Deep Sky Collections and Catalogs
Historically important Deep Sky Catalogs and Lists
- Historical Deep Sky Objects:
List of all 152 Deep Sky Object discovered before William Herschel began
his extensive survey in September, 1782, in various formats
- Several smaller catalogs of historical importance are given in our
History of Deep Sky Discovery page;
this includes Halley‘s 6-object catalog.
- Hodierna’s Deep Sky Observations
- Hevelius‘ obscure but historically important
list of 16 “Nebulosae”
- De Cheseaux’s list of 21 “nebulae”
- Lacaille‘s
“Catalogue of Nebulae of the Southern Sky”
(also available as ascii file).
We also have an online copy of the
(as reprinted in an appendix of Messier’s Catalog).
- Bode’s Catalog
- Messier Catalog:
- Caroline Herschel’s Deep Sky Discoveries (which were
all included in William Herschel’s catalog)
- William Herschel’s catalog, available online
thanks to Bill Arnett
- NGC and IC catalog by J.L.E. Dreyer:
- Bill Arnett‘s
links the more important NGC and IC web resources, and includes a
dictionary for Dreyer’s description code.
-
SEDS Interactive NGC Online Catalog
(includes IC and Messier),based on Sky Publishing’s famous NGC 2000.0 database.
- The NGC/IC Project maintains an
online database of various versions of the NGC and IC catalogs,
corrections to the catalogs, and observations of the NGC and IC
deepsky objects. You may contribute your observations to their
database, and generate your own observing list interactively from
their facilities.
- Bill Arnett‘s
In addition to these catalogs which are available online, some other historic
observing lists, mostly from the 19th century, may still be suited for amateur
workthrough, in particular:
- Admiral William H. Smyth,
The Bedford Catalogue: From A Cycle of Celestial Objects, 1844.
- Rev. T.W. Webb.
Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, 1859.
Other Deep Sky Catalogs and Observing Lists
- The Jack Bennett Catalog
of Southern Deep-Sky Objects (also available
as plain ascii file), which was contributed by
Auke Slotegraaf; thanks !
- The Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) has compiled a
list of the 110 best NGC objects
not in Messier’s catalog. Also note the
original list by A.J. Crayon and Steve Coe; it is also
available as inexpensive booklet
(info).
This list was contributed by
editor of the
SACnews newsletter.
- Patrick Moore‘s Caldwell Catalog: Choose between our
Linked Object List or the (unlinked) Original
at Sky Online
- John Caldwell’s
“Best Sky Objects from SAAO Latitude
.List of deep sky objects and double/multiple stars for Southern observers.
Contributed by Willie Koorts. [ascii file]
- Glen Cozens from New South Wales, Australia, has compiled a list of
(also available as ascii file).
- The German yearbook, Ahnert’s Kalender für Sternfreunde, has
compilations of very easy deepsky objects (suitable for 2-inch telescopes),
especially useful for school and public demonstrations. These lists of a total
of 42 Northern deepsky showpieces is now
-
The American Association of Amateur Astronomers
has created aList of Deep Sky Objects (and double and variable stars) for Northern
hemisphere observers living in urban regions:
The AAAA Urban Astronomy Club List of Objects.
This list is presented here crosslinked to the object pages in our
Messier Catalog Online Database; also note their (unlinked)
- The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) has published
several useful observing lists in their yearly Observer’s Handbook,
edited by Roy L. Bishop:
- Messier Catalog, ordered by Season of
observation, by Alan Dyer
- The Finest NGC Objects, list of 110, by
Alan Dyer
- Deep Sky Challenge Objects, list of 45
more difficult objects, including non-NGC/IC objects, by
Alan Dyer and Alister Ling
- Messier Catalog, ordered by Season of
- The Astronomical League has provided
extra observing tours beyond the Messier objects for binocular observers,
each one for Northern and Southern Deep Sky Objects (and observers);
we have linked copies of the object lists to our pages here:
- Binocular Deep Sky observing beyond Messier
(Northern objects)
AL’s original Binocular Deep Sky Club page]
- Southern Sky Binocular Club:
Deep Sky observing in the Southern Sky
AL’s original Southern Sky Binocular Club page]
- They also provide their famous
Binocular Messier Club, granting
certificates for hunting down the Messier catalog with binoculars
AL’s original Binocular Messier Club page].
- Binocular Deep Sky observing beyond Messier
- The Hawaii Astronomical Society
Beyond Messier and Caldwell list of more challenging Deep Sky objects
- The astronomical computer program Ephem, an ephemeris calculator, provides
a database containing various Solar System objects, stars, all Messier
and 27 other Deep Sky Objects. Here is the list of (the 27 other)
Deep Sky Objects from the Ephem program.
[You can download
Ephem 4.28 for OS/2 here]
- The Observatorio ARVAL (Venezuela)
ARVAL Catalog of Bright Objects available online; it consists of
the following parts:
- Erich Karkoschka, in his
Atlas für Himmelsbeobachter
, lists250 Deep Sky Objects well observable by amateurs.
- Boyd Edwards has compiled a
big observing list of 884 deep sky objects,
which he has collected from the Messier catalog, the Caldwell catalog, the
Herschel 400 list of the AL, Burnham (all objects with long description),
A. Dyer’s 110 “Finest” NGC objects (Observers Handbook 1996), and
objects discussed in Sky & Telescope. For more detail, read
Boyd’s Explanatory Notes.
Other recommended offline lists and resources:
- The Webb Society, in their
famous Deep-Sky Observer’s Handbook
Vol. 2, 3, and 4, has provided a numbered catalog of 700 deep-sky objects
(nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies). This catalog excludes the
bright Virgo Cluster galaxies, which
are treated in their Vol. 5 (Clusters of Galaxies).
- Ronald J. Morales has published
The Amateur Astronomer’s Catalog of 500 Deep-Sky Objects
- Roger N. Clark’s book,
Visual Astronomy of the Deep Sky, contains an atlas of 90 and a
catalog of 611 deep sky objects visible for better equipped amateurs.
Objects, especially those which are fainter and less suited for amateur
observations, are often designated by catalog numbers from professional
catalogs; look at a
list of some common deep sky catalogs.
If you know of further collections or catalogs of Deep Sky objects suited for
our online collection please email me.
Last Modification: 8 Mar 1998, 14:00 MET