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Loading contentA catalogue of nearly 8,000 deep-sky objects.
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How New General Catalogue (NGC) connects across Asteria Star — scientific, cultural, and astrological links are kept separate.
A large emission nebula in Cygnus whose shape resembles the continent of North America.
An emission nebula and star-forming region in Orion, near the star Alnitak.
Part of the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant in Cygnus also known as the Witch's Broom Nebula.
A bipolar planetary nebula in Scorpius with one of the hottest known central stars.
A complex planetary nebula in the constellation Draco, one of the first to be studied with a spectroscope.
A large emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros surrounding a young open star cluster.
A giant elliptical galaxy in Virgo whose supermassive black hole was the first to be directly imaged.
A bright barred spiral starburst galaxy in the constellation Sculptor.
An edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices noted for its slender, needle-like profile.
A prominent radio galaxy in Centaurus, one of the closest active galaxies to Earth.
A barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Eridanus with a striking central bar structure.
A double-barred spiral galaxy in the Fornax Cluster, in the constellation Fornax.
Spectroscopy and photography turned telescopes into instruments of astrophysics, revealing what stars are made of.
The New General Catalogue and its two Index Catalogue supplements, compiled by J. L. E. Dreyer from the visual discoveries of the Herschels and their successors. Together the NGC and IC number nearly 13,000 galaxies, clusters, and nebulae and remain the most widely used designations for deep-sky objects.
A catch-all term for any object beyond the Solar System that is neither a single star nor a planet — the star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies that fill catalogues from Messier to the NGC. Deep-sky objects are the classic targets of the amateur telescope and the workhorses of stellar and galactic astrophysics.
A free, open-source sky-charting program (also known as SkyChart) that draws detailed star charts from a choice of catalogues for any time and place, with strong support for telescope control and finder charts. It is a long-standing favourite for planning deep-sky observing.
Two catalogues compiled by George Abell. The 1958 catalogue of rich clusters of galaxies — later extended southward — became the standard reference for galaxy clusters, listing thousands of the densest concentrations in the Universe. Separately, Abell catalogued 86 large, faint planetary nebulae. Objects carry an 'Abell' number in both.
The star catalogue embedded in Ptolemy's Almagest, listing over a thousand stars in 48 constellations with positions and magnitudes. It built on Hipparchus's earlier catalogue and defined the classical sky for centuries.
The first systematic catalogue of dark nebulae, compiled by Edward Emerson Barnard from his pioneering photographs of the Milky Way. The 1919 list of 182 objects was later extended to 370; each 'B' object is a cloud of interstellar dust silhouetted against the star fields behind it, such as B33, the Horsehead Nebula.
The great pre-photographic survey of the northern sky, carried out under Friedrich Argelander at Bonn and published from 1863. It recorded positions and magnitudes for about 325,000 stars to roughly ninth magnitude — the most comprehensive star catalogue of its era — and its 'BD' designations remain in use for naked-eye and telescopic stars today.
A list of 109 bright deep-sky objects compiled by the British amateur astronomer Sir Patrick Moore to complement the Messier Catalogue, which it deliberately avoids duplicating. Ordered by declination and spanning both hemispheres, it gathers showpiece galaxies, clusters, and nebulae — such as the Hyades and NGC 869/884 — that Messier omitted. Objects carry a 'C' number.
The catalogues from ESA's Gaia mission, mapping the positions, distances, motions, and brightnesses of nearly two billion stars.
Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.
Official naming, definitions, constellation boundaries, and astronomical nomenclature.