Who was the first person to find a galaxy with a telescope?
Four galaxies were known before the telescope was invented, the Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and M31.
The first galaxies to be found with a telescope were M33, M32 and M83.
Here are the details.
Object Year Discoverer/Notes
M33 before 1654 Hodierna IV.4 (?), Messier 1764 Aug 25
M32 1749 Oct 29 Le Gentil; Messier 1757 and 1764 Aug 3
M83 1752 Feb 23 Lacaille I.6, Messier 1781 Mar 18
Hodierna may have seen M33 before 1654 but it is not certain. Le Gentil was looking at M31 when he found M32 in 1749.
On 23/2/1752 the moon set just after 1am, M83 transited at 4am and astronomical twilight started at 5am in CapeTown. M83 was almost overhead (alt 85d) when Lacaille found it that morning with his 0.5 inch refractor. It is the faintest object and only galaxy in his catalogue of 42 clusters and nebulae. I saw a copy of his catalogue of 9766 stars in Townsville this week and it included dates for his sweeps of 25 zones.
http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/history/dis-tab.html
