A few years ago, I completed my decades-long project to observe the objects discovered by William Herschel. As part of that effort, I compiled the attached spreadsheet that contains extensive data on the Herschel objects.? It occurs to me that it may be of interest to some on this list.? It took considerable effort to compile and I’d be pleased if someone can make use of it.

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The information comes from a number of sources including the websites of Wolfgang Steinicke, Harold Corwin, and Steve Gottlieb as well as Greg Crinklaw’s Sky Tools program. Any errors are mine.

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Below is a description of what is contained in the spreadsheet:

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Tab: LIST contains data for 2,517 objects that William Herschel discovered or independently found, including descriptions.

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Tab: Non-Existent lists the 106 or so Herschel objects that the NGC lists as non-existent with explanations for that designation and current status based on the research of Steinicke, Corwin, and Gottlieb, and a few others.?

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Tab: Steinicke Add are the objects not generally attributed to Herschel that probably should be included based on the research of Wolfgang Steinicke.

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Tab: Stars are those supposedly nebulous Herschel objects that are just stars.

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Tab: Discovery lists the discovery date referenced to the Herschel catalog and NGC designations

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Tab: Notes contains information on the Herschel catalogs and object classifications and several other pertinent data such as the original discovery data (for objects for which Herschel does not have primacy). It also contains some extensive notes (Steve Gottlieb’s summaries) for Herschel discovered objects without Herschel designations. There are also statistical summaries and notes on duplications and other anomalies in the catalogs.

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Tab: Abbreviations lists the standard NGC/IC abbreviations used for the object descriptions in the spreadsheet.

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Tab: A.L. List is the data on the 2,381 (now 2,379) objects that the Astronomical League recognizes as legitimate Herschel objects for their Herschel Society certificates. The objects in the “Herschel 400” and “Herschel II” are identified as are the 74 objects discovered in a single night (April 11, 1785) that constitute the “Herschel Hustle”.??

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I logged my first Herschel object on February 3, 1992 using an 8-inch SCT from Virginia Beach, VA, and the last one on March 30, 2019 with my 30-inch from my observatory outside of Sierra Vista AZ.? The 27-year span is misleading as it really didn’t become a goal to observe the whole list until about 2015 or so.? It was actually a consequence of my larger (still ongoing) effort to view all the NGC and IC objects visible from my home observatory.?

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Ted Forte

Herschel 400 Program certificate #298 June 4, 2004 (400 objects)

Herschel II Program certificate #48 September 25, 2006 (400 additional objects)

Herschel Society Silver Certificate August, 26, 2018 (1,200 objects total)

Herschel Society Gold Certificate April 9, 2019 (2,379 objects total)

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Thanks Jonathan.

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You’ll see that all of the objects done with the 8-inch were in the 90’s when that SCT was my primary scope.? I wasn’t making any statement as to what is or isn’t visible at that aperture.? There are many more Herschel objects that should be visible in an 8-inch that I never got around to trying.

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As our mutual friend Mark O is fond of saying, you can’t get a ticket for trying.

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Ted

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That’s still true today. I wonder for how much longer, though. ?

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Nothing wrong with doing science, of course, and imaging is a popular hobby (I would argue that imagers do photography not amateur astronomy) but what has always attracted me to the hobby is the visceral appreciation of celestial objects by viewing them with your own eyes.?

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Stop and think of how personal that is. The actual photons that hit your retina are yours alone – no one else ever has or ever will absorb those particular quanta of light. We can internalize it if we care to, it actually becomes part of us. Consider also that when we view a celestial object the way the visual discoverers did, we see it as they did. We become the latest in a direct line of individuals that have enjoyed that particular experience. For many objects, the line of observers is actually rather short, we are privileged to be among a very select group of humans.

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I greatly enjoy viewing the objects that were discovered visually, through the eyepiece of some intrepid astronomer of bygone centuries. I feel a bond with these great observes of the past. There is a real romance to it, a sense of communion with a long dead kindred spirit. (Fun to contemplate on a long lonely night - or ARE you alone?)

