Some Historic Deepsky Object Catalogs

Certainly, the most outstanding historical Deep Sky Object catalog is the Messier Catalog, which is also the subject of this online database. Here we give links to some of the other early Deep Sky Object catalogs, historically before and contemporary to Messier's, but all before Herschel's great survey.

Several smaller catalogs of historical importance are given in our History of Deep Sky Discovery page.
Hodierna's Deep Sky Observations
Hevelius' obscure but historically important list of 16 "Nebulosae," extracted from his Prodomus Astronomiae.
Halley's 6-object catalog. Also note Halley's original paper.
Derham's list of 16 "Nebulae" (14 of them from Hevelius). Also note Derham's original paper.
Edmond Halley's Deep Sky Object Catalogs
De Chéseaux's list of 21 "nebulae". Also note De Chéseaux's Original List of 21 "Nebulae"
Lacaille's catalog. Also note the original Lacaille catalog (as reprinted in an appendix of Messier's Catalog).
Bode's Catalog. Also note the Original Bode Catalog.
Johann Gottfried Koehler's Catalog. Also note the Original Koehler Catalog.
Caroline Herschel's Deep Sky Discoveries (which were all included in William Herschel's catalog)

We would like to include more of the historic catalogs of "nebulous objects" mentioned in our History of Deepsky Discovery here. Also, if you know of further historic Deep Sky catalogs (especially if suited for amateur observing or "work-thru") please contact me.

History of the Discovery of the Deepsky Objects

Historical Deep Sky Objects: List of all 152 Deep Sky Object discovered before William Herschel began his extensive survey in September, 1782, in various formats

More Deepsky Catalogs and Observing Lists

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: September 22, 2006