What description was used for the faint, fuzzy nebulae Messier cataloged through his small telescope?
Answer
Barely more than smudges, sometimes described as faint smoke or tiny cotton balls.
Due to the limitations of his two-inch aperture telescope and the relatively poor viewing conditions in Paris during the mid-18th century, the deep-sky objects Messier recorded were extremely faint. These nebulae and star clusters did not reveal fine detail. Instead, early observers, including Messier, characterized them vaguely. The text specifies that these faint targets were often seen as being barely more than smudges, providing descriptive analogies such as looking like faint smoke or tiny cotton balls, emphasizing the difficulty involved in accurately positioning them.
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