Editing Deep-sky object (section)

==Origins and classification==
Classifying non-stellar astronomical objects began soon after the invention of the telescope.<ref name=Kolb>{{cite book|author1=Edward W. Kolb|author2=Rocky Kolb|title=Blind Watchers of the Sky: The People and Ideas that Shaped Our View of the Universe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9HzRdUvHD8C&pg=PA174|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-286203-7|page=174}}</ref> One of the earliest comprehensive lists was [[Charles Messier]]'s 1774 [[Messier catalog]], which included 103 "nebulae" and other faint fuzzy objects he considered a nuisance since they could be mistaken for comets, the objects he was actually searching for.<ref name=Kolb/> As telescopes improved these faint nebulae would be broken into more descriptive scientific classifications such as [[interstellar cloud]]s, star clusters, and galaxies.

"Deep-sky object", as an astronomical classification for these objects, has its origins in the modern field of amateur astronomy. The origin of the term is unknown but it was popularized by ''[[Sky & Telescope]]'' magazine's "Deep-Sky Wonders" column, which premiered in the magazine's first edition in 1941.<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Anthony Federer|title=Sky and Telescope|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3rgOAAAAIAAJ|year=1942|publisher=Sky Publishing Corporation}}</ref> Houston's columns, and later book compilations of those columns, helped popularize the term,<ref>{{cite book|author=Fred Schaaf|title=40 Nights to Knowing the Sky: A Night-by-Night Sky-Watching Primer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wcoRISdUnu4C&pg=RA1-PA13|year=1998|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|isbn=978-0-8050-4668-7|page=13}}</ref> each month giving the reader a guided tour of a small part of the sky highlighting well-known and lesser-known objects for binoculars and small telescopes.