Herschel
400, The Beginning
At
this very moment, there are no Messier objects in the night sky that
I haven't seen or imaged. There is also very few nights when it has
been clear enough to do either view or image, but on the nights that
are clearer, I would like to have something to be looking for or at.
One
of the usual lists that amateur astronomers start on after the
Messier list (which is about 110 objects) is the much dimmer Herschel
list. One of the lists, anyway. The Herschels found thousands of
galaxies, nebulae, and start clusters that they put in their
catalogs. The list of 400 was compiled around 1980 by a group from
the Ancient City Astronomy Club in St. Augustine Florida. Since there
is some overlap with the Messier catalog, including last night (the
18th) I have imaged 33 of the 400. Of the targets that are
not primarily nebula, I'm going to image them in black and white. So,
last night I imaged about 10 in about an hour (actually 11, since one
image contains 2). All from last night were either globular clusters
or open clusters. All were in the constellation of Sagittarius, and
are about ½ of the targets in Sagittarius.
For
more information on the list and to know what's on it see
Since Sagittarius is in the Milky Way, expect to see lots of stars and star clouds.
 |
| NGC6544 globular cluster |
 |
| NGC6440 globular cluster |
|
 |
| NGC6520 Open cluster. Notice dark nebula to left of cluster. |
The dark nebula in image above is Barnard 86. The Barnard catalog is a catalog of dark nebulae.
 |
| NGC6522 Middle, NGC6528 to right, both globular clusters. |
 |
| NGC6540 Open cluster (in the center) |
 |
| NGC6553 Globular cluster |
 |
| NGC6569 Globular cluster |
 |
| NGC6624 Globular cluster |
No comments:
Post a Comment