1. 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.

2. Maps, Charts and Catalogues

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

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

5. 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

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

7. 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 …printed sky atlas
Uranometria …220 charts covering the entire sky

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

9. 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 Lists 7840 non-stellar objects. The Index Catalogue (IC) expanded the list by adding additional objects in two groups. IC I published in 1895 and IC II published in 1908

10. Other non-stellar catalogues
George Abell published a Galaxy Cluster catalogue in 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.

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

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

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

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

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