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. By J. L. E. DREYER, Ph.D.
The General Catalogue of Nebulae which the late Sir JOHN HERSCHEL pub-
lished in the Philosophical Transactions for 1864 was almost entirely founded
on his father's and his own observations. Out of 5,079 objects which it
contained only about 450 positions were due to other observers, while the
places of the remainder were deduced from all the observations of Sir
WILLIAM and Sir JOHN HERSCHEL, those of the former having been reduced
independently by CAROLINE HERSCHEL and by AUWERS. But already, before
the appearance of this valuable work, several astronomers had commenced
determining accurate positions of nebulae. In 1853 LAUGIER made the
beginning by publishing the places of fifty-three bright nebulae determined
at the Paris Observatory, and in 1856 appeared D'ARREST'S first series of
micrometric observations of nebulae made at the Leipzig Observatory. These
observations having shown how many objects were within the reach of com-
paratively small instruments, SCHÖNFELD and SCHULTZ devoted themselves
for a number of years to the determination of positions of nebulae, each
observing about 500 objects. Less extensive series of observations have been
made by AUWERS, G. RÜMKER, VOGEL, J. SCHMIDT, and B. von ENGELHARDT.
None of these results were, however, available when HERSCHEL'S General
Catalogue was compiled (except D'ARREST'S first series), and what is more
to be regretted, the great work of D'ARREST'S, Siderum Nebulosorum Obser-
vationes Havnienses, founded on zone observations made with the 11-inch
Refractor at Copenhagen, was not completed until three years after HERSCHEL'S
work had appeared. Although the probable errors of D'ARREST'S results are
not much smaller than those of Sir JOHN HERSCHEL'S positions, the former
are entirely free from the large accidental errors occasionally met with in the
observations of the two HERSCHELS, and which naturally arose from the con-
struction of their instruments and the haste with which the observations
often necessarily were made. There are, therefore, many cases where the
General Catalogue, although evincing the most scrupulous care both in
observing and reducing, is not in accordance with the heavens. And it is
not only through D'ARREST'S observations that such discrepancies have been
revealed, the other works on nebulae which have appeared singe 1864 have
brought others to light, while a considerable number of new nebulae were
also found in the course of years, so that HERSCHEL'S excellent work soon
appeared to want a supplement.
For these reasons I found it, in 1876, desirable to compile for use in Lord
ROSSE'S observatory a complete list of corrections to the General Catalogue,
as well as a catalogue of the new nebulae discovered by D'ARREST, MARTH,
STEPHAN, TEMPEL, and others. This supplement was published in 1878 in
the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxvi., and has, I believe,
been found useful. Since then no extensive work on nebulae has appeared,
with the exception of the detailed account of the observations made from
1848 to 1878 with Lord ROSSE'S 6-foot telescope. But still a good deal of
work has been done on nebulae, though the results have been published in a
less systematic manner. A number of short notes from the pen of M.
TEMPEL give a considerable amount of valuable information (particularly of
many of Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL'S nebulae which have not been observed by
others), and contain places of many new objects. M. STEPHAN has also con-
tinued his valuable micrometric observations of new nebulae, while during
the last few years Mr. LEWIS SWIFT and Proffessor ORMOND STONE have placed
on record about a thousand new nebulae, most of which, however, are of the
last degree of faintness and minuteness, and possessing but little interest.
In December 1886 I submitted to the Council of the Royal Astronomical
Society a second supplementary catalogue arranged exactly like the first one.
But considering the circumstance that HERSCHEL'S work is practically out of
print, and that the simultaneous use of three catalogues and two copious lists
of corrections would be very inconvenient, the Council proposed to me to
amalgamate the three catalogues into a new General Catalogue. I agreed to
do so, and have adopted the following plan in compiling the present work.
