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Who discovered the best Deep Sky Objects?
Who found the 100 largest globular clusters in the whole sky?
Six men found more than 2 of them.
1 Sir William Herschel found 33 from Slough, England
2 James Dunlop found 21 from Parramatta, NSW
3 Charles Messier found 15 from Paris, France
4 Sir John Herschel found 5 from Cape Town, South Africa
5 Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille found 4 from Cape Town, South Africa
5 Pierre Mechain found 4 from Paris, France
Who found the 200 largest NGC galaxies in the whole sky?
1 Sir William Herschel found 107 from Slough, England
2 James Dunlop found 20 from Parramatta, NSW
3 Pierre Mechain found 16 from Paris, France
4 Sir John Herschel found 15 from Cape Town, South Africa
5 Charles Messier found 8 from Paris, France
The other 34 large galaxies were found by 23 people.
Most of the southern NGC and IC clusters, nebulae and galaxies were found by 6 people.
The Frenchman Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (1713-1762) made the first catalogue of southern non-stellar objects from Cape Town in 1751 and 1752 with a 0.5” aperture (1.3cm) refractor. He discovered 22 open clusters, 4 globular clusters, 2 nebulae (NGCs 2070 and 3372) and the galaxy M83.
The Scot James Dunlop (1793-1848) made the second catalogue of southern non-stellar objects from Parramatta, NSW in 1826 with a 9” aperture (23cm) speculum reflector. He discovered 134 open clusters, 44 globular clusters, 61 nebulae, 4 planetary nebulae and 53 galaxies. His catalogue contains most of the bright southern deep-sky objects.
Englishman Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) made the third catalogue of southern non-stellar objects from Cape Town in the years 1834 to 1838 with his father’s 18.5” aperture (47cm) speculum reflector. He discovered 229 open clusters, 15 globular clusters, 55 nebulae, 16 planetary nebulae and 688 galaxies.
The final southern non-stellar catalogues were made by Williamina Fleming, DeLisle Stewart and Royal Frost at Arequipa, Peru with an 8” and a 24” refractor using photography between 1893 and 1907.
Stewart found 148 objects including 131 galaxies.
Fleming found 30 nebulae including 16 PN.
Frost discovered 19 objects including 15 galaxies.
Last edited by glenc; 07-11-2022 at 09:01 AM.
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