New General Catalogue

New General Catalogue (NGC)
Spiral Galaxy NGC 3982 displays numerous spiral arms filled with bright stars, blue star clusters, and dark dust lanes. It spans about 30,000 light years, lies about 68 million light years from Earth and can be seen with a small telescope in the constellation of Ursa Major.
Organization	William Herschel at the Dunsink Observatory of the Royal Astronomical Society
Data sources	William Herschel Birr Castle telescope Dunsink Observatory (revised by Sulentic and Tifft)
Goals	Survey of non-stellar objects
Data products	NGC Catalogue
Website Revised New General Catalogue

The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (NGC) is a well-known catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy. It contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. The NGC is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies.

History

The catalogue was compiled during the 1880s by J. L. E. Dreyer using observations from William Herschel and his son John, among others. Dreyer had already published an update to the Herschel's Catalogue of Nebulae, but a new update was refused by the Royal Astronomical Society, who asked Dreyer to compile a New General Catalogue. This catalogue was published in 1888.^[1] The NGC was later expanded with two Index Catalogues (IC I in 1896 & IC II in 1905), adding a further 5,386 objects. Most of these later discoveries had been made possible by photography.

Objects in the sky of the southern hemisphere are catalogued somewhat less thoroughly, but many were observed by John Herschel or James Dunlop. The NGC had many errors, but a serious if not complete attempt to eliminate them has been initiated by The NGC/IC Project, after partial attempts with the Revised New General Catalog (RNGC) by Sulentic and Tifft in 1973, and NGC2000.0 by Sinnott in 1988.

The NGC was published in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society as "A New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, being the Catalogue of the late Sir John F.W. Herschel, Bart., revised, corrected, and enlarged." (Dreyer J. L. E., 1888, Mem. R. Astron. Soc., 49, 1-237).^[2]

See also

• List of NGC objects
• Catalogue of Nebulae
• General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters
• Index Catalogue
• Revised New General Catalogue
• Revised Index Catalogue
• Category:NGC objects
• Category:IC objects

External links

• The Interactive NGC Catalog, SEDS
• The Amateur Photographic NGC Catalog
• The NGC/IC Project
• Adventures in Deep Space: Challenging Observing Projects for Amateur Astronomers.

References

1. ^ Bradt, Hale (2004). Astronomy Methods: A Physical Approach to Astronomical Observations. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 52. ISBN 978-0-521-53551-9. 
2. ^ Dreyer, J. L. E. (1888). "A New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, being the Catalogue of the late Sir John F.W. Herschel, Bart., revised, corrected, and enlarged.". Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society 49: 1–237. Bibcode 1888MmRAS..49....1D.