NGC catalogue

[hickny (Peter)]

Is anybody aware of an online NGC catalogue containing RA and Dec for objects visible from Southern Latitudes ie Sydney (-33)?
Should have done a search first found what I was looking for here
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=1523

[Barrykgerdes]

I have not seen one but I did once write a filter program to read my list of NGC/IC items and sort them out by factors contained in the data base.
eg, galaxies, nebulae, clusters, asturisms, magnitude, visibility from a given latitude, size etc.

I must see if I still have it.

Barry

[luigi]

I was about to open a new thread about something similar so I'd better write here.

I'm looking for software (or a list) that would indicate the best day / time for a given object. (When it's higher in the sky).
For example if I want to take a photo of M31 from Buenos Aires when is the best time to do it? Etc.

I wonder if such a thing exists

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Have you tried AstroPlanner? http://www.ilangainc.com/astroplanner/

[Barrykgerdes]

I looked out the old filter program I mentioned before and have expanded it.
It will print out to a file all the total ngc/IC objects that are visible from a given location
It will also print out a smaller file that just lists the objects that are visible at a given time
It will print out the objects by type, size, magnitude in a given area. such as all items within say 40 degrees of the zenith etc.
Most of this info will need an extensive file. However the info can be displayed on the screen if it only contains 20 or 30 usefull objects.

It can display on the screen if the area is small.

It reads the 13226 items in the old NGC2000.dat file that I use with Stellarium

Is this what you want.

Barry

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by troypiggo

Have you tried AstroPlanner? http://www.ilangainc.com/astroplanner/

That's what I was going to suggest and is what I use

Very good software....recommend it.

[hickny (Peter)]

Barry, I had a look at the ngc2000.dat file in Stellarium but needed to check the manual on how to read it.
The list I downloaded http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=1523
allowed me to do what I wanted ie. an Excel program that would display Alt/Az for Messier and NGC objects given Latitude, Longitude, local time and the RA/DEC of the object.
I've written the Excel sheet but unfortunately even whenI WinZip it its too big to attach upload to IceInSpace.

I'd love to look at what you have.
How do I get it?

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Peter
I have been working on a simple program written in Qbasic and compiled to run as a stand alone program but it is not quite ready yet.
It is designed to print out a file of NGC/IC objects:-
All accessible from a given location
All visible at a given time
Objects selectable by type, size, magnitude in a given area
etc.
In fact it can be configured to select by any parameter that is contained in the ASCII version of the NGC2000.data file.
It will print a list to the screen of up to 21 objects from the total count (also displayed) but as there could be thousands it also writes them to a text file.

Bellow is a screen shot of the program display.

Barry

[hickny (Peter)]

Hi Barry,
That is impressive. From what I've been reading there is a market for this type of software.
Good luck with the coding.
Cheers

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Peter

I have got the program to work (?) see what it does.
It may have bugs because I have not given it any real testing

Barry

[hickny (Peter)]

Hi Barry,
Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to this link.
I have been trying to think of how to do exactly what you have done.
I found Astrohelper here http://casazza.net/astrohelper/

I am impressed with your effort. The challenge for me now is to work out how you did it.

I am waiting on a book I bought through Amazon...
"Astronomical Formulae for Calculators"
perhaps there will be something in it which may help.

By the way you program works on my Win7 32bit OS.
Thanks

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by hickny

Hi Barry,
Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to this link.
I have been trying to think of how to do exactly what you have done.
I found Astrohelper here http://casazza.net/astrohelper/

I am impressed with your effort. The challenge for me now is to work out how you did it.

I am waiting on a book I bought through Amazon...
"Astronomical Formulae for Calculators"
perhaps there will be something in it which may help.

By the way you program works on my Win7 32bit OS.
Thanks

Hi Peter
Did I give you the source code (Qbasic). The maths is all in there.
If you have a look at http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org and look in the observatory section you will find all the basic programs in Duffet.zip also a lot of other compiled astromomy programs from the source.

Barry

[astrospotter (Mark)]

The NGC/IC Project has a wealth of all NGC/IC objects and on the page below you can get complete catalog in assorted formats including spreadsheet formats.

http://www.ngcicproject.org/public_HCNGC/HCNGC.htm


Quite a few other catalogs including some that are specific to south skies are here on that same site:
http://www.ngcicproject.org/library.htm

The NGC/IC Project site is an amazing online reference with individual thumbnails and details on all NGC objects and a great many IC objects.

Hope this helps,
Mark

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Peter

I am going to write an extension to the program for users that are shielded by trees and buildings and can only view certain parts of the sky.

It will allow you to enter the Azm and alt of the area you can see and tell you what is visible in that area. It only needs adding the conversion algorithm.

Barry

[hickny (Peter)]

Barry, Mark
Thanks for the very useful links. I'll follow these up sometime soon.
Cheers
Peter