Deep Sky collections and catalogs similar to Messier's

Besides the more comprehensive professional catalogs which came into use after Messier's list, several similar lists have been compiled, first because Messier had not captured all showpieces even in the Northern skies (he simply cataloged what came into his field of view, more or less by chance, and what he could measure), and he never went to the Southern hemisphere (not even to latitudes south of Paris, which is at about 49 degrees Northern latitude). This lack of completeness, connected with a certain arbitrariness, gave rise to several people to fill in with similar object collections, although these are not of the same importance in history. Some of these catalogs are available online and listed below:

• Several smaller catalogs of historical importance are given in our History of Deep Sky Discovery page; this includes Halley's 6-object catalog. We also hold some of the other historical catalogs; some of them may still be interesting for amateur workthrough.
• Lacaille's "Catalog of Nebulae of the Southern Sky" may be of special interest due to its historical relevance (also available as ascii file). We also have a copy of the original Lacaille catalog (as reprinted in an appendix of Messier's Catalog) online.
• Historical Deep Sky Objects: List of all 152 Deep Sky Object discovered before William Herschel began his extensive survey in September, 1782, in various formats
• James Dunlop's Catalog of southern Deep Sky Objects, compiled 1823-27.
• The Jack Bennett Catalog of Southern Deep-Sky Objects (also available as plain ascii file), which was contributed by Auke Slotegraaf; thanks !
• The Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) has compiled a list of the 110 best NGC objects not in Messier's catalog. Also note the original list by A.J. Crayon and Steve Coe; it is also available as inexpensive booklet (info). This list was contributed by Paul Dickson, editor of the SACnews newsletter.
• The Messier Plus Marathon List (also available as ascii file): Wally Brown and Bob Buckner have compiled a list of 110 Deep Sky objects (75 Messiers, 34 NGCs, 1 Brocchi) suitable for a 1-night marathon session around September each year, the Messier Plus Marathon. Messier Plus marathons have been held first by the Saguaro Astronomy Club of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1981 and 1982, the list was contributed by AJ Crayon.
• John Caldwell's "Best Sky Objects from SAAO Latitude. List of deep sky objects and double/multiple stars for Southern observers. Contributed by Willie Koorts. [ascii file]
• Glen Cozens from New South Wales, Australia, has compiled a list of 110 DEEP-SKY HIGH LIGHTS (also available as ascii file).
• Patrick Moore's Caldwell Catalog: Choose between our Linked Object List or the (unlinked) Original Caldwell Catalog at Sky Online
• The German yearbook, Ahnert's Kalender für Sternfreunde, has compilations of very easy deepsky objects (suitable for 2-inch telescopes), especially useful for school and public demonstrations. These lists of a total of 42 Northern deepsky showpieces is now available online.
• Ben Crowell has created Binosky, a compilation of 31 Deep Sky Objects suited for binocular observing. We have a list of the Binosky objects.
• The American Association of Amateur Astronomers has created a List of Deep Sky Objects (and double and variable stars) for Northern hemisphere observers living in urban regions: The AAAA Urban Astronomy Club List of Objects. This list is presented here crosslinked to the object pages in our Messier Catalog Online Database; also note their (unlinked) original list.
• The Albuquerque Astronomical Society (TAAS) has created TAAS 200, a list of "the best 200 non Messier objects easily visible from central New Mexico" (objects north of declination -48). This list was intended for intermediately experienced and equipped observes.
• The East Valley Astronomy Club of Scottsdale, Arizona offers the EVAC 200 program for observing 200 non_messier deepsky objects thought as follow-up for Messier object observers. These objects are all north of Dec -52.
• The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) has published several useful observing lists in their yearly Observer's Handbook, edited by Roy L. Bishop:
  • Messier Catalog, ordered by Season of observation, by Alan Dyer [also available as ascii file]
  • The Finest NGC Objects, list of 110, by Alan Dyer
