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Astronomy resources
Classic Star Atlases
Online sky atlases from the 20th century
Norton's Star Atlas, 15th ed., 1969. 16 charts with stars to magnitude 6.35.
Atlas Coeli Skalnaté Pleso 1950.0, Antonín Bečvář,
1962 edition. 16 charts with stars to magnitude 7.75. This was the primary influence on modern Epoch 2000 charts, especially Wil Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000.0. This online edition has somewhat low contrast images. They could probably be downloaded and improved with Photoshop.
Modern Free Atlases
Modern software-generated atlases. The specifications of some of these are compared on the Lackawanna Astronomical Society site here.
Beginners Star Atlas 2.0+, Ed Vazhorov, 2020. Sixteen charts with stars to magnitude 7, and 96 deep sky objects down to magnitude 10.9. The deep sky objects are available in a catalog that can be printed on the back of each sheet. A Russian version is also available. Though designed for A4 paper, these would make nice classroom charts on A3 or ledger size paper. The current edition files are vector PDFs and can be scaled to any size.
Mag 7 Star Atlas Project Deluxe Edition, Andrew L. Johnson, magnitude 7.25 public domain deluxe color edition with Milky Way region in blue.
Mag-7 Star Atlas Project, Version 2.0, April 2007, both color and black and white editions of this modern magnitude 7.25 planning atlas. Deep sky abjects down to about 12.5. 20 charts plus 1 detail chart for the Virgo Cluster.Taki's Star Atlas, Toshimi Taki, 2005. 12 charts with stars to magnitude 6.5, deep sky objects to magnitude 10 and 11. An excellent atlas for planning, and wide angle binocular viewing.
Taki's 8.5 Magnitude Star Atlas, Toshimi Taki, 2005. 146 charts with stars to magnitude 8.5, deep sky objects down to magnitude 10–12.5, plus detailed charts of the Virgo Cluster, central Orion region, and Eta Carinae region. Excellent for binocular and small to medium amateur telescope astronomy.
Deep Sky Surfing Atlas, originally by Alethis Software Inc. but now found on this site, 271 charts with stars down to magnitude 9, and deep sky objects down to magnitude 11. An observing list is included with each chart.
Deep-Sky Atlas, Michael Vlasov, version 2.5, 2007. 80 charts with stars to magnitude 9.5, deep sky objects to magnitude 13. Great for binocular and small to medium amateur telescope astronomy. This is designed for A4 (roughly US letter sized) paper, so printed out it would be fairly compact.
Deep Sky Hunter Star Atlas, Michael Vlasov, second revised edition, 2017. Entire sky covered by 101 charts, 2 index maps and 8 pages with detailed "zoom" charts. Catalogs of 7000 plotted deep sky objects, and 700 illustrated best DSOs are also available. Great for amateur telescope astronomy. This is designed for A3 (roughly ledger sized) paper, so with over 100 maps, a printed version would be quite large.
Specialty Atlases
Online special observing atlases.
Variable Star Plotter, AAVSO. The Variable Star Plotter (VSP) is the AAVSO's online chart plotting program that dynamically plots star charts for any location on the sky, or for any named object currently in the Variable Star Index (VSX, see below).
Atlas of Double Stars, Toshimi Taki and Pete Wehner, 2007. 36 charts, with stars down to magnitude 6.75, show 2053 labeled double stars and 356 deep sky objects. An introductory document, index charts, and a catalog of the double stars, can be found on the page. Note: Since Taki's website is down, I've mirrored it here on my site.
Herschel 800 Atlas (original A4 size), Michiel Brentjens, 2005.
A US letter size (ANSI A) version is also available.
This atlas contains 3° finder charts of the Herschel I list of 400 Herschel DSOs compiled by the Ancient City Astronomy Club of St. Augustine, FL, and the Herschel II list of 400 objects compiled by the Rose City Astronomers of Portland, OR. The atlas was made using Brentjens' "fchart" command line Python software program, available at the link.