There did not seem to be any reason for changing the epoch from 1860
to a year nearer to the present time, as 1860 has the advantage of being close
to the epochs of ARGELANDER'S, SCHÖNFELD'S and CHACORNAC'S maps, and
coincides with that of PETERS' maps, while D'ARREST'S final positions of
nebulae are referred to 1860, and nearly all the modern micrometric observa-
tions on nebulae to an epoch only five years later. But the positions given
in the General Catalogue required a thorough revision. They were first
corrected by being compared with all modern published micrometric and
meridian observations of nebulae, after which all the positions not thus cor-
rected by occuring in D'ARREST'S great work were improved by means of
the latter, either by simply adopting D'ARREST'S places whenever they were
based on three or more good observations, or, whenever D'ARREST had only
one or two observations, by taking the mean of these and HERSCHEL'S posi-
tions. Constant reference was also made to the original papers in the Philo-
sophical Transactions for 1786, 1789, 1802, 1833, to the Cape Observations,
and to AUWERS' invaluable reduction of W. HERSCHEL'S observations, in order,
if possible, to find the causes of discordant results and other difficulties. It
was not possible to indicate the source of each position in the catalogue, nor
was it necessary, as a catalogue of this kind can only be a work of reference
or an index, but not a systematic catalogue of final positions representing the
observations of this or that astronomer. But whenever considerable altera-
tions, amounting to several minutes of arc, were made in one or both co-
ordinates, the authority (or the principal one if there were several) has
always been quoted in the column "Other Observers." Of course very many
positions had to be left unaltered, chiefly those of objects situated in the
southern hemisphere which is still waiting for its D'ARREST. But though
every endeavour was thus made to make the catalogue as accurate as possible,
it appeared proper only to give the Right Ascensions to whole seconds of
time and the Polar Distances to the tenth part of a minute; not only on
account of the character of the work as one of reference only, but also
because it would be useless to attempt greater accuracy in the case of
clusters or of nebulae not micrometrically observed, while it would even
be premature to attempt a final catalogue of the objects observed with
the Micrometer, owing to the yet but imperfectly studied systematic errors
in observatons of nebulae.* But within the said limits I trust that no oppor-
tunity has been lost of making the places as accurate as possible, and it is
hardly neccessary to point out that this will be found a special advantage
wherever a number of objects occur close together.
The Precessions have been given for 1880 as already done by Sir JOHN
HERSCHEL ; the descriptions have also been revised, though not in the same
systematic manner as the positions had been, and whenever any error of
importance was detected it was corrected, chiefly by means of D'ARREST'S and
Lord ROSSE'S observations. Special care was taken to give the places and
descriptions of the new nebulae found at Birr Castle correctly, but here I had
little to do except to copy the notes, which I inserted in the Birr Castle
Observations when I had the pleasure of preparing them for publication in
1877-79. With regard to the very numerous new nebulae recorded of late
years, it was frequently a matter of some difficulty to decide about the identity
of objects announced independently by several observers, and differing little
as regards place, but often much as to description. The plan always adopted
by M. TEMPEL of stating precisely how many objects, new or old, he has seen
about the place under observation is very strongly to be recommended, espe-
cially when announcing new nebulae which have not been micrometrically
observed. In case anyone should feel doubts about an assumed identity he
can easily decide for himself by referring to the authorities quoted in the
fifth column.
* In making use of these I did not lose sight of the systematic differences,
which appear to depend to a great extent on the degree of condensation and
brightness of the objects, as first pointed out by J. SCHMIDT, and afterwards
shown in more detail in my reviews or SCHULTZ'S and SCHÖNFELD'S observations
in the Vierteljahrsschrift d. a. G., vols. x. and xi.
Arrangement of the Catalogue.
This is in general the same as that adopted by Sir JOHN HERSCHEL,
except that for obvious reasons the three columns have been omitted which
showed the number of results in R.A. and N.P.D. made use of, and the
"total number of times observed by h and H."
The first column contains the current numbers of the present catalogue.
