Thread: Some Lists
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Old 08-07-2008, 09:57 AM
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glenc (Glen)
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Terranora
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2500 Herschel objects!

William Herschel observed nearly 2500 objects from Slough near London between 1783 and 1802 with his 18.5" aperture telescope.
Here is the list: http://education.gsu.edu/spehar/FOCU...cellaneous.htm
The Herschel 400 list is also included on the Herschel 2500.xls spreadsheet.

For more information on William Herschel see http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/Bios/wherschel.html
I like this bit " On December 7, 1781, the day of his election to the Royal Society, his friend, William Watson, presented a copy of Messier's (and Méchain's) Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters to William. This catalog stimulated his interest in clusters and nebulae. At that time, he had only observed four nebulae: The Orion Nebula together with its companion M43 (1774), globular cluster M13 in Hercules (1779), and the Andromeda "Nebula" M31 (1780). In August 1782, he started to investigate Messier's objects with his superior telescopes; his first observation was that of globular cluster M5 in Serpens. Soon, he "surmised" (to say it in his own words), "that several nebulae might yet remain undiscovered.""
Several turned out to be a couple of thousand.

Last edited by glenc; 08-07-2008 at 10:20 AM.
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