Note: Since Brentjens's site is now down, the Atlas is hosted on this site.Young Stellar Objects, Reiner Vogel, 2010. This observing guide introduces 52 pre-main sequence stars with surrounding reflection nebula with DSS images, finder charts, and observing reports.
Photographic Atlases
Digital photographic atlases.
The STScI Digitized Sky Survey, Space Telescope Science Institute. View square digital photographic charts by inputing object names into the finder text box. The max size is 60" square... unless you cheat like I did by editing the URL. You probably want to select GIF images for viewing. The surveys include the Palomar Sky Survey and the Hubble Space Telescope survey.
A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, Edward Emerson Barnard, 1927. Georgia Institute of Technology.
Classic Star and Object Catalogs
Classic catalogs and catalog websites.
Messier Catalog (M), Charles Messier, the full list appearing in the 1784 issue of Connoissance des Temps as "Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Étoiles", published in 1781.
English translation of Messier's personal copy of the 1781 catalog above.
English translation of the first 1771 version of the catalog up to M45.
English translation of the second 1780 version of the catalog up to M70. M69 and M70 appear in a list of corrections in the same volume as the catalog.
Full Messier catalog list, with notes and translations, including later discoveries by Messier and Pierre Méchain.
The Messier Catalog, SEDS. Detailed information, data, and references with images for each Messier object.
Messier Catalog
, Interactive PDF with links to images from the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (Cal Tech).
Sir William Herschel's Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (H) was released in three papers:
General Catalogue of Nebulæ and Clusters of Stars (GC), Sir John Herschel, 1864. The supplement to his father's catalog, which contains 5079 object entries.
Observations of Nebulæ and Clusters of Stars, Made at Slough, with a Twenty-feet Reflector, between the Years 1825 and 1833 (SC), Sir John Herschel, 1833.
Results of astronomical observations made during the years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope; being the completion of a telescopic survey of the whole surface of the visible heavens, commenced in 1825 (CC), Sir John Herschel, 1847.
New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (NGC) and Index Catalogs (IC), John Louis Emil Dreyer.
A New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars
, 1888. The main NGC catalog compiled by Dreyer.Index Catalogue of Nebulae found in the Years 1888 to 1894, with Notes and Corrections to the New General Catalogue
, 1895. The first Index Catalogue supplement and corrections.Second Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars found in the Years 1895 to 1907, with Notes and Corrections to the New General Catalogue and to the Index Catalogue for 1888–1894
, 1908. The second Index Catalogue supplement and corrections.
A supplement to Sir John Herschel's "General catalogue of nebulae and clusters of stars", J. L. E. Dreyer, 1878 (GCS). Dreyer's supplement to John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulæ and Clusters of Stars prior to the NGC.
"Corrections to the New General Catalogue resulting from the revision of Sir William Herschel's Three Catalogues of Nebulae"
, J. L. E. Dreyer, 1912.
The NGC/IC Project. A database with data and images for Dreyer's NGC and IC objects. Just enter "N" or "I" followed by the number of the object.
The Interactive NGC Catalog Online, SEDS. Enter "N" or "I", followed by the number of the object.
A Survey of the Continuous Radiation from the Galactic System at a Frequency of 1390 Mc/s
(W), Gart Westerhout, 1958 — from Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of the Netherlands, vol. 14, no. 488, p.215 (1958). A list of 82 discrete radio sources from a survey along the galactic ridge at a frequency of 1390 MHz. Objects not already identified in the NGC and IC catalogues are given the prefix "W".A Catalogue of H Ⅱ Regions
(Sh2), Stewart Sharpless, 1959 — from Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 4, p.257 (1959). A catalogue is given of 313 H Ⅱ regions north of declination —27°. Known early-type stars associated with them are listed.Catalogue of 349 dark objects in the sky (B), Edward Emerson Barnard, 1927. The initial list of 182 dark nebulae is found in "On the dark markings of the sky, with a catalogue of 182 such objects", E. E. Barnard, Astrophysical Journal, 49, p.1-24 (1919). The complete list entitled "Catalogue of 349 dark objects in the sky" is found in A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, E. E. Barnard, 1927, (see listing under photographic atlases above).
