Since I got interested in deep sky observing, I was from the start amazed by the early explorers of the night sky and specially by the initial discoverers of nebulae. Recently, I began a more systematic search on the historical background of deep sky observing by looking for information on the names I found rambling through historical catalogues (mainly from Messier's and Dreyer's):

This page is a kind of summary of the details gavered until now, and I hope to keep it up to date thanks to your comments and maybe your personnal investigations. As I have not access to all the data I would like, the facts reported here may be erroneous: contact the author if you find some inaccuracies. The tables here-linked are rankings of the discoverers from Messier's Catalog (1781), and Dreyer's New General Catalogue (1888) and two Index Catalogues (1908). These catalogues are the most widespread among amateurs and are good beacons of the deep sky cataloguing process. See the notes following each table for explanations on the columns head-titles and comments on the choices made.

Choose which table you would like to consult: