After studying the object in his telescope carefully, the observer records an entry into his logbook "Nebula discovered between Bootes and one of Hevelius's Hunting Dogs. It does not contain any stars, the center is bright, and its light decreases imperceptibly; it is circular. Under a good sky it can be seen with a one-foot telescope. It is plotted on the chart of the comet observed in 1779, Memoires de l'Academie for that year." The date was May 3rd, 1764 and the "observer" was none other than "the Comet Ferret" himself Charles Messier.