Catalogue of Dark Nebulae
(LDN), Beverly T. Lynds, 1962 — from Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 7, p.1 (1962).Catalogue of Bright Nebulae
(LBN), Beverly T. Lynds, 1965 — from Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 12, p.163 (1965)Bonner Durchmusterung (BD), Bonn University: F. Argeland et al 1859–62, F. Küstner 1903, F. Becker 1951, H. Schmidt 1968. A list of over 325000 stars down to below magnitude 9.5. Epoch 1855.0.
NASA 1993 edition of the BD.
[Vol 1: +89° to +30°] [Vol 2: +29° to -1°]1903 Küstner edition.
[Vol 1: -2° to +20°] [Vol 2: +20° to +41°] [Vol 3: +41° to +90°]Bonner Sternverzeichniss (Southern Durchmusterung) (SD), Dr. Eduard Schönfeld, 1886. Vol 4: -2° to -23°.
Cordoba Durchmusterung (CD), John M. Thome, 1892–1932. For southern stars, -22° to -90°.
[Vol 1: -22° to -30°] [Vol 2: -31° to -39°]
[Vol 3: -40° to -49°] [Vol 4: -50° to -90°]Cape Photographic Durchmusterung (CP = CPD), 1875–1900
[Vol 1: -18° to -37°] [Vol 2: -38° to -52°] [Vol 3: -53° to -89°]
The Henry Draper Catalogue (HD), Annie Cannon & Edward Pickering, 1918–24.
[Vol 1: 0ʰ, 1ʰ, 2ʰ, and 3ʰ] [Vol 2: 4ʰ, 5ʰ, and 6ʰ] [Vol 3: 7ʰ and 8ʰ]
[Vol 4: 9ʰ, 10ʰ, and 11ʰ] [Vol 5: 12ʰ, 13ʰ, and 14ʰ] [Vol 6: 15ʰ and 16ʰ]
[Vol 7: 17ʰ & 18ʰ] [Vol 8: 19ʰ and 20ʰ] [Vol 9: 21ʰ, 22ʰ, and 23ʰ]- Earlier Works
General Catalogue (HP) of bright stars from observations with the Meridian Photometer during the years 1879-82, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College; Vol XIV, pp 83-311. Pickering, Edward Charles; Searle, Arthur; Wendell, Oliver Clinton, 1884. An early catalog of star magnitudes obtained photometrically. The main catalog begins on page 101.
The Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra (DC), Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Vol XXVII. Edward C. Pickering, 1890. An early preliminary catalogue of the photographic spectra of 10,351 stars, nearly all of them north of declination —25°. Cross reference for each star is given to the Durchmusterung (here given as DM) and the Harvard Photometric (HP) number. Positions are given for Epoch B1900.
A Catalogue of 7922 Southern Stars (SMP) observed with the Meridian Photometer during the years 1889-91, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College ; Vol XXXIV. Bailey, Solon I. ; Pickering, Edward C., 1895. An early catalog of star magnitudes obtained photometrically from observations at Mount Harvard near Chosica, Peru. The main catalog begins on page 107.
A Catalogue of 1520 Bright Stars (HP), Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Vol. XLVIII, No. IV. Harvard College Observatory, 1903. A table of 1520 bright stars taken from the Harvard Photometry and Southern Harvard Photometry (Chosica, Peru). RA and Dec are Epoch B1900.
Revised Harvard Photometry (HR): a catalogue of the positions, photometric magnitudes and spectra of 9110 stars, mainly of the magnitude 6.50, and brighter observed with the 2 and 4 inch meridian photometers, Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Vol. L. Pickering, Edward C., 1908. Harvard Observatory's revised bright star catalog.
