AWR Technology - INTELLIGENT DRIVE SYSTEM

	OBJECT CATALOGUES

GENERAL INFO Catalogues can be loaded in any order and may be excluded without any odd effects. If a secondary catalogue needs data which is not present then you get the first part of the name shown but nothing else. You can STEP onto the next object without it crashing. Coordinates data is truncated to show on the screen. Full precision (to 8 arc second) is maintained internally for use in GOTO's. Re-issue of catalogues is expected to correct errors and omissions. The BASIC loader programme will make it easy to re-load the catalogues of your choice. A text file contains the list of files to load and the programme does it all in one go. It is much quicker than using a terminal programme. Hyperterminal throughput has been clocked at 1/4 the rate that the baud rate is capable of transmitting, so the NGC catalogue was taking about 30 minutes to load.

The filters are powerful. They work across all catalogues. So if you select all objects in a fixed constellation then you can get to all the deepsky and stars contained in any of the databases loaded. Many objects have multiple type designations. These are all shown, where space permits, in groups of three characters in line 1.

Objects and particular catalogues are selected as being of interest. Very brief details for each object are recorded in the packed datafiles and it is recommended to search through the original catalogues to find the full information available about that object. GOOGLE works very well in this instance.

If you spot any mistakes or corrections / omissions that should be changed then please email alan@buckman-hardy.co.uk

DREYER NGC / IC J. L. E. Dreyer's NEW GENERAL CATALOGUE of Nebulae and Star Clusters is a consolidation of objects found up to 1888. It is primarily a revision, correction and enlargement of John Herschel's General Catalogue of 1864. A further 5386 objects were found up to 1908 and these were published in the INDEX CATALOGUE (originally in two parts). Since then confusion over places and descriptions has allowed additional objects to become associated and numbered with NGC or IC numbers. So we have separated out as far as known, the original Dreyer objects and the modern additional objects, so you have four catalogues containing 14,050 objects. All this work is based upon the Revised NGC/IC Project. for further information consult 'Memoirs Royal Astronomical Society 1971' and NGC/IC project.

Objects named, apart from the normal selection of deepsky names, includes several hundred objects identified as being part of an external galaxy - M31, M33, M78, M101, SMC and LMC. A total of 529 objects are named in the four catalogues for NGC and IC.

MESSIER The Messier catalogue of Charles Messier was published in stages from 1799 to 1810 containing the brightest and most famous selection of deep sky objects. The displayed data contains the additional NGC or IC catalogue number and proper name where available.

CALDWELL This is a modern catalogue of the best deep sky objects not in the Messier Catalogue. Messier did not catalogue any southern objects, so this one redresses the balance. Sir Patrick Moore created this list and has then been publicised widely by 'Sky & Telescope' magazine.

COLLINDER The list of 'Collinder star clusters' is a more complete list of star clusters, including associations covering large areas of the sky. Publication was in 1931 and is an aggregate of Melotte, Trumpler and other catalogues in existance at that time. Many of these objects are not present in the normal catalogues, so we find the Hyades cluster at number 50. The display on line 2 shows the estimated numbers of stars printed before the proper name, and any alternative numbers in other catalogues in line 1. The modern type designation is shown, correcting some of the errors present in the original catalogue. A considerable amount of detail and drawings are given for many of these objects in Webb Socity Observer's Handbook VOL 3 - Open and Globular Clusters.

MISC DEEPSKY The collection presented contains many cross references from Collinder star clusters, including most of the Trumpler Catalogue of clusters. In addition there are a handful of Quasars and other dark and bright nebulous objects, not present in any other catalgoue. You can download and print a text file of this catalogue.

The format of the datafile allows an 8 character name to be attached to the object, so this is quite a random collection of deep sky objects.

CAL STARS An even distribution over the whole star for bright calibration stars (84) selected out of the Yale Brightstar catalogue. The star name includes the Greek letter, constellation and proper name where there is one. Quite a few of these are noted as variable or double. These may be spectroscopic doubles or variables wit ha very small amplitude. Please consult the full catalogued data to get the rest of the relevant information. You can download and print a text file of this catalogue.

YALE BRIGHTSTAR This is a collection of bright stars with Bayer Greek letters or Flamsteed numbers so is a catalogue of about 3000 objects up to 5th magnitude. It does not include novae which now cannot be seen. Stars noted as variable or multiple have object types as such.

OBJECT CATALOGUES