Hi Sean,
Thanks for wishing to get an Argo Navis by year's end!
Indeed, there is a BRIGHT STAR catalog that includes all the bright stars with
common names (e.g. BETELGEUSE, ACRUX, etc) and those with
Bayer and Flamsteed designations (e.g. ZETA GRUS, DELTA1, GRUS, LEO 10,
etc, etc.) The detailed description of the stars will provide a magnitude and
even tell you the spectral classification. There is also in-built catalogs of double
(e.g. DUNLOP 55) and variable stars (e.g. FZ VIRGO). For the doubles
you will typically find the magnitude of both components along with their
separation and position angles and again luminosity classes.
All the visible NGC and IC objects are there along with descriptions including
object types, magnitudes, surface brightnesses, major and minor dimensions and even
Hubble Morphologies. There are numerous other catalogs including those containing
Galaxy Clusters (e.g. ABELL 1016, HICKSON 52, SHAKHBAZIAN 3),
planetary nebulae, open clusters, globular clusters, bright nebulae and
even dark nebulae (e.g. BARNARD 62). By way of example, the galaxy
clusters catalog will tell you the number of members and the red shift.
There are enough objects to spend several lifetimes of observing.
At the recent IceInSpace AstroCamp I assisted in operating the sky tours
and Argo Navis units helped deliver a large number of objects on demand
to constant queues of people. We looked at everything from the sublime to
the challenging, from Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus to Messier, NGC and IC objects,
to obscure but beautiful Hickson galaxy clusters.
Thanks again and we look forward to welcoming you to the extended family of
Argo Navis owners.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au