A Catalogue of 36,682 Stars fainter than magnitude 6.50 onserved with the 4-inch Meridian Photometer, forming a supplement to the Revised Harvard Photometry, Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Vol. LIV. Pickering, Edward C., 1908. Fainter stars added to the bright stars found in the Revised Harvard Photometry in Volume L of the Harvard Annals.
A Catalogue of 16,300 Stars observed with the 12-inch Meridian Photometer, Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Vol. LXXIV. Pickering, Edward C., 1913. Fainter stars, part of which had photometric magnitudes listed in Volume LXX of the Harvard Annals.
Boss General Catalogue of 33342 stars (GC), Benjamin Boss, 1937. This is a digital version of the five volume catalogue which contained positions and proper motions of all stars brighter than magnitude 7 as well as thousands of fainter stars for which accurate proper motions could be determined. It covers the whole sky. The general descriptions and other file formats are here, and this page contains the introduction.
Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars, 2nd ed. (HR = BS), Yale University, 1940. This catalog first appeared in 1930 as a compilation of data on every star in the Revised Harvard Photometry Catalogue (see above). It contains all stars brighter than magnitude 6.5 (9110 stars in this 2nd edition). See below under modern catalogs for the 5th edition.
Third Catalogue of Variable Stars, Seth Carlo Chandler Jr., 1896. Chandler, an American amateur astronomer, published this catalogue of visually observed variable stars in Issue 379 (Vol. 16, No. 19) of the Astronomical Journal.
Catalogue of Variable Stars, Chandler, 1888. AJ, Issue 179–180.
Supplement to First Edition of the Catalogue of Variable Stars, Chandler, 1890. AJ, Issue 216.
Second Catalogue of Variable Stars, Chandler, 1893. AJ, Issue 300.
Supplement to Second Catalogue of Variable Stars, Chandler, 1894. AJ, Issue 319.
Revised Supplement to Second Catalogue of Variable Stars, Chandler, 1895. AJ, Issue 347.
Atlas Stellarum Variabilium, Johann Georg Hagen, 1899–1908. Important variable star atlas and catalog. Hagen worked at the Vatican observatory, so the introduction is in Latin! The following series in the publication were issued between 1899 and 1908, with notes on each. The catalog gives the Chandler number (Cat. III), star name, 1855 coordinates, the date of observation, and a table for the comparison stars present on the chart. This table helps to gauge the brightness of the variable as it changes. The charts give the Chandler number, star name, 1900 coordinates, color, and magnitude variation. They show a 1° finder charter. An inner square of 30' shows the variable and stars down to a magnitude as faint at the star's faintest magnitude. Outside this square, only stars present in the Bonner Durchmusterung are shown.
Series I, 1899. 45 stars between –25° and 0° decl, and minimum below m=10.
Series II, 1899. 46 stars between 0° and +25° decl, and minimum below m=10.
Series III, 1900. 37 stars between +25° to +90° decl, and minimum below m=10.
Series IV, 1907. 101 stars visible to moderate instruments, and which are found in the BD, ie. brighter than m=10.
Series V, 1906. 48 stars with a minimum brighter than magnitude 7, suitable to naked eye and small instrument observing.
Series VI, 1908. 65 stars added as a supplement to Series I-III.
Second General Catalogue of Variable Stars, Annie J. Cannon, 1907. Published in the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Vol. 55, Part 1.
Provisional Catalogue of Variable Stars, Annie J. Cannon, 1903. Annals-AOHC, Vol. 48, Part 3.
William Herschel's Double Star Catalogs (H = ♅), 1782, 1784, 1821.
Catalogue of Double Stars, W. Herschel, 1782. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 72, p.112–162.
Catalogue of Double Stars, W. Herschel, 1785. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 75, p.40–126.
On the places of 145 new double stars, W. Herschel, 1821. Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, 1, p.166-181. Also here.
