Hevelius’ 16 “Nebulosae”

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Hevelius’ 16 “Nebulosae”

Within his Prodomus Astronomiae, Hevelius described 16 nebulous objects.

14 of them are given below, as quoted in W. Derham’s contribution to the

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 38, No. 428

(April-June, 1733), p. 70-74. The only real objects described by Hevelius are

the Andromeda Galaxy M31 (see below) and the

Praesepe star cluster M44 (not in the list below,

as Derham did not list recognized clusters).

Nevertheless, after Derham, other astronomers including Messier spent a lot of

time to look for these objects without being able to find anything significant.


RA (1660)   Dec (1660)   Id    Description




006:04:45   39:27:57 N   M31   In Andromeda's Girdle,

300:02:53   20:01:53 S   - *   In Forehead of Capricorn,

301:59:55   19:11:30 S   - *   Another preceding the Eye of Capricorn,

302:35:09   19:36:00 S   - *   Another following it,

302:25:31   18:48:58 S   - *   One above those, adjoining to the Eye of Capricorn,

304:54:08   47:54:20 N   - *   Preceding above the Swan's Tail, and last in its N. Foot

312:10:05   53:05:20 N   - *   One following a Star above the Swan's Tail, out of the Constellation

264:52:64   48:09:10 N   -     On the outside of Hercules left Foot

265:38:37   38:05:50 N   -     In the left Leg of Hercules

252:24:03   13:18:37 N   - *   On the Top of Hercules

332:38:45   03:03:12 N   - *   At the Ear of Pegasus

272:32:34   14:23:35 S   -     In the Western Border of Sobieski's Shield

219:26:15   09:16:27 S   -     Under the Beam of the Scales of Libra

183:32:41   60:20:33 N  [M40]  Above the Back of Ursa major

An asterix (*) marks entries Messier has found to be non-existent and described

in his List of Objects reported by previos

observers but not found by Messier himself.

Derham lists two more objects in this list with obscure longitude coordinates:


 12:43:00   19:01:00 S   -     In the third joint of Scorpio's Tail

 24:32:00   11:25:00 S   -     Between Scorpio's Tail and the Bow of Sagittarius
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