Starship Asterisk*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_General_Catalogue wrote:
<<The New General Catalogue (NGC) is a well-known catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy. It contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. The NGC is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies.

The catalogue was compiled in the 1880s by J. L. E. Dreyer using observations mostly from William Herschel and his son John. Dreyer had already published an update to the Herschel's Catalogue of Nebulae, but a new update was turned down by the Royal Astronomical Society, who asked Dreyer to compile a New General Catalogue. The NGC was published in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society as "A New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, being the Catalogue of the late Sir John F.W. Herschel, Bart., revised, corrected, and enlarged." (Dreyer J. L. E., 1888, Mem. R. Astron. Soc., 49, 1-237).

The NGC was later expanded with two Index Catalogues (IC I in 1896 & IC II in 1905), adding a further 5,386 objects. Most of these later discoveries had been made possible by the advent of photography.

Objects in the southern hemisphere sky are somewhat less thoroughly cataloged, but many were observed by John Herschel or James Dunlop. The NGC contained many errors, but a serious if not complete attempt to eliminate them has been undertaken by The NGC/IC Project, after partial attempts with the Revised New General Catalog (RNGC) by Sulentic and Tifft in 1973, and NGC2000.0 by Sinnott in 1988.>>

http://www.ngcicproject.org/projobslist.htm wrote:
<<The following table contains the list of the 82 NGC objects for which we are currently unable to identify any reasonable candidates for the actual physical object. I hesitate to call this an "Observing List", but I can't think of what it would be since some of the identities of these objects may be resolved by actually observing at the eyepiece of a telescope.

The left-hand column contains the original NGC designation as assigned by J.L.E. Dreyer, and directly below the object designation is the nominal Equinox 2000.0 position for the object. This is the original Equinox 1860.0 position precessed to Equinox 2000.0. The right-hand column contains Dr. Harold Corwin's historical notes concerning the object which usually contains any detective work he has done to date.

Our hope is that this list will grow smaller over time as more data and information become available to us. Should anyone think that they have a viable solution to any of these puzzle objects, please feel free to contact me with all of the particulars.
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NGC 56 00h 15m 20.6s +12º 26' 40"

NGC 56 does not exist. John Herschel recorded it only once very early in his observing career (Sweep 14 in 1825), saying, "About this place a considerable space seems affected with nebulosity." There is a possibility that he saw a reflection of the bright star 2 degrees north, but there is no other reasonable explanation for the observation. The other objects that he recorded in Sweep 14 (including M15) are all in the same area of the sky, so there is no gross error in the position.

Etc., etc., ......>>