New General Catalogue
The
New General Catalogue (
NGC) is the most well-known catalogue of
deep sky objects (DSOs) in
amateur astronomy. Containing nearly 8,000 objects it is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues ie. of all types of DSOs, not specialised to just
galaxies for instance.
Spiral galaxy NGC 3982 displays numerous spiral arms filled with bright stars, blue star clusters, and dark dust lanes. It spans about 30,000 light years, lies about 60 million light years from Earth and can be seen with a small telescope in the constellation of Ursa Major.
The NGC was compiled in the 1880s by Dreyer using observations mostly from William Herschel, and then subsequently expanded with two Index Catalogues (ICs), adding nearly 5,000 objects.
Objects in the southern sky are somewhat less well catalogued but many were observed by John Herschel. The NGC contained many errors which have for the most part been eliminated by the Revised NGC.
Objects in the NGC with articles in Wikipedia
- NGC 224 - M31, the Andromeda Galaxy
- NGC 598 - M33, the Triangulum Galaxy
- NGC 604 - a large H II Region within the Triangulum Galaxy
- NGC 1952 - M1, the Crab Nebula
- NGC 1976 - M42, the Orion Nebula
- NGC 2070 - the Tarantula Nebula
- NGC 2264 - a young open cluster in the Monoceros constellation
- NGC 2346 - a planetary nebula in the Monoceros constellation
- NGC 3034 - M82, a starbust galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation
- NGC 4321 - M100, a spiral galaxy in the Virgo cluster
- NGC 4486 - M87, a giant elliptical galaxy dominating the Virgo cluster
- NGC 5236 - M83, a spiral Galaxy in the Hydra constellation
- NGC 5457 - M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy
- NGC 5866 - A lenticular galaxy in the Draco constellation
- NGC 6121 - M4, a globular cluster in the Scorpius constellation
- NGC 6171 - M107, a very loose globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus
- NGC 6205 - M13, a globular cluster in the Hercules constellation
- NGC 6240 - the Starfish Galaxy.
- NGC 6402 - M14, a globular cluster in the Ophiuchus constellation
- NGC 6537 - the Red Spider Nebula
- NGC 6543 - the Cat's Eye Nebula
- NGC 6611 - M16, the Eagle Nebula
- NGC 6720 - M57, the Ring Nebula
- NGC 7000 - the North America Nebula
- NGC 7742 - a Type 2 Seyfert galaxy in the constellation Pegasus.
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