I'm much enjoying tackling your list John, thanks for all the work you put into it
. I'm up to 280/600, though I have the advantage (cheat?) of having viewed some of them from north of the Equator! Added 18 last night in a lovely tour of Puppis , Vela and Pyxis, using your list and SkyAtlas 2000, finding some hidden gems along the way. My last and favourite was the little NGC2972 cluster, a sparkling mound of dust almost hidden away.
It's also making me look for some things I don't always seek out, like the carbon stars and doubles, which is nice too!
A great list!