111 Bright NGC Objects

[glenc]

Are you looking for impressive images of deep-sky objects?
Here are some web sites to try, apart from IIS of course.
They are from page 3 of 111 Bright NGC Objects (not Messier).
See the latest articles on the left to download the list.

Some images are at:

http://canopus.physik.uni-potsdam.de/~axm/images.html
http://jthommes.com/Astro/index.htm
http://starmatt.com/
http://users.westconnect.com.au/~sjastro/small/
http://www.astrocruise.com/index.htm#Image%20Gallery
http://www.astroimages.com/index.html
http://www.astrosurf.com/antilhue/index.htm
http://www.astroworks.com/gallery/ST2000GAL/index.htm
http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/index.html
http://www.capella-observatory.com/
http://www.celestialimage.com/
http://www.ewellobservatory.com/
http://www.ngcic.org/dss/dss_ngc.asp
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/bestof.html
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/
http://www.skylab.com.au/pmsa/
http://www.southernskyphoto.com/index.html
http://www.telescopes.cc/default.htm

[glenc]

After you download the list of 111 NGC objects you need to click on data, filter, and autofilter. You can then choose objects by const, type, Vmag, dec, month etc To remove the filter click data, filter, show all.

At the moment the Sun is at RA 11 so you can't see objects in that area unless they are near the south celestial pole. If you choose month, custom, is greater than or equal to 4 you will get a list of objects visible before midnight. Objects north of dec +55 have a blank in the month column as they are not visible for most of us. If you live in northern Australia you need to put numbers in some of the blanks.

[glenc]

Most of the 111 Bright NGC Objects were found by the following 5 men.

Discoverer, Number of objects
William Herschel 40
James Dunlop 30
Nicolas Lacaille 13
John Herschel 6
Edward Barnard 4

5 others found 2 objects each and 8 found 1 each.

John Herschel only found 211 of Dunlop’s 629 clusters and nebulae.
What happened to the other 418 objects?

Herschel was disappointed because he thought “the cream of the southern hemisphere had already been skimmed” by Dunlop, according to Agnes Clerke (1901, p.160)

[glenc]

The coords for NGC 1977 should be 5h35m18s -4d49m.

[glenc]

The low surface brightness galaxy NGC 6744 and the bright globular cluster NGC 6752 are 3d50m apart in the sky. They transit around 7pm now.

In 1826 Dunlop described N6744 as:
A pretty large very faint nebula, about 5’ or 6’ diameter, slightly bright towards the centre; a minute star is north of the nebula, and two stars of the 7th magnitude preceding .
He described N6752 as:
A pretty large and very bright nebula, 5’ or 6’ diameter, irregular round figure, easily resolved into a cluster of small stars, exceedingly compressed at the centre. The bright part at the centre is occasioned by a group of stars of some considerable magnitude when compared with those of the nebula. I am inclined to think that this may be two clusters in the same line; the bright part is a little south of the centre of the large nebula.

The map below is from SkyMapPro.

[glenc]

15 of the 111 Bright NGC Objects are Spring objects.
They are best seen at around 10pm in September, October and November.
The 15 are:

NGC Con Type
7000 Cyg Neb North America Nebula
7009 Aqr PN Saturn Nebula
7027 Cyg PN
7293 Aqr PN Helix Nebula
7331 Peg Gxy
7662 And PN
7793 Scl Gxy
55 Scl Gxy near 7793 and 300
104 Tuc GC 47 Tuc next to SMC
247 Cet Gxy has low surface brightness
253 Scl Gxy pair with 288.
288 Scl GC
300 Scl Gxy
346 SMC Neb between 330 and 371
362 Tuc GC near 346

The SkyMapPro map (55 247) shows 6 of these.
http://www.skymap.com/

[glenc]

NGC 7000-the North America nebula is not a difficult object. It is visible in 20x80 binoculars without a filter. In a 10" Dob, at low power with a UHC filter, the east coast of North America contrasts with the adjacent dark area. The Mexico part is easy to see. Part of the Pelican nebula is also visible in a 10".
The attached image is from Desktop Universe. (http://www.cyanogen.com/products/dtu_main.htm)
It also shows the small bright planetary nebuale NGC 7027 which is 2 degrees from the southern tip of N7000.

[gaa_ian]

That is a great series of lists Glen
I will have to use some of them for our Astro Camp next W/E.
We should have true dark skies.
The Nth America Nebula has eluded me so far !
I even looked for it in the 18" ?
Found the Cygnus loop easy, it is quite bright, but not the Nth America Neb.

[glenc]

Try low power with a small scope and a UHC filter on N7000.
Its big, you can only see bits at a time. I usually start with the two stars in the Pelican neb and move over the dark lane to N7000, then down the east coast and around the gulf of Mexico area. Also try 20x80 binocs, they show it.

[johnno]

Hi Glen,

My thanks also for the lists,much appreciated.

All the best.
Regards.
John

[gaa_ian]

Thanks Glen
I have a good set of pentax 16x60's, I will give then a try !

[glenc]

In the list of 111 Bright NGC objects there are references to nearby objects, IC 5332 is one of these. It seems likely that James Dunlop found the galaxy IC 5332 in 1826 but John Herschel missed it. Here is Dunlop's description.

D546 (IC 5332 mag 11.1)
An extremely feeble nebula, ill-defined; it appears rather elongated oblique to the equator; it is north following a star of the 7th magnitude (m7.3), and also north of the small stars. 1 observation.
() not in the original.

D546 is 1 degree south of IC5332 but the description matches ok.
Did Dunlop see it? What do you think?

[glenc]

Looked at IC 5332 (mag 11.1) and NGC 7713 (mag 11.6) this morning with my 10". Dunlop's description for IC5332 is ok but it is very faint. Not sure if he saw it or not. NGC7713 was slightly easier to see than IC5332 due to a higher surface brightness.

[CoombellKid]

Was doing baby duties this morning, and must admit being a lil disapointed
I hadn't setup the scope the night before. It was lovely here this morning.
A bit of star twinkle near the horizon though.

regards,CS suuny days

Rob

PS: I have so many lists I'm not sure which ones to start!!!

[glenc]

These 28 objects are visible in December, January and February at about 10pm. They come from the list of 111 NGC objects.

NGC Const Type Discoverer
1261 Hor GC James Dunlop
1269 Eri Gxy James Dunlop
1313 Ret Gxy James Dunlop
1316 For Gxy James Dunlop
1360 For PN Lewis Swift
1365 For Gxy James Dunlop
1399 For Gxy John Herschel
1435 Tau Neb Wilhelm Tempel
1499 Per Neb Edward Barnard
1535 Eri PN William Herschel
1553 Dor Gxy James Dunlop
1566 Dor Gxy James Dunlop
1851 Col GC James Dunlop
1931 Aur Neb William Herschel
1977 Ori Neb William Herschel
2024 Ori Neb William Herschel
2070 LMC Neb Nicolas Lacaille
2174 Ori Neb Edouard Stephan
2237 Mon Neb Lewis Swift
2301 Mon OC William Herschel
2359 CMa Neb William Herschel
2362 CMa OC Giovanni Hodierna
2392 Gem PN William Herschel
2440 Pup PN William Herschel
2467 Pup Neb William Herschel
2477 Pup OC Nicolas Lacaille
2516 Car OC Nicolas Lacaille
2547 Vel OC Nicolas Lacaille