While Alexander von Humboldt was exploring South America he observed a fuzzy object

in the constellation of Centaurus and thought that it was a new comet. However, it
turned out that it was the globular cluster \omega Centauri. It had already been
noticed long before his times by Edmond Halley of comet fame with his primitive
telescope as a fuzzy object which was not a star. Long before Halley, Ptolemaios
the yavana astronomer observing from Egypt thought it was a star in Centaurus.
Halley soon discovered a second such object in the constellation of Hercules, which
was to be later known as M13. Charles Messier following up on these observations
discovered that there were several more such objects and obtained the first hints
that they were made up of stars. This was confirmed finally by Wilhelm Herschel,
who was a prolific discoverer of globular clusters (GCs).