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Many active amateur astronomers today, having already surveyed the clusters,
nebulae, and galaxies contained in the popular Messier and Caldwell catalogs, are
seeking new horizons to explore with their telescopes. None better can possibly be
found than those discoveries made by the great English astronomer Sir William
Herschel in the late 1700s to early 1800s. But rather than just over a hundred
objects found in each of the former two listings, Herschel’s catalog contains some
2,500 entries. This sheer number of targets has discouraged most observers – however
avid they may be about deep-sky observing – from attempting to explore
these unsung wonders.
In a letter in the April, 1976, issue of Sky & Telescope magazine the author suggested
a way to make Herschel’s list more attractive to observers. His discoveries
were arranged into eight Classes, designated I to VIII (see Chapter 3). Of these,
1,893 lie in Classes II and III – his faint and very faint nebulae. Dropping these and
taking only those entries in the remaining classes as a working list results in 615
objects – a much more manageable and realistic number of targets to view. This
letter was followed by a full-length article on this concept in the January, 1978,
issue of Astronomy magazine and (much later) another one in Sky & Telescope for
September, 1992. As a result of these published pieces, observation of the Herschel
objects began to grow in popularity among the stargazing community, and acting
upon the author’s suggestion an actual Herschel Club was started by the Ancient
City Astronomy Club in St. Augustine, Florida. This local effort was eventually
adopted on a national level by the Astronomical League, a federation of most of
the astronomy clubs in the United States. (See Appendix 1 for more about this and
other Herschel Clubs, including a short-lived one dating back to 1958.)
Unfortunately, the target list adopted by these organizations contains a total of
only 400 entries rather than the full 615 that I had recommended (although some
of its founding members are now going after the entire Herschel catalog). Among
them are many objects of Classes II and III – which are for the most part anything
but exciting at the eyepiece – while a number of real Herschel showpieces are overlooked. |
