"Historic JH" - Explanation
Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke
25 June 2024
The "Historic JH" contains the Slough and Cape catalogues of John Herschel, listing h-numbers. They were published 1833 and 1847, respectively, with altogether 4021 entries.
Slough catalogue (SC): Observations of nebulae and clusters of stars, made at Slough, with a twenty-feet reflector, between the years 1825 and 1833. Phil, Trans. 123, 359-509 (1833)
Cape catalogue (CC): Results of astronomical Observations made during the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8 at the Cape of Good Hope. London: Smith, Elder and Co. (1847)
The objects in my file are sorted by h-number (see explanation of columns below). Click here for download (zipped xls-File). All information presented here is part of my scientific research. My book "Observation and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters - from Herschel to Dreyer's New General Catalogue" contains more information about these data. It has been published in August 2010 (see here; a german version is on the market since January 2009).
All data are copyright by the author and, if used in a publication or in other datasets, must be credited properly (please inform me in any case). Please inform the author about any errors found in the dataset.
Columns in the "Historic JH"
|
|
|
| h | John Herschel's catalogue number (starting in the SC and continued in the CC) |
| Cat | Catalogue: 1 = SC (h 1...h 2306), 2 = CC (h 2308...h 4015); additional objects: 1a = one object added to SC in CC (h 2307), 1b = one object added to SC by Dreyer (h 1665a), 2a = six supplementary CC objects (h 4016...h 4021);three objects added to CC by Dreyer (h 3701', h 3702', h 3713') |
| Sw | Sweep number (first observation) |
| Y, M, D | Date of J. Herschel's discovery |
| Identity | Identity with other h-number (inside SC and CC or between them) |
| N | N = NGC, I = IC (only IC 344 = h 305) |
| NI | NGC- or IC-number |
| M | No. in Messier catalogue |
| Class | Designation in W. Herschel's catalogues (class and no.) |
| GC | No. in J. Herschel's General Catalogue |
| Dunlop | No. in Dunlop's catalogue (based on the work of Glen Cozens, Australia) |
| Rem (JH) | Remark made by John Herschel (mostly other identification) |
| Discoverer | Name of discoverer (and date if not J. Herschel) |
| Ap | Aperture of discovery telescope (inch) |
|
T
|
Type of discovery instrument: Rl = Reflector, Rr = Refractor, E = naked eye |
|
Observer
|
Independent (later) discoverer |
|
RH ... DS
|
Rect. & Decl. for 2000.0 (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Vmag
|
Visual magnitude (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Con
|
Constellation (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
Type
|
Object type (from Revised NGC/IC) |
|
S
|
Object status: 1 = galaxy, 2 = galactic nebula, 3 = planetary nebula, 4 = open cluster, 5 = globular cluster, 6 = part of nebula, 7 = NGC dublicate, 9 = star(s), 10 = not found |
| ID1, ID2 | double identifications in NGC or IC |