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I also find it fascinating to learn about those discoverers. Sir William was just one.? You can pretty much assume that anytime you view an NGC object you are viewing something that was discovered by eye, through an eyepiece. Only one NGC object, NGC 1432 (the nebula around the Pleiades), was discovered on a photographic plate, and another 22 were discovered using a spectroscope, but the rest of the 7,052 independent non stellar objects in the NGC were discovered visually, by about a 100 observers. Most of them have interesting stories.?

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If no one is still looking a century from now, we will have lost something precious and particularly human. I’m rather glad I won’t be around for it.

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Ted

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Holy crap that is a lot of info!

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?-??-??-?

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A few years ago, I completed my decades-long project to observe the objects discovered by William Herschel. As part of that effort, I compiled the attached spreadsheet that contains extensive data on the Herschel objects.? It occurs to me that it may be of interest to some on this list.? It took considerable effort to compile and I’d be pleased if someone can make use of it.

?

The information comes from a number of sources including the websites of Wolfgang Steinicke, Harold Corwin, and Steve Gottlieb as well as Greg Crinklaw’s Sky Tools program. Any errors are mine.

?

Below is a description of what is contained in the spreadsheet:

?

Tab: LIST contains data for 2,517 objects that William Herschel discovered or independently found, including descriptions.

?

Tab: Non-Existent lists the 106 or so Herschel objects that the NGC lists as non-existent with explanations for that designation and current status based on the research of Steinicke, Corwin, and Gottlieb, and a few others.?

?

Tab: Steinicke Add are the objects not generally attributed to Herschel that probably should be included based on the research of Wolfgang Steinicke.

?

Tab: Stars are those supposedly nebulous Herschel objects that are just stars.

?

Tab: Discovery lists the discovery date referenced to the Herschel catalog and NGC designations

?

Tab: Notes contains information on the Herschel catalogs and object classifications and several other pertinent data such as the original discovery data (for objects for which Herschel does not have primacy). It also contains some extensive notes (Steve Gottlieb’s summaries) for Herschel discovered objects without Herschel designations. There are also statistical summaries and notes on duplications and other anomalies in the catalogs.

?

Tab: Abbreviations lists the standard NGC/IC abbreviations used for the object descriptions in the spreadsheet.

?

Tab: A.L. List is the data on the 2,381 (now 2,379) objects that the Astronomical League recognizes as legitimate Herschel objects for their Herschel Society certificates. The objects in the “Herschel 400” and “Herschel II” are identified as are the 74 objects discovered in a single night (April 11, 1785) that constitute the “Herschel Hustle”.??

?

I logged my first Herschel object on February 3, 1992 using an 8-inch SCT from Virginia Beach, VA, and the last one on March 30, 2019 with my 30-inch from my observatory outside of Sierra Vista AZ.? The 27-year span is misleading as it really didn’t become a goal to observe the whole list until about 2015 or so.? It was actually a consequence of my larger (still ongoing) effort to view all the NGC and IC objects visible from my home observatory.?

?

Ted Forte

Herschel 400 Program certificate #298 June 4, 2004 (400 objects)

Herschel II Program certificate #48 September 25, 2006 (400 additional objects)

Herschel Society Silver Certificate August, 26, 2018 (1,200 objects total)

Herschel Society Gold Certificate April 9, 2019 (2,379 objects total)

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I remember seeing your two copies of Uranometria so full of fly speck notes that it was difficult to see the plotted objects. Inspiring.

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We had some great times in Coinjock, didn’t we? I’ll never forget the night a couple of campers stopped by the cedars and you showed them something in the 25. The husband climbed the ladder first and put his eye to the eyepiece with its dew heater right at the top, and he gasped, ?and called to his wife … “ Martha, this gets you so close, you can feel the HEAT from these stars!”

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I mostly remember those nights when I’d leave there in the wee hours for the hour drive back to Virginia Beach. ?The startling sight of the crescent moon rising over the Currituck sound as I left the cedars was exhilarating. ?More than enough to keep me stoked all the way home. ?I can close my eyes even now and see that view as if it was this morning!

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Ted

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