Hi all,
I'm aware of the various lists of DSO's such as Messier, Caldwell etc. but I sometimes find them painstaking to search through. are there any other lists that for example list planetary nebula with another list for diffuse nebula, a list for galaxies, reflection nebula etc etc?
this would solve numerous problems for me. Example; If I wanted to go out tonight - well I wouldn't really in that rain - with the main purpose of viewing planetary nebula, my knowledge isn't that good that I could decide to go and view Mxx or Cxxx etc. I find myself ploughing through the lists of M, C and NGC numbers to find what I want, result, lost viewing time as this can be extremely time consuming. I personally would also find it easier to learn the objects name and match it to a number this way as I'm not ploughing through list after list of names/numbers to find what I want and thus confusing myself.
Maybe I'm just being lazy, but I really do have a tight work schedule, especially at this time of the year, and I would like to be able to finish work at 9.30 pm and concentrate on what I'm going to view that night.
I'm going to be a grandfather in August, but on top of that I'm going to be a father again in November and thats playing havoc with my 53-year-old brain without the confussion of those lists :roll: not that I'm complaining about being a grandfather or father, but I've been told to spend more time at the scope at night
Anyway, hope someone can lead me to that type of list and that I'm making sense.
Bill H.

I think www.seds.org/messier/ is something like what you want. Messier catalogued nearly everything bright and interesting so it should have enough to keep you busy. When you outgrow that, you are down to looking at starcharts and picking out galaxies on them. The astronomical databases of galaxies are useless for this.

Anyway try www.seds.org/messier/objects.html , it may be like what you are looking for. Its also a fairly dialup friendly website.

Hmmm... apparently there are other catalogues that people have put together. For example www.oarval.org/Cat.htm#Catalogs

Bill,
one thing I did from my teens when I got telescopes and started to use them was everytime I saw something in an astronomy magazine that I would have loved to see, I sometimes cut out that picture, labelled it with ts pictorial name Dumbell, Trifid etc etc) into a copy book, and THEN add the catalogue numbers to it. I found it better to look for something then, as I exactly knew what I wanted to try and look for. It can be boring trying to look for objects for which you only really have an IC, NGC, M, or C number for, but don't know what to actually 'look for'.

In today's world with the internet, easy copy paste, and SarOffice (or that other microsoft one), its easier to make such a list.

Seanie.

Many thanks Albert, I will check those out tonight.
Bill.

seanie, I'm doing something similar, making a list in a note book as I go, also how it looked for me when observing. Hopefully I can then collate all the info into a spreadsheet or simillar document. Still a slow process, but eventually will have a BNC list (Bill's New Catalogue)
Bill.

eventually will have a BNC list (Bill's New Catalogue)
Bill.

And what is BNC0000001 going to be???

Was just about to suggest seds myself but albertw was way to quick

Actually it's something I've thought of myself but didn't bother looking till someone else suggested it

eventually will have a BNC list (Bill's New Catalogue)
Bill.

And what is BNC0000001 going to be???

A Super Nova

Here's one I made earlier.....

It's only a list of Messier Objects for binoculars but it's a start! I created it for much the same reason, so I could have an idea what to look for when I went out, without having to do too much preparation (like the lazy sod I am!) 8)
it's an excel spreadsheet (yes, yes, I apologise.... I'm afraid I'm another Microsoft stooge!) that can be sort to whatever conditions you want, ie. best season for viewing, constellation, type of object, etc, etc. Don't know if it will any good to any of you, and I can't remember where I got the data from. :?
But this was all before the Binocular Handbook so I never actually used it!

Anyway, it's here if anyone wants it.

www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...20Messier%20List.pdf




OK, so I forgot that we can't upload excel files here anymore. You'll just have to tak it the way it is and forget about sorting it

Leo, thats a handy list and may be useful to me, but my stupidity requires a key, do you have one, I'm just guessing at what the "Type" abbreviations are. this would be handy for printing off and taking to the scope.
Thanks,
Bill.

Bill,

No key I'm afraid, so I had to go look them up! I've upload the new list here:

Binocular Messier List

Looking at it now again, it's actually a handy little list, I'll probably use it on it's own when I doing a little casual observing, or with the Messier Handbook as a guide to what to go looking for and when.

Hope it suits you better now. If you want it re-sorted (perhaps by season) or you can think of anything else that should be added to it, give me a shout.

All the best,

Great stuff Leo, it will be handy for printing off and pinning to the shed door.
Many thanks.
Bill.

Hope it suits you better now. If you want it re-sorted (perhaps by season) or you can think of anything else that should be added to it, give me a shout.

All the best,

This is really handy - thanks a mill. I have one suggestion and one correction. Could another column be added with the 'common' name for the objects? Example - M57 Ring Nebula. I know they don't all have names but for noobs like me it would be handy.

And the correction: Binocular is missing an L in the header line.

Would it be possible to provide it in Excel format (by email even) so I could add my own notes and/or sort what ever way I wanted. Or I could just bang it into OO.o myself I suppose but I'm waaay to lazy for that

No problem, I'll do it this evening when I get home from work.

No problem, I'll do it this evening when I get home from work.

Great stuff. You can mail the excel file to me at [myusername] @ gmail.com.

Here's one I made earlier.....

It's only a list of Messier Objects for binoculars ....

Leo,

Check out the AstroLeague in the US who have lots of observing programs including a Messier for Binoculars.

Anthony.

This is really handy - thanks a mill. I have one suggestion and one correction. Could another column be added with the 'common' name for the objects? Example - M57 Ring Nebula. I know they don't all have names but for noobs like me it would be handy.

And the correction: Binocular is missing an L in the header line.

Would it be possible to provide it in Excel format (by email even) so I could add my own notes and/or sort what ever way I wanted. Or I could just bang it into OO.o myself I suppose but I'm waaay to lazy for that

Sorted! Have uploaded the revised edition here

Steve, have e-mailed you the excel format file. If you need anything else, give me a shout. If anyone else wants the excel file, I'll be only too happy to oblige!

Excellent - thanks a mill