William Herschel's Double Star Catalog, compiled by Bruce MacEvoy, 2011. A compilation of all three catalogs on one web page. A description of the reconstruction of the compiled Herschel catalogs is on MacEvoy's page, "The William Herschel Double Star Catalogs Restored." See also his observers checklist of all Herschel double stars, and his Herschel 500 Double Star List below.
Observations of the Apparent Distances and Positions of 380 Double and Triple Stars..., Sir John Herschel and Sir James South, 1824.
Catalogus Novus Stellarum Duplicium et Multiplicium (Σ = STF), F. G. W. Struve, 1827. One of the most important multiple star system catalogs for many years.
Catalogus 795 stellarum duplicium, F. G. W. Struve, 1822.
Approximate Places of Double Stars in the Southern Hemisphere, observed at Paramatta in New South Wales (Δ = DUN), James Dunlop, 1829. Contains 256 southern double stars.
Catalogue of Double Stars, Otto Wilhelm Struve, 1843.The catalogue includes the main catalog of 514 stars, and the appendix of 256 stars.
Catalogue de 514 Étoiles Doubles et Multiples (OΣ = STT), O. W. Struve, 1843.
Catalogue de 256 Étoiles Doubles Principales entre 32" et 2' Distance (OΣΣ = STT), O. W. Struve, 1843.
Catalogue Revu et Corrigé des Étoiles Doubles et Multiples..., O. W. Struve, 1850. Revised OΣ list.
Catalogue of the Pulkowa Doubles Stars, Lick Observatory. A list by Wm J.Hussey of the OΣ double stars from Micrometrical Observations of the Double Stars Discovered at Pulkowa, Hussey, 1901.
A Catalogue of 10,300 Multiple and Double Stars Arranged in the Order of Right Ascension
, Sir John Herschel (Disc. = h = HJ), 1874. Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, 40.Reference Catalogue of Southern Double Stars
, Robert T. A. Innes, 1899. Largely replaced by Southern
Double Star Catalogue –19°. to –90° (SDS), R.T.A. Innes, B.H. Dawson, and W.H. van den Bos, 1927.New Double Stars
(Es), T. H. E. C. Espin, 1901–1933. Contains 2575 double stars discovered by Espin.A General Catalogue of 1290 Double Stars Discovered from 1871 to 1899, Sherburne Wesley Burnham, 1900.
A General Catalogue of Double Stars Within 121° of the North Pole (BDS), Sherburne Wesley Burnham, 1906. Part I: The Catalogue. Contains 13665 multiple star systems.
Catalogue and Measures of Double Stars Discovered Visually from 1905 to 1916 within 105° of the North Pole and Under 5" Separation, Robert Jonkheere, 1917. Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society vol. 61. Serves as a supplement to BDS above.
New General Catalogue of Double Stars within 120° of the North Pole (ADS), Robert Grant Aitken, 1932. Lists 17181 double stars.
[Volume 1] [Volume 2]A Catalogue of Star Clusters shown on Franklin-Adams Chart Plates (Mel), Philibert Jacques Melotte, 1915.
Trumpler catalog of open star clusters (Trumpler = Tr), Robert Julius Trumpler, 1930 — shown as "An." (anonymous) in Table 16 and Table 17 of his paper, " Preliminary results on the distances, dimensions and space distribution of open star clusters". Lick Obs. Bull. Vol XIV, No. 420 (1930) p.154-188.
Collinder Catalog of Open Star Clusters (Collinder = Cr), an updated version of Per Arne Collinder's 1931 catalog of open star clusters. The original catalog was an appendix to Collinder's doctoral dissertation "On Structural Properties of Open Galactic Clusters and their Spatial Distribution", Annals of the Observatory of Lund, vol. 2, pp B1-B46. These clusters are seen in many modern star charts with a "Cr" followed by the list number.
Berkeley List of Open Star Clusters (Berkeley = Be) from Newly Found Star Clusters. Setteducati, Arthur F. and Weaver, Harold F., Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, 1962. The source of this list of old clusters is often misidentified by connecting it with other star cluster catologs such as Alter et al, Catalogue of Star Clusters and Associations (OCL), 1958 & 1970, and Gösta Lyngå, The Catalogue of Open Star Clusters (C), 1981. Alter and his collegues worked out of Prague and Budapest, while Lyngå worked at Lund Observatory in Sweden, so no connection with Berkeley!
