Who discovered the bright NGC and IC objects?

[Glen C]

 Please see the next post 

Edited January 13 by Glen C

[Glen C]

Posting this again because the first post has black lines across it

James Dunlop (1793-1848) has not been mentioned in this forum, I think he deserves to be. 

I made a list of the brightest 100 open clusters, 100 globular clusters, 100 planetary nebulae larger that 11” and 200 galaxies in the NGC and IC catalogues. 

Who discovered these 500 objects?

100 brightest Open Clusters
Number found, Name
28 William Herschel with an 18.5” speculum reflector
16 Nicolas-Louis de La Caille with a 0.5” refractor 
10 James Dunlop with a 9” speculum reflector
10 John Herschel with an 18.5” speculum reflector
10 Giovanni Battista Hodierna with a small refractor
 6 Charles Messier with a 3.5” refractor
14 others found 5 or less of these 100 OC 

100 brightest Globular Clusters
34 William Herschel
24 Dunlop
15 Messier
15 others found 5 or less of these 100 GC (John Herschel 3)

100 brightest Planetary Nebulae larger than 11 arc secs
31 William Herschel
17 John Herschel
16 Williamina Fleming using spectra and photos
17 others found 5 or less of these 100 PN (Dunlop 3, Messier 2)

200 brightest Galaxies
109 William Herschel
26 Dunlop
18 Pierre Mechain with a 3.0” refractor
14 John Herschel
10 Messier
15 others found 5 or less of these 200 galaxies

Nebulae are not included because their magnitudes are not available in many cases.

The four main discoverers of these 500 bright NGC and IC objects were William Herschel (271 from Slough, UK), James Dunlop (63 from Parramatta, NSW), John Herschel (44 from Slough and Cape Town) and Charles Messier  (33 from Paris). The two Herschels and Messier are famous,  Dunlop is not. He observed from the back of 91 Marsden St. Parramatta, NSW, Australia in 1826 with a homemade 9” reflector.

The above data is from Dr Wolfgang Steinicke
http://www.klima-luf...cic/ngcic_e.htm

 

[Bugdozer]

Quite a few things seem to have been found by Guillaume Le Gentil (which I think translates as "William the Polite", doesn't it? Olly?) 

[Glen C]

If you count all the clusters, all the nebulae and galaxies brighter than magnitude 13 in both the NGC and IC catalogues the results are: 

1714 were found by William Herschel with an 18.5” speculum reflector in the UK
1068 were found by John Herschel with an 18.5” speculum reflector in the UK and at the Cape
278 were found by James Dunlop with a 9” speculum reflector in Australia 
197 were found by Lewis Swift, most of them with a 16" refractor in the USA
130 were found by DeLisle Stewart on photos made with a 24" refractor in Peru and 
104 were found by Edouard Stephan with a 31" Foucault reflector in France

The remaining 97 observers found less than 80 objects each.  

The above data is from Dr Wolfgang Steinicke
http://www.klima-luf...cic/ngcic_e.htm

 

[Vox45]

On 13/01/2024 at 21:41, Bugdozer said:

Quite a few things seem to have been found by Guillaume Le Gentil (which I think translates as "William the Polite", doesn't it? Olly?) 

*
That would be "William The Nice Guy" in today's term. But in that period "Gentil" (from the Latin "Gentillis") would translate to "noble", "social elite"; Gentilhomme (Gentleman)

[Glen C]

There are more than 300 DSO in Dunlop's 1826 catalogue of southern clusters and nebulae.

Here is a list of 150 DSO from his catalogue. Thirty-three of these were found by other observers.

 

Dunlop_150.pdf

[Glen C]

It is interesting to compare the Herschel's 18.5" speculum reflector with Lewis Swift's 16" refractor. 

Swift's magnitude limit for galaxies was about 1 mag fainter. 

Edited January 21 by Glen C