The Caldwell Catalogue

Download or read book The Caldwell Catalogue written by Patrick Moore and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2001-12-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some time ago, the renowned astronomer Patrick Moore - best known for his BBC TV programme The Sky at Night which has screened continuously for 42 years - devised a catalogue of 109 deep space (galaxies, nebulae, clusters) objects to which he has lent his middle name Caldwell. Thus Caldwell objects, numbered C1 to C109.Why Caldwell and not Moore? The most famous of all catalogues of astronomical objects was created by Charles Messier in 1774, and these are designated by M1 to M109, so Patrick Moore could not use his own surname, but instead elected to use his middle name Caldwell. And Patrick Moore chose 109 object to match Messier, though it is important to understand that not one of Patrick Moore's objects overlaps with Charles Messier's.Messier was in fact a comet hunter - in the eighteenth century comets were not understood at all and had huge significance when they appeared blazing across the clear skies, as yet free from the light pollution we experience. He catalogued galaxies, nebulae and clusters not because he was particularly interested in those objects, but because he did not want these objects to be confused with ne