It was with much regret that I found it necessary to introduce new numbers,
and it is greatly to be hoped that these will be quoted as little as possible,
but that old nubulae, as hitherto, will be chiefly mentioned by their h number,
or failing such by their H class and number.
The second column gives the number of Sir JOHN HERSCHEL'S General
Catalogue (1-5079), or my Supplement (5080 - 6251).
The third column gives the numbers of Sir JOHN HERSCHEL'S Slough
Observations in the Phil. Trans. 1833 (1-2306) and his Cape Observations
(2308 - 4021). Numbers in round and square brackets refer to the special
lists of objects in the two nubeculae in the Cape Observations, pp. 151-164.
A few objects (h 4016-4021) accidentally omitted from the regular cata-
logue of observations, but given among errata in the Cape Observations, are
designated h. o. n. in the fifth column. A synoptic table of the dates of the
observations is given in the Cape Observations, pp. 129-131.
The fourth column contains the classes and numbers of Sir WILLIAM
HERSCHEL, by which the objects are designated in his unreduced observa-
tions in the Phil. Trans. for 1786, 1789, 1802. Eight nebulae found in
September 1802 (H. O. N. in the fifth column) are published in the Cape
Observations, p. 128. A most important list of errata in the three cata-
logues is given in the Phil. Trans., 1864, pp. 44, 45. The only published
reduced catalogue of Sir W. HERSCHEL'S nebulae and clusters is that of
AUWERS, printed in vol. xxxiv. of the Königsberg Observations (in the
present work simply quoted as "AUWERS"), where a chronological table of
the sweeps, an index of the classes and numbers with their approximate
R.A., and a list of fifty-two very widely diffused nebulosities will aslo be
found.
The fifth column contains references to other observers. For the sake
of the historical interest attached to early observations of nebulae and
clusters, I have here inserted the names of observers before MESSIER
( HIPPARCHUS, SÛFI, CYSAT, FLAMSTEED, MÉCHAIN, &c. ). Whenever the
name of an observer later than the two HERSCHELS is given at an object
observed by h or H, it means that the place given in the General Catalogue
was considerably in error, and has been corrected by means of the observa-
tions of the astronomer mentioned in this column. Objects not observed by
H or h have been discovered by the observer whose name is given here.
References to the list of new nebulae found before 1862, given by AUWERS in
his above-mentioned work (Auw. with a number), will be found in the
column Description, but the name of their discoverer has been given in the
fifth column. Only names which occur very frequently have been abbre-
viated, and in the following manner:-
d'A … … … D'Arrest.
Auw. … … … Auwers.
C. H. … … … Caroline Herschel.
D … … … Dunlop.
H. … … … Sir William Herschel.
h … … … Sir John Herschel.
G. C. … … … General Catalogue of 1864.
L. … … … Leavenworth.
Lac. … … … Lacaille.
M. … … … Messier.
Mu. … … … Muller.
m … … … Marth.
Ld. R. … … … The late Lord Rosse (and his assistants).
Ld. R.* … … … The present Lord Rosse.
(R) … … … Found with Lord Rosse's telescope.
St. … … … Stephan.
O. St. … … … Ormond Stone.
Sw. … … … Swift.
T. … … … Tempel.
I now proceed to indicate the sources where the observations referred to
in this column will be found.
D'ARREST. A few references (chiefly in the notes at the end of the
catalogue) are to D'ARREST'S Erste Reihe (Leipzig, 1856), but nearly all are
to his work Siderum Nebulosorum Observationes Havnienses (Copenhagen,
1876), and it is to that thesaurus, more that to the exertions of any other
observer, that the credit should be given for whatever superiority as to
accuracy the present work may possess in comparison with HERSCHEL'S
AUSTIN. See Harvard College
AUWERS. Königsberger Beobachtungen, Band xxxiv.; positions of forty
nebulae in the Astr. Nachr., vol. lviii., No. 1392, from observations made
with the Königsberg Heliometer.
