Australia's Messier

glenc (Glen) · #1 09-07-2009, 05:40 PM

James Dunlop is Australia's Messier.

He catalogued 85 open clusters, 34 globular clusters, 4 nebulae, 4 planetary nebulae and 56 galaxies from his Parramatta backyard in 1826 using a homemade 9 foot long 9 inch aperture speculum reflector.

He also catalogued 132 objects in the Large and 28 objects in the Small Magellanic Cloud, and he was the first to do so.

Here are 104 images of Dunlop objects with his original descriptions.
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlop1826/Dunlop28#
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...28411722310978

The images are from www.wikisky.org and most fields are 28' by 28' with north at the top.
Images of Dunlop open clusters and objects in the Magellanic Clouds are not included.

glenc (Glen) · #2 09-07-2009, 05:55 PM

Some historical images are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlop1826/DunlopRumker#
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...Observatories#

seanliddelow (Sean) · #3 09-07-2009, 06:22 PM

Its good to see a catalouge for australian astronomers.

glenc (Glen) · #4 11-07-2009, 08:13 AM

Dunlop's brightest galaxies are:
NGC 55 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...28411722310978
NGC 300 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...28483139985314
NGC 1291 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...28585811812114
NGC 1316 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...28616355990274
NGC 5128 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...29339048969458
and M83 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...29407737356258
Lacaille found M83, the rest were found by Dunlop. His descriptions are below each image.

glenc (Glen) · #5 12-07-2009, 03:17 AM

Dunlop's brightest non Messier Globular Clusters are:
NGC 104 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...28451628560898
NGC 2808 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...29048709945618
NGC 5139 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...29385927725554
NGC 6397 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...29869713530178
NGC 6541 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...29986675556674
NGC 6752 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30287815611538
Dunlop found NGC2808 and NGC6752

glenc (Glen) · #6 12-07-2009, 06:43 AM

Nicolas Lacaille made the first catalogue of southern deep sky objects (DSO) in 1751-52,
James Dunlop was next in 1826, and John Herschel made the 3rd catalogue of southern DSO in 1834-38.

dannat (Daniel) · #7 12-07-2009, 09:26 AM

terrific info, thanks glen

glenc (Glen) · #8 12-07-2009, 02:59 PM

Thanks Sean and Daniel.

Here is Lacaille's catalogue with his descriptions http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...ersAndNebulae#
This was the first catalogue of southern DSO.
And here are some images from the places where he lived http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlop1826/Lacaille#

glenc (Glen) · #9 13-07-2009, 02:36 AM

Most of Dunlop's nebulae are in the Magellanic Clouds.
The six below are not, three PN and three bright nebulae:
PN NGC 2818 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30563945937762
Neb NGC 3199 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30706017812050
Neb NGC 3324 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30727368153810
Neb NGC 3372 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30770125046066
PN NGC 5189 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30597804594722
PN NGC 6563 http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30675957913954
Lacaille found eta Carinae (NGC 3372), Dunlop found the other five.
His descriptions are below each image. They were made with a telescope that was equivalent to today's 6" Newtonian.
His telescope was located on the north side of Hunter St http://picasaweb.google.com.au/lh/al...3838391777#map
Click satellite and zoom in to see its location just west of St John's church.

glenc (Glen) · #10 13-07-2009, 08:00 AM

These five men found most of the NGC and IC objects in the far southern sky.
Nicolas Lacaille 1751-1752 http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/n...s/lacaille.htm
James Dunlop in 1826 http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/n...ons/dunlop.htm
John Herschel 1834-1838 http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/n...herschel_j.htm
DeLisle Stewart 1898-1901 http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/n...ns/stewart.htm
Royal Frost 1903-1904 http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/n...sons/frost.htm
Stewart and Frost used photography to find IC objects. Here are their descriptions.
http://www.ngcicproject.org/Historic...94_P_85A5E.pdf

glenc (Glen) · #11 14-07-2009, 02:44 AM

citivolus (Ric) · #12 14-07-2009, 03:08 AM

Thanks for these Glen, I always appreciate the work you put into these lists.

glenc (Glen) · #13 14-07-2009, 09:00 AM

Thanks Ric.

Dunlop found these SMC objects.
NGCs 220, 222, 249, 261, 290, 294, 299, 306, 330, 346
IC 1611, NGCs 361, 371, 376, 395, 411, 416, 419
IC 1644, IC 1655, NGCs 456, 460, 458, 465, 602

Here is a magnificent image of the SMC by Jason Jennings.
http://cosmicphotos.com/gallery/imag...ld_album_id=12

Attached is a SkyMapPro map of the SMC.

glenc (Glen) · #14 14-07-2009, 09:33 AM

James Dunlop was the first person to catalogue objects in the two Magellanic Clouds. (132 in the LMC and 28 in the SMC)

This large (2.6MB) image labels objects in the LMC. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/LMCmosaicLabels.html
It was taken by Robert Gendler http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/LMCmosaic.html

Greg Bradley took this image of the LMC http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/106178773/large

glenc (Glen) · #15 17-07-2009, 05:59 AM

James Dunlop also included about a dozen asterisms, dark nebulae and star clouds in his catalogue.
Three examples are:
D362 Nor http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30869334145106
D559 CrA http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30798984253682
D605 Sco http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlo...30842359146562

glenc (Glen) · #16 12-01-2010, 09:23 AM

There is an interesting write up on NGC 6164-5 and NGC 5189 here: http://www.gemini.edu/node/188

erick (Eric) · #17 12-01-2010, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glenc

Here is a magnificent image of the SMC by Jason Jennings.
http://cosmicphotos.com/gallery/imag...ld_album_id=12

Good to be drawn back to this image - It is really magnificent! The highest resolution version is truly stunning! Makes me want to go searching this region all the more. Thanks Glen.

Lismore Bloke (Paul) · #18 12-01-2010, 04:19 PM

It makes me wonder whether very many people outside the astronomical community, professional and amateur, have heard of James Dunlop: "Didn't he make rubber tyres????"

He and other pioneering observers could do with a bit more recognition. I'm sure there is a nice little modern biography just waiting to be written.

Outbackmanyep · #19 12-01-2010, 10:17 PM

Hi Glen,
was James Dunlop cataloguing nebulae only or was he cataloguing in case of comets like Messier?

Kevnool (Kev) · #20 12-01-2010, 11:56 PM

You have done a wonderful job Glen compiling all this information.
It was good to go through it all.
Cheers Kev.