2024 events

Poster
Poster

Who discovered the bright NGC and IC objects?

Dr Glen Cozens

If you count all the clusters, all the nebulae and galaxies brighter than magnitude 13 in both the NGC and IC catalogues the results are:

1714 were found by Sir William Herschel with an 18.5” speculum reflector in the UK
1068 were found by Sir John Herschel with an 18.5” speculum reflector in the UK and at the Cape
278 were found by James Dunlop with a 9” speculum reflector in Australia
197 were found by Lewis Swift, most of them with a 16" refractor in the USA
130 were found by DeLisle Stewart on photographic plates made with a 24" refractor in Peru and
104 were found by Edouard Stephan with a 31" Foucault (silver on glass) reflector in France
The remaining 97 observers found less than 80 objects each.

The above data is from Dr Wolfgang Steinicke, http://www.klima-luf...cic/ngcic_e.htm

Glen Cozens' PhD at JCU was on the first three catalogues of southern clusters and nebulae. They were made by Nicolas-Louis de La Caille in 1751-52 at Cape Town, James Dunlop in 1826 at Parramatta, NSW,and John Herschel from 1834 to 1838 at Cape Town.