Deep sky: star clusters, nebulae & galaxies
Sections in this page
- Messier objects
- - M1
- - M3
- - M11
- - M13
- - M15
- - M27
- - M31, M32 & M110
- - M33
- - M42
- - M44
- - M45
- - M51
- - M57
- - M76
- - M81 & M82
- - M82
- - M86 & M84
- - M90 & M89
- - M92
- - M96, M105
- - M106
- NGC objects
- - NGC 869 & 884
- - NGC 457
- - NGC 1023
- - NGC 1499
- - NGC 2024 etc
- - NGC 2237 & 2244
- - NGC 2264
- - NGC 4216
- - NGC 4565
- - NGC 6910
- - NGC 6960 & 6992
- - NGC 7000
- - NGC 7331 & Stephan's quintet
- IC & B objects
- - IC5146 & B168
- - B145
- Other objects
- - 3C66A
Most have been taken with a 10 inch (25.4 cm) Newtonian telescope.
Click on each thumbnail image to see the full picture in a new page.
Optical configurations used:
- [A] = prime focus: F = 1219mm, f/4.8, field of view 104 x 70 arc minutes
- [B] = 1.25" 2x Barlow: F = 2380mm, f/9.4, field of view 50 x 33 arc minutes
- [C] = prime focus with coma corrector
- [Cb] = prime focus with coma corrector and 2-inch Barlow
Observing sites:
- {W} Whitley Bay 55.1°N 1.5°W 10m above sea level - suburban, moderate light pollution (about 7 on the Bortle scale).
- {R} Rookhope 54.8°N 2.1°W 330m asl - rural, almost no light pollution (about 3 on the Bortle scale).
Messier objects
We start with objects in Charles Messier's late 18th century catalogue of objects that he thought might be confused with comets.
NGC objects
The next section contains objects that are not in Messier's catalogue, generally because they are fainter. NGC is the New General Catalogue, first published in the 1880s. It contains 7,840 objects. The Messier objects do also have NGC numbers.
IC & B objects
The Index Catalogue was a supplement to NGC. First issued in 1895, it now contains about 5,400 objects.
B is Edwin Barnard's catalogue of 370 dark nebulae, published in 1919. These are dust clouds made visible by obscuring more distant objects.
