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New General Catalogue

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New General Catalogue

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Also known as NGC, New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, NGC/IC, New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue

astronomical catalogue of deep sky objects

AI overview

The New General Catalogue is a comprehensive list of deep sky objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters compiled in the 19th century to help astronomers locate and study these distant celestial bodies. It remains widely used today because it provides a systematic catalog of thousands of objects and established naming conventions that astronomers still reference when observing the night sky.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

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NewGeneralCatalogueOriginal NGC1-33.jpg
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WikiProject Astronomy
title
New General Catalogue
language of work or name
English language
publication date
1888-00-00
short name
এনজিসি
item operated
William Herschel
collection or exhibition size
7840
Commons category
NGC objects
topic's main category
Category:New General Catalogue
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via Wikidata · CC0

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Encyclopedic overview

The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxies, star clusters and emission nebulae. Dreyer published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues (abbreviated IC), describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects. Thousands of these objects are best known by their NGC or IC numbers, which remain in widespread use.

The NGC consolidated the cataloguing work of William and Caroline Herschel, and John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. Objects south of the celestial equator are catalogued somewhat less thoroughly, but many were included based on observation by John Herschel or James Dunlop.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “New General Catalogue” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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