Deep Sky Collections and Catalogs
Historically important Deep Sky Catalogs and Lists
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:
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
Paul Dickson,
editor of the
SACnews newsletter.
- The Messier Plus Marathon List
(also available as ascii file):
Wally Brown and Bob Buckner have compiled a list of 110
Deep Sky objects (75 Messiers, 34 NGCs, 1 Brocchi) suitable for a
1-night marathon session around September each year, the Messier Plus
Marathon. Messier Plus marathons have been held first by the Saguaro
Astronomy Club of Phoenix, Arizona, in
1981 and 1982, the list was
contributed by AJ Crayon.
- 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
110 DEEP-SKY HIGH LIGHTS
(also available as ascii file).
- Patrick Moore's Caldwell Catalog: Choose between our
Linked Object List or the (unlinked) Original
Caldwell Catalog
at Sky Online
- 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
available online.
- Ben Crowell has created
Binosky,
a compilation of 31 Deep Sky Objects suited for binocular observing.
We have a list of the Binosky objects.
-
The American Association of Amateur Astronomers has created a
List 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)
original list.
- The Albuquerque Astronomical Society (TAAS) has created
TAAS 200, a list of
"the best 200 non Messier objects easily visible from central New Mexico"
(objects north of declination -48). This list was intended for intermediately
experienced and equipped observes.
- The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) has published
several useful observing lists in their yearly Observer's Handbook,
edited by Roy L. Bishop:
- 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:
- The Hawaii Astronomical Society
has compiled a
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)
has made their
ARVAL Catalog of Bright Objects available online; it consists of
the following parts:
- Erich Karkoschka, in his
Atlas für Himmelsbeobachter, lists
250 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.
- Tom Hoffelder, one of the inventors of the
Messier Marathon, has compiled
an observing list of 1000 Deep Sky objects which he has named "The
Magnificient 1000". We have here a description
and the list. Tom has hunted down all but NGC
2253 and 1663 with an 8-inch SC.
Other recommended offline lists and resources:
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.
Hartmut Frommert
(spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg
(smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Last Modification: 8 Mar 1998, 14:00 MET