The First Southern Catalogue

[glenc]

Lacaille made the first catalogue of southern star clusters and nebulae.

The Frenchman Abbe Nicolas-Louis de la Caille (1713-1762) arrived at Cape Town, South Africa on April 19, 1751. During the next two years he made a catalogue of 9,776 stars that included 42 nebulae and clusters. Lacaille discovered the nebulae and clusters between August 23, 1751 and July 18, 1752. He divided his list of nebulae and clusters into three parts; nebulae without stars, nebulae with stars, and clusters. There are 14 objects in each part. Today the 42 Lacaille objects are classified as 23 open clusters, 7 globular clusters, 4 diffuse nebulae and one galaxy (M83). There are no planetary nebulae and the other 7 objects are asterisms or stars.

Messier later included seven Lacaille objects in his catalogue, namely: M4, M6, M7, M8, M22, M55 and M83. The remaining objects were too far south for Messier to see. Lacaille was the first person to make a list of southern non-stellar objects. His list included 22 new objects. It was to be 74 years before Dunlop made the next search for southern clusters and nebulae.

Here are some historical images
https://picasaweb.google.com/110048826379679252146/Lacaille

and a biography
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/lacaille.html

[glenc]

Lacaille's Catalogue provides a good list of objects for beginners to observe.
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/history/lacaille.html

It includes 7 globular clusters NGC 104 (47 Tuc), NGC 4833, NGC 5139 (omega Cen), M 4, M22, M55 and NGC 6397.
There are also 3 nebulae NGC 2070 (Tarantula), NGC 3372 (he divided eta Car into 2 parts) and M8 (Lagoon).
He missed the bright globular cluster NGC 6752 and the open cluster NGC 6067.

The attached pdf file gives his objects in RA (Right Ascension) order.

[dj gravelrash]

Excellent work Glen. Thanx muchly, all us newbies appreciate your posts --cheers m8

[glenc]

Lacaille, James Dunlop and John Herschel made the first three catalogues of southern clusters and nebulae. The attached Google map shows the location of Lacaille's and Herschel's telescopes at Cape Town. It also shows the government observatory and the top of the Table Mtn cable car.

Lacaille used a 0.5" refractor in 1751-52.
Dunlop used a 9" reflector in 1826 at Parramatta, Sydney.
Herschel used an 18.5" reflector from 1834-38.

Here is a list of all the NGC and IC observers.
http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/ngcic/obs_e.htm

[mikerr]

Thanks for posting Glen. Much appreciated. :thumbsup:

Michael.