|
In his defence, Patrick Moore has done a lot to popularise astronomy. Some of his books are useful and interesting e.g. Atlas of the Universe, which is quite extensive. His Caldwell catalogue of 109 objects has no Messier objects and was an attempt to list a selection of the best all-sky objects. Re-listing objects as C1, C2... when they already had common names (e.g. NGC numbers) was seen as somewhat egotistical.
The catalogue was probably somewhat rushed. If he hadn't already numbered the objects, he could have modified the list to be more consistent e.g. brightness.
However, taken as an observing list it has its uses.
Regards, Rob.
|