Historic NGC - Explanation
Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke
January 23, 2010
The Historic NGC is a special version of the NGC, based on research on the observers and their published observations done by the author over the past 10 years. The sources for each object were traced in the literature (inspecting thousands of papers). Only in a few cases (43 objects = 0.5%) a reference is missing. The Historic NGC is - for the first time - a complete compilation about discoverers, dates, instruments, references and cross identifications in other historic catalogues. It was first published on January 6, 2006. There is a continuous update. This latest revision adds and corrects some data.
See also the related files on the biographical data of the observers (with a large number of photos and object information) and the statistics of their discovery. The Historic NGC is available as zipped Excel file. The modern data of the NGC objects comes from my 2009 version of my Revised NGC. All information presented here is part of my scientific research. A printed version, titled "Obervation and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters - from Herschel to Dreyer's New General Catalogue" will be published in mid-2010 by Cambridge University Press (a german version is on the market since January 2009). Since 2008, the Historic IC is available.
All data are copyright by the author and, if used in a publication or in other datasets, must be credited properly (please inform me in any case).
Important note: The "Historically Corrected New General Catalogue" (HCNGC), first presented in April 2006 by the former NGC/IC Project member Bob Erdmann on the project website, is a mere copy of my Historic NGC of 2006 - including all its errors and uncorrected data. It is sad, that the necessary acknowledgment for using my data is not given there! The illegally presented "HCNGC" is incorrect and completely outdated and thus should not be used in any serious query! Hopefully it will soon be removed and substituted by my Historic NGC/IC data on the project website.
Columns in the Historic NGC
|
|
|
| NGC | Entry in original NGC |
| Discoverer | Name of discoverer |
| Y, M, D | Date of discovery; * or -1: entry in preceding column (Y, M) is only estimated |
| Ap | Aperture of telescope (inch) |
|
I
|
Type of instrument: Rl = Reflector, Rr = Refractor; E = naked eye |
|
T
|
Type of observation: v = visual, p = photographic, s = visual spectroscopy |
|
Observer1 & 2
|
Other (independent) discoverers; later findings |
|
Rekt, Decl
|
Position 2000.0 (as given in the Revised NGC) |
|
Vmag
|
Visual magnitude (as given in the Revised NGC - note that its revised magnitude system being not yet applied here) |
|
Con
|
Constellation (as given in the Revised NGC) |
|
Type
|
Object type (as given in the Revised NGC, but only roughly specified) |
|
S
|
Status of object (as given in the Revised NGC); see statistic table |
| M | Messier-Number |
| H | W. Herschel designation |
| h | J. Herschel number; 1...2306 = Slough catalogue; 2308...4021 = Cape catalogue |
| GC | Number in J. Herschel's "General Catalogue" (1...5079), or Dreyer's supplement (5080...6251) |
| Other | Other designations (e.g. Auwers, Dunlop, Lacaille) |
| ID1, ID2, ID3 | Double identifications in NGC/IC |
| List | Designation or number in lists given in the sources (primary S1, additionally S2) |
| S1, S2, S3 | Source; see reference table |