs). |
 | | Charles Messier did his last score in comet discovery on July 12, 1801, when he independently co-discovered Comet 1801 Pons; this brought the number of his comet discoveries to 20, 13 being original and 7 independent co-discoveries. |
| www.seds.org /messier/xtra/history/biograph.html (4144 words) |
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