Announcements Lab this week will be the Telescopic Observations of the Moon. We’ll head out to the Farm after lecture and do a telescope set-up then observe the Moon. The report will be due in two weeks First Quarter nights next week: Monday and Wednesday. Set-up starts at 6:30pm Homework: Chapter 3 # 1, 2, 3, 4 & 8 For #8…use “query by criteria” and give Otype, RA and Dec for all the stars in the list.

Maps, Charts and Catalogues

One of the oldest star catalogues is contained in Ptolemy's Almagest

Uranometria Johannes Bayer 1603. Naked eye stars. Bayer designation uses Greek letters and possessive form of constellation

John Flamsteed’s Celestial Atlas was published in 1725 after his death Flamsteed used a number followed by the possessive form of the constellation. 51 Pegasi is an example

Other catalogues Bright Star Catalogue…last published in paper form in 1982. Now only available in electronic form. Stars down to magnitude 6.5 Henry Draper Catalogue…final version published in 1949. Based on the work of the women of Harvard Observatory General Catalogue of Variable Stars…first published in 1948. Now contains over 42,000 variables Palomar Sky Survey (POSS)…completed in 1957. Photographic atlas of the sky take by the Oschin Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory catalogue (SAO)…almost 259,000 stars

Sky Maps & Image Atlas’ Hubble Guide Star Catalogue…digitized version of the Palomar Sky Survey. Available online. Includes southern sky from the UK Schmidt SERC-J survey. About 945 million stars to magnitude 21 United States Naval Observatory A2.0 catalogue…digitized combination of POSS, Science Research Council J-images and European Southern Observatory R-images Hipparcos…astrometric data for 118,000 stars Tycho catalogue…continuation of Hipparcos data Sloan Digital Sky Survey…over 180 million objects Sky Atlas 2000.0…printed sky atlas Uranometria 2000.0…220 charts covering the entire sky

The Messier Catalogue Charles Messier 1730 - 1817 109 objects (110 if you count a duplicate or substitute another object for it). Probably the most popular objects among amateur astronomers

The NGC and IC Catalogues New General Catalogue compiled by J.L.E. Dreyer based on the observations of William and John Herschel. First published in 1888. Lists 7840 non-stellar objects. The Index Catalogue (IC) expanded the list by adding 5000 additional objects in two groups. IC I published in 1895 and IC II published in 1908

Other non-stellar catalogues George Abell published a Galaxy Cluster catalogue in 1958. Based on examinations of the original POSS plates and done as a part of his PhD thesis. He started adding the southern sky using the UK Schmidt telescope in Australia but died before completing it. Ronald Olowin completed the southern sky in 1989, six years after Abell’s death.

Hickson’s Compact Groups of Galaxies Published by Paul Hickson in 1982. Based mostly on examinations of the POSS images. 100 groups of galaxies

Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies 338 unusual galaxies compiled by Halton Apr in 1966

Barnard’s Catalogue of Dark Nebulae Published by Edward Barnard in 1919. Consists of 366 dark nebulae like the Horsehead Nebula, the Pipe Nebula and the Snake Nebula

Electronic Catalogues Image Tool Databases IAU Archive database maintained by the Centre de Données Astronomique de Strasbourg

Astronomical Software The Sky…Software Bisque Starry Night…Imaginova Stellarium Guide…Project Pluto Others too numerous to list. Some freeware, some pay-ware