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Hershel lists - the 2500 and 400


25585

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I’m currently enjoying exploring the Herschel catalogue. Just over 400 out of ~2500 observed so far, roughly half of which are from the subset of 400. I’m using a 10" dob from a site with naked eye mag 5.5 visible on a good night at zenith (worse in the south). The objects in the Milky Way constellations on the wider 2500 list are highly recommended. I feel like the galaxies, even the bright ones, are a bit of a “tick and move on” from my main site though and would benefit a lot from a mag 6 to 6.5 site. Mark Bratton’s guide is superb.

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28 minutes ago, 25585 said:

James Mullaney who is mentioned in your link above produced a list of 615 Herschel objects for the Sky and Telescope in 1976. He  produced a useful book on this number which was published by Springer.

I have so far seen 397 of the 400 some of which are very difficult. Still outstanding NGC 2185, NGC 613 and NGC 3621 (at -32.49 Dec its really too low from home)

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  • 3 months later...

We really need some new lists specifically for the Northern and Southern hemispheres. A lot of the lower Herschel and Messier objects are just not visible in the UK, light pollution, low thick atmosphere...

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The UGC catalogue has nearly 13000 galaxies for northern observers. The majority of them are: >1.0' in diameter and <14.0 mag and > -2.5° in dec. [Those were the initial criteria for selection, but some modern measurements put them outside those specs.] So, in theory, from a dark site (if you can find such an animal), all visible in a 200/250mm scope. Would need something bigger to get all of them with any sort of skyglow ... you will have a better idea of how deep your own scope can go where you are located than I do.

But that list would probably keep you going for a season or two ...

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There are many different lists which can keep you occupied for years. I have nearly completed the Herschel 400 but have now commenced the 615 list starting at nought. In addition Steve O'Meara has produced some good lists with has the book so you can read about the DSO rather than just tick a box stating 'seen'.

Here is another example produced by the Canadian RAS - https://www.rasc.ca/finest-ngc-objects

https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/finestngc.pdf

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