OF THE ROGER N. CLARK

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Appendix E
A catalog of deep-sky objects
This appendix lists the 611 deep-sky objects
that, in the author's opinion, are the most
interesting for amateur astronomers. The list
represents a search of the literature for objects
that are both interesting to observe and
also have photographs widely available. I
culled the information from many sources:
Burnham's Celestial Handbook, magazines such
as Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and Deep Sky; Sky
Catalog 2000.0 (Volume 2) , and professional
journals such as the Astrophysical Journal.
In compiling this catalog, the first step was
to check that an object might be seen through
average amateur telescopes. Then I searched
for those that might show some features.
Many objects within range of small telescopes
were left out because they are so near
the limits that most would just look like
another fuzzy patch. The present list still has
many of these (depending on your telescope
size an sy quality), but many others clearly
show slgmficant detail and have much text
devoted to them in books like Burnham's.
When going out for an observing session,
one wants to know which objects will be visible
that n .
ight. Some books (e.g. Burnham's)
are orgamzed alphabetically by constellation,
so a search through the entire work is required
in order to find out what there is to
s
e. This list, on the other hand, is ordered by
nght ascension. For any given night, one can
start at some point on the list and work
downward.
The following data are tabulated:
ID: The NGC number of the object, or other
atalog number if the object has no NGC
:slgnation. The Messier number is also
glv
d
en If appropriate. Before the ID several
ax appear. An astensk (*) means the
IS .
Iscussed m the book and a drawing
co es m . '
obj ect '
and
Con: The constellation in which the object is
located. The following standard abbrevia-
tions are used:
photograph are presented in Chapter 7.
An S indicates the object is a star cluster with
star magnitudes given in Appendix B. Exclamation
points indicate the object is an
es ecially fine-looking one, with four (!!!!)
bemg the most spectacular visually.
Positions: Positions in right ascension (RA)
and declination (DEC) are tabulated fo r
equinoxes 1950.0 and 2000.0. Both are given
because star charts for both equinoxes are
common. The RA is given in hours and de­
imal minutes of time, and the DEC is given
m degrees and arc-minutes. The objects are
sorted by increasing 1950.0 RA. The positions
in the catalog have been checked
a ainst se eral other catalogs, and as many
discrepanCIes as possible have been eliminated.
One good reference is Sky Catalog 2000.0,
Vo lume 2, by Hirshfeld and Sinnott (1985).
The 2000.0 positions in this list have all been
che ed ag inst Hirshfeld and Sinnott. Many
pOSitIOns disagree in the last digit between
the two catalogs, but the differences are not
significant and can be attributed to round-off
error, or to where the exact center of a large
object was chosen (a center may not be obvious
in open clusters and nebulae in particular)
. When the position disagreement was
significant, I investigated and chose the best
position. In some cases that meant measuring
photographs. Several small galaxies in the
c uple-o:-arc-minute size range had positions
dlsagreemg by about an arc minute or two.
However, the coordinates are always accur
te enough to find an object with setting
CI rcles or by plotting on star charts, even at
.
high power.
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