  • Deep Sky Challenge Objects, list of 45 more difficult objects, including non-NGC/IC objects, by Alan Dyer and Alister Ling
• The Astronomical League has provided extra observing tours beyond the Messier objects for binocular observers, each one for Northern and Southern Deep Sky Objects (and observers); we have linked copies of the object lists to our pages here:
  • Binocular Deep Sky observing beyond Messier (Northern objects) [ AL's original Binocular Deep Sky Club page]
  • Southern Sky Binocular Club: Deep Sky observing in the Southern Sky [ AL's original Southern Sky Binocular Club page]
  • They also provide their famous Binocular Messier Club, granting certificates for hunting down the Messier catalog with binoculars [ AL's original Binocular Messier Club page].
• The Hawaii Astronomical Society has compiled a Beyond Messier and Caldwell list of more challenging Deep Sky objects
• The astronomical computer program Ephem, an ephemeris calculator, provides a database containing various Solar System objects, stars, all Messier and 27 other Deep Sky Objects. Here is the list of (the 27 other) Deep Sky Objects from the Ephem program. [You can download Ephem 4.28 for OS/2 here]
• The Observatorio ARVAL (Venezuela) has made their ARVAL Catalog of Bright Objects available online; it consists of the following parts:
  • The ARVAL Catalog of Guide Stars
  • The ARVAL Catalog of Bright Open Clusters
  • The ARVAL Catalog of Bright Globular Clusters
  • The ARVAL Catalog of Bright Galaxies
  • The ARVAL Catalog of Bright Nebulae
  • The ARVAL Catalog of Bright Planetary Nebulae
• Erich Karkoschka, in his Atlas für Himmelsbeobachter, lists 250 Deep Sky Objects well observable by amateurs.
• The more advanced amateur may try more and other objects, e.g. Herschel's catalog, which is available online thanks to Bill Arnett.
• Boyd Edwards has compiled a big observing list of 884 deep sky objects, which he has collected from the Messier catalog, the Caldwell catalog, the Herschel 400 list of the AL, Burnham (all objects with long description), A. Dyer's 110 "Finest" NGC objects (Observers Handbook 1996), and objects discussed in Sky & Telescope. For more detail, read Boyd's Explanatory Notes.
• Tom Hoffelder, one of the inventors of the Messier Marathon, has compiled an observing list of 1000 Deep Sky objects which he has named "The Magnificient 1000". We have here a description and the list. Tom has hunted down all but NGC 2253 and 1663 with an 8-inch SC.
• The Webb Society, in their famous Deep-Sky Observer's Handbook Vol. 2, 3, and 4, has provided a numbered catalog of 700 deep-sky objects (nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies). This catalog excludes the bright Virgo Cluster galaxies, which are treated in their Vol. 5 (Clusters of Galaxies).
• Ronald J. Morales has published The Amateur Astronomer's Catalog of 500 Deep-Sky Objects
• Roger N. Clark's book, Visual Astronomy of the Deep Sky, contains an atlas of 90 and a catalog of 611 deep sky objects visible for better equipped amateurs.
• Some historic observing lists, mostly from the 19th century, which may still be suited as observing lists, include
  • Admiral William H. Smyth, The Bedford Catalogue: From A Cycle of Celestial Objects, 1844. We have a list of his 850 objects online (besides deepsky objects, this contains stars and multiple stars)
  • Rev. T.W. Webb. Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, 1859.
• Finally, some hardcore-observers may like to track down the whole NGC and IC catalog by J.L.E. Dreyer:
  • Bill Arnett has provided a NGC Webpage linking the more important NGC and IC web resources, including a dictionary for Dreyer's description code.
  • The present author has provided an interactive online NGC (and IC) catalog, based on Sky Publishing's famous NGC 2000.0 database.
  • The NGC/IC Project maintains an online database of various versions of the NGC and IC catalogs, corrections to the catalogs, and observations of the NGC and IC deepsky objects. You may contribute your observations to their database, and generate your own observing list interactively from their facilities.

Objects, especially those which are fainter and less suited for amateur observations, are often designated by catalog numbers from professional catalogs; look at a list of some common deep sky catalogs.

If you know of further collections of Deep Sky objects suited for amateur observing (or "work-thru"), please notify me.

Last Modification: February 8, 1998