Czernik List of Open Star Clusters (Czernik = Cz) from "New Open Star Clusters", Acta Astronomica, Vol. 16, p.93. Czernik, Mieczysław, 1966. A list of open clusters not registered in the catalogue of Star Clusters and Associations is given. The clusters were found on the charts of the Palomar Sky Atlas.
Atlas of the Heavens II Catalogue 1950.0
, Antonín Bečvář, 1964. Companion catalog to the Atlas Coeli Skalnaté Pleso above. This handy catalog gives data on the objects in the atlas, including all stars to magnitude 6.25, double stars, variable stars, novae, open and globular star clusters, planetary nebulae, diffuse nebulae, radio sources, and galaxies. Useful tables and a Messier list are also present.
Modern Observing Lists
Popular checklists of objects to observe. Most amateurs start by working through the Messier Catalog above. Then they try to find objects in the following checklists.
Herschel 400 List, Originally formulated by the Ancient City Astronomy Club, St. Augustine, FL in 1980. A list of 400 of the best objects from William Herschel's Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (H).
Information and links about the Astronomical League's Herschel 400 observing program.Herschel 400 listed by NGC number.
Herschel 400 listed by constellation.
Herschel 400 II List, Rose City Astronomers, Portland, OR, 1997. An additional 400 objects from William Herschel's Catalogue. These are fainter and more challenging. For an excellent observers guide with data and finder charts see Alvin Huey's excellent Oberserving the Herschel 400 Objects Part II
.
Information and links about the Astronomical League's
Herschel 400 II observing program.Herschel 400 II listed by NGC number.
Herschel 400 II listed by constellation.
Best Objects in the New General Catalog, A.J. Crayon and Steve Coe, 1990. A list used by the Saguaro Astronomy Club, Phoenix, AZ. A list on the SEDS website is here.
Caldwell List (C), Patrick Moore, 1995. A collection of 109 of the most impressive celestial objects taken from the NGC and IC catalogs that were not included in Messier's list. The Astronomical League page has information and links about the Caldwell observing program.
Caldwell catalogue on the SEDS website.
Wikipedia Caldwell catalogue list to object articles.
The RASC's Finest NGC Objects List
, Alan Dyer, 1995.
A list of the 110 best deep sky objects used by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
The objects are arranged by viewing season. Information about the list and the certificate awards is on the RASC
Finest NGC Objects page.TAAS 200 Observing List
, The Albuquerque Astronomical Society, 1995.
A list of the best 200 non-Messier objects easily visible from central New Mexico (objects north of declination -48).
This list was intended for intermediately experienced and equipped observes. The society site has a
page about the list with its history and observing strategies.The Herschel 500 Double Star List: A Selection of Herschel's Class I to Class V Double Stars, Bruce MacEvoy, 2011.
Binosky: Deep Sky Objects for Binoculars, Ben Crowell. Compiled on the SEDS website from the BinoSky page.
The SEDS site has a big list of observing lists, both old and current, on their Messier site.
Modern Catalogs
Modern star and objects catalogs, as well as updates on older ones.
Astrometric and Standard Star Catalogs, Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Yale Bright Star Catalog (HR = BS), 5th Edition. Key to the catalog entries here.
Fifth Fundamental Catalogue (FK5) Part II. An extended list of fundamental stars used for more accurate position coordinates. Key to the catalog entries are here. Part I of FK5, listing the classic fundamental stars, is on this PDF document.
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog (SAO), J2000 epoch, north of -40° declination. The catalog lists 216462 stars. Key to the catalog entries are here.
Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3), Gérard and Antoinette de Vaucouleurs et al, 1991. A current standard catalog of 23011 galaxies. Information on the list is here.
