Flammarion's Additional "Principal Star Clusters and Nebulae"

During the years 1917 to 1922, Camille Flammarion has published a series of investigations of the Messier Objects in L'Astronomie, the journal of the Société Astronomique de France. Besides systematic observations and investigations done at the "Observatoire de Juvisy," he presents a summary of the state of knowledge about the objects at that time.

In this series of articles, he also presents, in the first paper, a biography of Charles Messier, together with the story of how he obtained Messier's personal copy of his catalog. Highlights include an identification of M102 with NGC 5866 based on Messier's handwritten position, and the first addition of an object, of M104 (NGC 4594), to the catalog, based on Messier's handwritten notes on its discovery by Pierre Méchain.

Flammarion's version of the Messier List is available online.

Finishing the Messier Catalog, Flammarion continues the series, thru 1922 and 1923, with similar observations and investigations of other objects which he classifies as "Principal Star Clusters and Nebulae" visible from France with medium-sized instruments. He numbers these contributions with numbers consequent to the 104 objects in Messier's catalog. The 15 papers thus give numbers 105 to 119, with three times two NGC objects neighbored in the sky described, so a total of 18 objects: 8 open clusters, 5 planetary nebulae, 1 diffuse starforming nebula, 2 parts of a supernova remnant (the Veil nebula), and 2 galaxies. It happens, perhaps not very surprisingly, that two of the objects coincide with later identified Messier objects, namely, M47 (NGC 2422, No. 116) and M110 (NGC 205, No. 111).

The complete tabe of Flammarion's extra objects is presented here: 

No.  Messier   NGC    Type  Con  RA (2000.0) Dec  Mag  Dim  Reference


105a        NGC  869   OC   Per  02:19.0 +57:09   4.   30   1921LAstr..35..377F
105b        NGC  884   OC   Per  02:22.4 +57:07   4.   30   1921LAstr..35..377F
106         NGC 6543   PN   Dra  17:58.6 +66:38   9.    5.8 1921LAstr..35..429F
107         NGC 6940   OC   Vul  20:34.6 +28:18   6.3  31   1921LAstr..35..460F
108         NGC 7009   PN   Aqr  21:04.2 -11:22   8.    1.7 1922LAstr..36...23F
109         NGC 7662   PN   And  23:25.9 +42:33   9.    2.2 1922LAstr..36...70F
110         NGC 1977   DN   Ori  05:35.5 -04:52        20   1922LAstr..36..113F
111   M110  NGC  205   GE   And  00:40.4 +41:41   8.0  17.4 1922LAstr..36..207F
112a        NGC  663   OC   Cas  01:46.0 +61:15   7.1  16   1922LAstr..36..271F
112b        NGC  654   OC   Cas  01:44.1 +61:53   6.5   5   1922LAstr..36..271F
113         NGC 4565   GS   Com  12:36.3 +25:59   9.6  16.2 1922LAstr..36..298F
114         NGC 7293   PN   Aqr  22:29.6 -20:48  12.8       1922LAstr..36..403F
115a        NGC 6992  SNRp  Cyg  20:56.4 +31:43        60   1922LAstr..36..440F
115b        NGC 6960  SNRp  Cyg  20:45.7 +30:43        70   1922LAstr..36..440F
116   M 47  NGC 2422   OC   Pup  07:36.6 -14:30   4.4  30   1922LAstr..36..477F
117         NGC 7789   OC   Cas  23:57.0 +56:44   6.7  16   1923LAstr..37..113F
118         NGC 2392   PN   Gem  07:29.2 +20:55  10.    0.7 1923LAstr..37..262F
119         NGC 6633   OC   Oph  18:27.7 +06:34   4.6  27   1923LAstr..37..458F
120a        NGC 2335   OC   Mon  07:06.6 -10:05   7.2  12   1924LAstr..38..107F
120b        NGC 2343   OC   Mon  07:08.3 -10:39   6.7   7   1924LAstr..38..107F
120c        NGC 2349   OC   Mon  07:10.0 -08:37             1924LAstr..38..107F
120d        NGC 2353   OC   Mon  07:14.6 -10:18   7.1  20   1924LAstr..38..107F

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    Last Modification: April 16, 2018