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Introduction |
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The List |
Sir William Herschel was the first
great amateur astronomer, and is still considered one of the
greatest observers of all time. It was natural that a deep sky
observation list selected to follow the Messier observation list of
"comet-like" objects be of some of the finest objects discovered and
catalogued by Herschel. Undertaking the observation of the
relatively small list of 400 of the over 2500 objects
discovered, described, studied and catalogued by Herschel
and his sister Caroline is an exercise in humility as well as
dedication for any amateur. (Of course, it is also a lot of fun!)
For detailed information on the Herschel 400 Deep Sky observing
list, please see the Web site of the
Astronomical League,
which administers the
Herschel 400 Club. |
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Herschel 400 Listing on
This Site |
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The Herschel 400 listing
provided here documents my own observations of the
deep sky objects in a series of 20 tables, each with 20 of the
objects, organized by
New General Catalog (NGC) number (see Index.)
The fields recorded include information
provided by the Astronomical League, including NGC number, object
type, constellation,
and visual magnitude. The League also provides information on the
size of many objects,
but this has been omitted for layout purposes. I have added
information on the Hubble
classification of anagalactic nebulae (galaxies) as provided in the
Atlas of the Heavens -
II by Antonin Becvar. This is useful for understanding the
descriptions of the galaxies.
For many of the objects, thumbnail versions of images from the NASA/IPAC
Extragalactic
Database (NED) are provided. I hope to begin including my own
sketches or photographs
of many of the objects.Information on the
observing locations, seeing conditions, equipment used, and
observing notes is provided on the
Equipment and Conditions page. |
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Index to the Observing Notes |
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The Challenge of the
Herschel 400 |
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Undertaking the Herschel 400 observing program will
require a telescope with an aperture
of at least 6 inches, a good basic selection of eyepieces and
filters (particularly an O-III filter),
access to a dark observing site for many of the difficult objects
(particularly the dimmer
diffuse nebulae in Orion and Monoceros), a great deal of
perseverance, accurate and
scrupulous note-taking and observation recording, and a minimum of
150-200 hours of
observing time. Many of the objects are difficult to see, even with
a relatively large
telescope, and will require a fair amount of observing skill -- at
least of the level required
to observe and record all of the Messier objects.
I've found my
Celestron G-9.25 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope to be an excellent
all-
around instrument for undertaking the Herschel 400. It provides
plenty of aperture,
advantageous focal length for high power observations of small
planetary nebulae and
dim galaxies, and excellent optics. The 80-85% light
transmission of the stock
Celestron 1-1/4-in star diagonal is a limiting element in the optical train
for this telescope.
Upgrade to a 98-99% transmission di-electric mirror diagonal is
highly recommended. |
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©
2003, Darrell M. Dodge |
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