Revised New General Catalogue (RNGC), Sulentic and Tifft, 1973. 7110 objects above -40° declination. Information on the list is here.
Messier Catalog and Caldwell List objects.
Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue (RNGC-Steinicke), Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke, 2021. There is an introduction and full explantion in English. Explanations for specific old catalogs and the zipped RNGC catalog file are listed on the main link above. Of particular interest is a spreadsheet file of Caroline Herschel's unpublished Zone Catalogue (ZC).
Strasbourg Astronomical Data Center, "CDS". CDS hosts the SIMBAD astronomical database, the world reference database for the identification of astronomical objects; VizieR, the catalogue service for the CDS reference collection of astronomical catalogues and tables published in academic journals; and the Aladin interactive software sky atlas for access, visualization and analysis of astronomical images, surveys, catalogues, databases and related data.
General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS), Version 5.1. The main link is the fast text version from the authors' website. The pretty version HERE on Simbad is SLOW even though only 100 rows at a time are shown. There is a variable star query form on VizieR, however. Originally published in 1948 by B. V. Kukarkin and P. P. Parenago.
International Variable Star Index, AAVSO. VSX was conceived and created by amateur astronomer Christopher Watson in response to the specific desires of the members of the Chart Team and the Comparison Star Database Working Group of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), and the broader perceived need for a globally-accessible central "clearing-house" for all up-to-the-minute information on variable stars, both established and suspected. The VSX web site was designed to be the on-line medium by which variable star data are made available to the general public, and through which the data are maintained, revised, and commented upon.
Washington Double Star Catalog, United States Naval Observatory.
Mirrored at the WDS page at Georgia State University.The Unified Cluster Catalogue (UCC), Perren et al, 2023. The largest catalogue of open clusters in existence. It consists of comprehensive and homogeneous data for an ever expanding number of entries, taken from the latest published articles combined with data from the European Space Agency's Gaia survey. Modern catalogs of clusters since 1999 are synchronized into one unified catalog. Enter the name of the cluster, for example NGC 6791, Berkeley 46, or MWSC 3088. This page has a FAQ with directions. The database page has a list, with source links, to all the catalogs used along with a breakdown of the number of objects by member total and by cluster quality classification.
Catalogue of Star Clusters and Associations (OCl = OCL), Alter, Georg; Balazs, Bela; Ruprecht, J.; Vanýsek, V. 1970, 2nd edition. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado. Based on the 1958 first edition catalog of the same title by Alter, Ruprecht, and Vanýsek as well as nine supplements appearing in the Bulletin of the Astronomical Institute of Czechoslovakia between 1959 and 1966. The following supplement from 1981 compiles the 1044 open clusters (OCl), 125 globular clusters (GCl), and 70 stellar associations known by 1973.
Catalogue of Star Clusters and Associations. Supplement 1 to the 2nd Edition, 3 volumes. Ruprecht, J.; Balazs, B. A.; White, R. E. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary, 1981.
Supplement 1. Part A: Introduction.
Supplement 1. Part B1: New data for open clusters.
Full list of open clusters (OCl = OCL).
Supplement 1. Part B2: New data for associations, globular clusters.
Full list of globular clusters (GCl = GCL).
Full list of associations (ASS).
Catalogue of Open Cluster Data (C), 5th Edition, Gösta Lyngå, Lund Observatory, Sweden, 1987. The first edition of this computer database catalog appeared in 1981, the full title of which was The Lund–Strasbourg Catalogue of Open Cluster Data. The article describing the catalog appeared in Astronomical Data Center Bulletin, Vol. 1, page 90. The linked catalog is actually the abbreviated list ordered by galactic coordinates and includes 1111 out of the 1151 clusters in the full catalog. The OCL column refers to Alter et al above. The C Name is the primary name in this Lyngå catalog. Both are referenced in SIMBAD. "LundRec" refers to the record number on the Lund disc. The full catalog data can be found HERE, but it is far too large for this page, and has been incorporated into other later catalogs such as Dias et al.