BALL. See Lord Rosse.
BARNARD. Nebulae found with a 6-inch Refractor at Nashville, Ten-
nessee. The Sidereal Messenger, vols. i.-iii., and private communications.
BIGOURDAN. About 100 nebulae found with the west Equitorial of the
Paris Observatory ( of 310 mm. aperture ), and kindly communicated in
May 1887.
BOND. List of New Nebulae and Star-Clusters found at Havard College
Observatory. Cambridge, 18633, 8vo. This contains objects found by G.P.
Bond, S. Coolidge, and J.H. Safford, nearly all occuring in the Havard
Equitorial Zones.
BORELLY. Astr. Nachr., vol. lxxis., No. 1885, and Monthly Notices,
xxxii. p 248. Six neulae found at the Marseilles Observatory, and micro-
metrically observed.
BURNHAM. Memoirs R.A.S., vol. xliv. pp. 169 and 216; Astr. Nachr.,
vol. cvi., No. 2524
COMMON. List of about 32 new nebulae found with a 3-foot Reflector, in
Copernicus, vol. i. p. 50.
COOLIDGE. See BOND
COPELAND. Wherever (R) is added, the object in question was found
with Lord Rosse's 6-foot telescope. Other nebulae were discovered by
means of the spectroscope, partly in Peru (Copernicus iii. p. 206), partly at
Dun Echt (Monthly Notices, xlv. p. 91).
DREYER. See LORD ROSSE.
DUNLOP. Catalogue of 629 southern nebulae in the Phil. Trans. for 1828.
As Sir John Herschel failed to find about two-thirds of these objects, he
came to the conclusion "that a want of sufficient light or defining power in
the instrument used by Mr. DUNLOP has been the cause of his setting down
objects as nebulae where none really exist." For this reason none of the
objects were inserted in the General Catalogue unless confirmed at the Cape
and I have, of course, followed HERSCHEL implicitly in this particular.
ENGELHARDT. Observations Astronomiques faites par B. d'Engelhardt
dans son Observatoire à Dresde, vol. i., Dresden, 1886, contains micrometric
observations of 100 nebulae. I am further indebted to M. D'ENGELHARDT for
90 positions of nebulae recently observed by him.
ENGELMANN. Meridian observations of nebulae made at the Leipzig
Observatory, Astr. Nachr. vol. civ., No. 2485
HARTWIG. A few nebulae found with the 18-inch Refractor at Strasburg,
Astr. Nachr., vol. cv., No. 2507; vol. cvi., No. 2544; and vol. cxii., No. 2688.
HAVARD COLLEGE. Vol. xiii., Part I. of the Observations, contains a
series of observations of nebulae, among which are some new ones found by
AUSTIN, LANGLEY, PIERCE, SEARLE, WENDELL, AND WINLOCK.
HOLDEN. New nebulae found with the 15½-inch Refractor at Madison,
Publications of the Washburn Observatory, vol. i. p. 73, and vol. ii. p. 101.
LACAILLE. Catalogue of 42 southern nebulae reduced by AUWERS
(l.c. p. 223). The Roman numerals indicate his three classes: I. Nebulae
without stars; II. Clusters; III. Stars with nebulosity.
LANGLEY. See HAVARD.
LEAVENWORTH. See ORMOND STONE.
LOHSE, J. G. List of about 20 new nebulae found with the 15½-inch
Refractor at Mr. WIGGLESWORTH'S Observatory, Scarborough. Kindly com-
municated by letters.
MARTH'S Catalogue of 600 new nebulae, found at Malta with Mr LASSELL'S
4-foot Reflector, is published in the Mem. R.A.S., vol. xxxvi. A good
many of them were found independently by D'ARREST and STEPHAN, whereby
the accuracy of Mr. MARTH'S positions has been proved to be very satis-
factory.
MELBOURNE. In the first part of the Melbourne observations of southern
nebulae there are a few novae.
