Northern Hemisphere only targets?

[JB80]

Hi all,

I have decided that I want to start keeping an observers log to keep some kind of catalogue of what I have been looking at and it got me thinking of what are the targets only available in the Northern hemisphere?

I know something like Crux is a mainly Southern target although can be seen just North of the equator but you get the idea.

So I figure that it would be nice to see some of the Northern targets while I can as I might not get a chance for a while if we ever decide to move.

Are there any good lists that have Northern targets? I know things like M81, M82, M52 and M103 but I don't want to limit it to just the Messier objects.

Jarrod

[jinstan]

I am not aware of those lists but you may sort by the DEC on a general list containing both hemispheres.

Br,

Jinsong

[acey]

Depends what you mean by "northern". Do you mean objects above the celestial equator (ie above declination zero), or objects down to your horizon? For example, suppose you live at latitude 50 degrees north. Then you can see objects down to declination -40. If you're at 60 degrees north then you can see down to -30 (in general it's latitude-minus-90). In practice you're unlikely to see anything less than 5 degrees above your theoretical horizon, so to be realistic make it latitude-minus-85.

In either case, take any observing list (e.g. Messier, Caldwell, Herschel 400) and truncate it to the required declination. Caldwell is particularly easy for this since the numbering is done by declination, working downwards from 90. Or you could download the whole NGC as an Excel spreadsheet and truncate to your horizon (which is what I've done for my own observing list).

Spreadsheets are available here:

http://astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/catalogs.htm

http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/index_e.htm

http://www.synapticsystems.com/sky/messier.html

http://www.nexstarsite.com/Book/DSO.htm