List of Galactic Novae, Bill Gray, updated 2022. A current list of all known galactic novae listed in reverse chronological order. An explanation of the list can be found here A detailed list of novae found since 2008 can be found on Koji Mukai's page, Koji's List of Recent Galactic Novae.
A Catalogue of Galactic Supernova Remnants, D. A. Green, 2014.
The Perek-Kohoutek Catalogue of Planetary Nebulae
(PK), Luboš Perek and Luboš Kohoutek, updated edition for 2000.0 by L. Kohoutek, 2001.
Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies (UGC), Peter Nilson, 1973. This is a digital version of Nilson's catalog of all northern galaxies (north of declination -2.5°) brighter than magnitude 14.5. The general descriptions and other file formats are here, and this page contains the introduction. Nilson also has a full introduction and explanation at this CalTech page.
Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC), G. Paturel; P. Fouque; L. Bottinelli; L. Gouguenheim, 1989. This is a digital version of the 1989 catalog by Paturel et al of cross-identifications for 73,197 galaxies. Coordinates are given for epochs 1950 and 2000. The general descriptions and other file formats are here, and this page contains the introduction.
A Catalog of Rich Clusters of Galaxies
(Abell), George Abell, H. Corwin, R. Olowin, 1989. A rich galaxy cluster contains 30 or more member galaxies. Abell published his first catalog in 1958. This 1989 paper contains a list of 5250 rich clusters covering the entire sky.HEASARC Catalog Resources Index, NASA – High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center. Another huge database of catalog information.
Some of the more useful for amateur astronomy:
Messier Nebulae Preface number with M. [info];
NGC2000.0: Complete New General Catalog and Index Catalog Preface number with NGC or IC. [info];
Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies (RC3) SIMBAD uses VII/155 designation. [info].
Reference Works
Aids to star finding and observational reference works.
Planetary Ephemeris Data, AstroPixels. A wealth of solar system data.
Observing Resources Page, AstroPixels. Links to many importants astronomy sites on every topic.
Local Apparent Sidereal Time, U.S. Naval Observatory. Enter your longitude to find the local sideral (star) time, both mean and apparent, as well as the Greenwich sidereal time. This will indicate the Right Ascension of the stars directly on the meridian (N-S line). Looking on a star chart you can then tell which constellations are easiest to see. To find your longitude enter your address in this web app. Then paste the lat. and long. into the sidereal calculator.
The Nautical Almanac, Enno Rodegerdts. Free, software-generated astronomical phenomena tables, nautical almanacs, and sight reduction tables for navigation.
A Popular Handbook and Atlas of Astronomy, Sir William Peck, 1891. Some useful tables for observing. The reverse star charts showing over 6000 objects are exceptionally good for this era. There are also nice maps of the Pleiades, the Ecliptic, and a visual table of some double star configurations (for the era).
Astronomy 101, Indiana Astronomical Society. Of special note are the three excellent PDF documents at the bottom of the page: IFAS Novice Handbook, IFAS Messier Handbook, and IFAS Binocular Handbook (no longer on the Irish Federation web site).
Star-Names and Their Meanings, Roger Hinkley Allen, 1899. The classic text on star names. There is also an online text version. Unfortunately, much of Allen's work was based on earlier secondary references that had many errors. This is true of the Arabic names, and even more so, the Chinese, Babylonian, Egyptian, and the various other ancient languages. For a more modern treatment, see Paul Kunitzsch and Tim Smart, A Dictionary of Modern Star Names (2006).
Star Lore of All Ages, William Tyler Olcott, 1911. Subtitled: "A collection of myths, legends, and facts concerning the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere."
Report Forms and Observing Log Templates
Forms for reporting observations.
Observing Logs and Sketching Forms, Home Built Astronomy Projects.
Observing Forms and Templates, Belt of Venus Observation Record Sheets.
Observing Forms, American Association of Amateur Astronomers.