MESSIER'S Catalogue as reduced by AUWERS (l.c. p. 218).
MULLER. See ORMOND STONE.
PALISA. Nebulae discovered or observed with the 27 and 12-inch
Refractors of the Vienna Observatory, Wiener Beobachtungen, vierte Folge,
vols. ii. iii. iv., and Astr Nachr., Nos. 2520, 2544, 2732, and 2782.
PIERCE. See HAVARD
PETERS, C.H.F. Positions of nebulae (including a few novae) read off
from his maps or micrometrically observed. Copernicus, vol. i. p. 51., and
vol. ii. p. 54.
PICKERING'S star-like planetary nebulae, detected by means of spectro-
scopic sweeps, The Observatory, vol. v. p. 294, and private letter of July
1885.
Lord ROSSE. For detailed information about the nebulae found at Birr
Castle (nearly all in the neighbourhood of brighter nebulae), see "Observa-
tions of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars made with the 6-foot and 3-foot
Reflectors at Birr Castle from 1848 to 1878," Dublin 1880 (from the Scient.
Trans. R. Dubl. Soc., vol. ii.). This publication embodies all observations of
nebulae of any value made at Birr Castle (except of the Orion nebula), and
quite supersedes the abstracts given in the Phil. Trans. for 1850 and 1861,
except that the engravings have not been republished. The new nebulae
found before 1861 (chiefly by G. J. STONEY, B. STONEY, and R.J. MITCHELL)
have been marked Ld. R.; many of them were re-observed and measured in
1874-78 by the present Earl of ROSSE and myself. Those found by the present
Earl have been marked Ld. R.*, and those found by BALL, COPELAND, and
DREYER are indicated by the name of the observer withan (R) added.
G. RÜMKER'S Ring-Micrometer observations of 135 nebulae are published
in the Astr. Nachr., vols. lxiii.-lxviii., Nos. 1508, 1531, 1566, 1599, and 1631.
Several of the objects have not been observed by anybody else after Sir W.
HERSCHEL. In many cases the comparison stars have not been observed on
the Meridian.
SAFFORD. See BOND
SCHMIDT, J. Ring-Micrometer observations, Astr. Nachr., Nos. 1678
and 2097.
SCHÖNFELD. The very valuable Ring-Micrometer observations of 489
nebulae are published in the Astr. Beobachtungen auf de Grossherzoglichen
Sternwarte zu Mannheim, vols. i., ii., 1862-75
SHULTZ'S equally important Micrometrical Observations of 500 Nebulae
were published at Upsala in 1874. A "Preliminary Catalogue" of the
resulting positions was given in the Monthly Notices, vol. xxxv. p. 135. Next
to D'ARREST'S work this publication and those of SCHÖNFELD have furnished
most corrections to the General Catalogue.
SEARLE. See HARVARD
SECCHI. Fourteen new nebulae, Astr. Nachr., vol. lxvi., No. 1571.
STEPHAN. The new nebulae found with the 0m.8 silvered glass Reflector
at Marseilles have all been micrometrically observed, and the positions are
therefore extremely reliable. All the lists published in two places have been
compared inter se to guard against misprints, and the eight first lists were,
besides, compared with a MS. copy which M. STEPHAN kindly sent me in
1877. The various lists are referred to by Roman numerals in the following
manner:-
St. I. Astr. Nachr. vol. lxxvi. No. 1810 Monthly Notices, xxxii. p. 23.
