"Historic WH" - Explanation
Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke
6 January 2012
The "Historic WH" contains the three catalogues of William Herschel, published 1786-1802, with altogether 2500 entries:
1. Catalogue of one thousand new nebulae and clusters of stars. Phil. Trans. 76 , 457–499 (1786)
2. Catalogue of a
second thousand new nebulae and clusters of stars. Phil. Trans. 79, 212–255 (1789)
3. Catalogue of 500 new nebulae, nebulous stars, planetary nebulae, and clusters of stars. Phil. Trans. 92, 477–528 (1802)
The objects in my file are sorted by Herschel's eight classes and the running number within (see explanation of columns below). Click here for download (zipped xls-File). All information presented here is part of my scientific research. My book "Obervation and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters - from Herschel to Dreyer's New General Catalogue" contains more information about this data. It has been published in August 2010 (see here; a german version is on the market since January 2009).
Additionally there is a list of the 15 objects, added later to the Herschel catalogues by John Herschel and Dreyer, respectively. Click here for download (xls-File). The columns of this file are explained below.
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). Please inform the author about any errors found in the dataset.
Columns in the "Historic WH"
|
|
|
| Class | Herschel-class (1 = I ... 8 = VIII) |
| No | Running number in each class |
| H | Herschel designation (class & number) |
| Cat | Herschel-catalogue (1, 2 or 3) which contains the object |
| Y, M, D | Date of Herschel's discovery |
| Obs | Site of Herschel's discovery (D = Datchet, C = Clay Hall, S = Slough) |
| Identity | Identity with other H-number (or other designation) |
| R | Identity-flag: 1 = object more than once in Herschel-catalogues ("H-identity"), 2 = object more than once in NGC ("NGC-identity"), 3 = mixed case |
| N | Catalogue identifier: N = NGC, I = IC (only one object: IC 434 = V 35) |
| NI | NGC- or IC-number |
| h | No. in J. Herschel's Slough and Cape Catalogues |
| GC | No. in J. Herschel's General Catalogue |
| Discoverer | Name of discoverer (and date if not W. Herschel) |
| Ap | Aperture of discovery telescope (inch) |
|
I
|
Type of discovery instrument: Rl = Reflector, Rr = Refractor |
|
Observer
|
Independent (later) discoverer |
|
RH ... DS
|
Rect. & Decl. for 2000.0 (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Vmag
|
Visual magnitude (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Con
|
Constellation (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Type
|
Object type (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
S
|
Status of object; S=1: galaxy, S=2: galactic nebula, S=3: planetary nebula, S=4: star cluster, S=5: globular cluster, S=6: part of nebula, S=9: star(s), S=10: not found |
| ID1, ID2, ID3 | Messier-number; double identifications in NGC/IC |
Columns in the file of added Herschel objects
|
|
|
| H | Added Herschel designation (class, number and suffix) |
| Y, M, D | Date of Herschel's discovery |
| Obs | Site of Herschel's discovery (D = Datchet, C = Clay Hall, S = Slough) |
| Other | Other designation |
| Src | Source: HON = Herschel omitted object, H. MS = Herschel manuscript, SC = Slough catalogue, GC = General catalogue, D = Dreyer |
| NGC | NGC-number |
| h | No. in J. Herschel's Slough and Cape Catalogues |
| GC | No. in J. Herschel's General Catalogue |
| Discoverer | Name of discoverer (and date if not W. Herschel) |
|
Observer
|
Independent (later) discoverer |
|
RH ... DS
|
Rect. & Decl. for 2000.0 (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Vmag
|
Visual magnitude (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Con
|
Constellation (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Type
|
Object type (from Revised NGC/IC) |