II. " " lxxviii. " 1867 Monthly Notices, xxxii. p. 23.
III. " " lxxix. " 1876 " " p. 231.
IV. " " lxxxi. " 1939 " xxxiii. p. 433.
V. " " lxxxiii. " 1972 " xxxiv. p. 75.
VI. " " lxxxiii. " 1977.
VII. Comptes Rendus, vol. lxxxiii. p. 328.
VIII. Monthly Notices, xxxvii. pp. 334-39.
IX. Comptes Rendus, vol. lxxxvii. p. 869.
X. " " xc. p. 837.
XI. " " xcii. pp. 1128, 1183, 1260; Astr. Nachr. vol. c. No. 2390.
XII. " " xcvi. pp. 546, 609 " " cv. " 2502.
XIII. " " c. pp. 1043, 1107 " " cxi. " 2661.
STONE, ORMOND. A remarkable contrast to M. STEPHAN'S results is
offered by the extremely rough places of 476 new southern nebulae, found by
Messrs. ORMOND STONE, LEAVENWORTH, and MULLER, with the 26-inch
Refractor at the L. M'Cormick Observatory at Charlottesville, Virginia, and
published in two lists in the Astronomical Journal, vol. vii., Nos. 146 and 152
(designated by the numbers i. and ii.). In the first list the Right Ascensions
are given to whole minutes of time only, in the second one mostly to the
tenth part of a minute. If one may judge from the descriptions, many of
the objects are not unlikely to turn out to be nothing but very small stars,
and it is much to be hoped that the observers in future will verify the
objects before proceeding to publication, and aim at greater accuracy in the
positions. Wherever a bright star is stated to be near one of these objects,
I have tried to identify the star in the Durchmusterung, but rarely with
success, so that either the positions or the magnitudes (most probably the
former) must be greatly in error.
STRUVE, O. Observations de quelques Nébuleuses ; Entdeckung einiger
schwacher Nebelflecken ; Wiedererscheinen des Winnecke'schen cometen und
Entdeckung einiger neuer Nebelflecken ; Mélanges Math. et Astron. t. iii.
p. 569; ibid. p. 689, and t. iv. p. 395.
SWIFT. Since 1883 Mr. LEWIS SWIFT has searched most assiduously for
nebulae with the 16-inch Refractor at the Warner Observatory, and has in
four years found about 600, mostly extremely faint objects. The positions
are very good. I am under great obligations to Mr. SWIFT for his kindness
in copying for me in advance several of his published lists, and supplying me
with the places of all objects found by him up to June 1887. The rapid
discovery of so many faint nebulae in a few years by one observer furnishes a
confirmation of the opinion expressed by D'ARREST: "nebulas esse numero
omnino infinitas." The following is a list of the references to the six
catalogues:-
Sw. I. Astr. Nachr. vol. cxii. No. 2683.
II. " " cxiii. " 2707.
III. " " cxv. " 2746.
IV. " " cxv. " 2752.
V. " " cxvi. " 2763.
VI. communicated by degrees in MS.
TEMPEL. The observations of nebulae made at Arcetri with an 11-inch
Refractor since 1875 are unfortunately only partly published in a number of
scattered articles in the Astr. Nachr. Of particular value for the present
work have been a great many observations of, and notes on, nebulae, observed
by nobody after W. HERSCHEL, except by M. TEMPEL. Many new nebulae
have also been found at Arcetri. I have to express my best thanks for the
kindness with which M. TEMPEl has answered my inquiries about many
objects, old and new, by which I have been enabled to give the accurate
positions of many novae merely alluded to in the published notes. The
Roman numerals indicate the sources of the results as follow:-
T. I. Astr. Nachr. No. 2212. T. VI. Astr. Nachr. No. 2511.
II. " " 2253. VII. " " 2522.
III. " " 2284. VIII. " " 2527.
IV. " " 2347. IX. " " 2660.
V. " " 2439. X. " " 2691.
TODD. A number of nebulous-looking objects were found by Professor
D.P. TODD during his search for an ultra-Neptunian planet (Astr. Nachr.,
No. 2698), but I have only inserted eight of them. Of the rest, some were
near the places of nebulae already catalogued, while the nebular character of
others seemed very doubtful.
VOGEL. Beobachtungen von Nebelflecken und Sternhaufen: Leipzig, 1867,
8vo; and Positionsbestimmungen ron Nebelflecken und Sternhaufen zwischen
+ 9° 30' und +15° 30' Declination: Leipzig, 1876, 4to (Leipziger Beobach-
tungen, Bd. i.). All filar Micrometer observations.
WENDELL. See HARVARD
WINLOCK. See HARVARD
WINNECKE. Places of a few new nebulae communicated by letter in
1876.
The sixth and following columns require no explanation. In the last
column will be found references to the notes at the end of the catalogue (*),
and to the list of figured nebulae (†). The "Summary Description" of
objects not occuring in the General Catalogue represents the observer's
own words as nearly as possible, except that I have always changed
M. STEPHAN'S eeF into eF, and eF into vF, as such of his novae which
have been found independently by other observers have always by these
been described as somewhat brighter than by M. STEPHAN. The system of
abbreviated description used in the observations of the two HERSCHELS has
been in use so long that it is unneccessary to enter into a lengthy explanation
of it, except to call attention to the progressive scale of brightness, size, and
form adopted by Sir JOHN HERSCHEL.
1. excessively faint excessively small, 3" to 4" diam.
2. very faint very small, 10" to 12" diam.
3. faint small, 20" to 30" diam.
4. considerably faint considerably small, 20" to 30" diam.
5. pretty faint pretty small, 50" to 60" diam.
6. pretty bright pretty large, 50" to 60" diam.
7. considerably bright considerably large, 3' to 4' diam.
8. bright large, 3' to 4' diam.
9. very bright very large, 8' to 10' diam.
10. excessively bright excessively large, 20' and upwards.*
* In estimating clusters of well-separated and scattered stars a wider
acceptation must be understood, so that, e.g., a cluster of 1' in extent
would be very small, and one of 15' or 20' large.
In the case of form, the scale was supposed arranged in the order:
round, very little extended, elliptic or oval, considerably extended,
pretty much extended, much extended, very much extended, extremely
extended.
The following is a complete list of the abbreviations:-
Ab..............about n..............north
alm.............almost neb............nebula
am..............among nf.............north following
app.............appended np.............north preceding
att.............attached nr.............near
b...............brighter N..............Nucleus, or to a
Nucleus
be..............between p..............pretty (before
F,B,L,S)
biN.............binuclear p..............preceding
bn..............brightest towards pg.............pretty gradually
the north side pm.............pretty much
bs..............brightest towards ps.............pretty suddenly
the south side P..............poor
bp..............brightest towards quad...........quadrilateral
the preceding side quar...........quartile
bf..............brightest towards r..............resolvable
the following side (mottled,not resolved)
B...............bright rr.............partially relolved,
c...............considerably some stars seen
ch..............chevelure rrr............well resolved, clearly
co..............coarse, coarsely consisting of stars
com.............cometic R..............round
cont............in contact RR.............exactly round
C...............compressed Ri.............rich
C.G.H...........Cape of Good Hope s..............suddenly
Cl..............cluster s..............south
d...............diameter sp.............south preceding
def.............defined sf.............south following
dif.............diffused sc.............scattered
diffic..........difficult st.............stars
dist............distance or sev............several
distant susp...........suspected
D...............double sh.............shaped
e...............extremely, stell..........stellar
excessively S..............small
ee..............most extremely sm.............smaller
er..............easily resolvable triN...........trinuclear
exc.............excentric trap...........trapezium
E...............extended v..............very
f...............following vv.............very, very
F...............faint var............variable
g...............gradually *..............a star: *10, a star of
gr..............group 10th magnitude
i...............irregular **.............double star
inv.............involved,involving ***............triple star
iF..............irregular figure !..............remarkable
l...............little,long !!.............very remarkable
L...............large !!!............a magnificent or
m...............much otherwise interesting
mm..............mixed magnitudes object
mn..............milky nebulosity st 9...........stars from the 9th
M...............middle, or in the magnitude downwards
middle st 9 13........stars from the 9th
to 13th magnitude
|
