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Bennett Catalogue
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The Jack Bennett Catalogue of Southern Hemisphere Objects

 

An Astrophotography Essay

 

Background

For two decades, starting in the late 1960's, the southern sky was patrolled by a dedicated South African comet-hunter named Jack Bennett.  Using a 5-inch low-power refractor from his backyard he discovered two comets.  Jack also picked up a 9th magnitude supernova in NGC 5236 (M83), becoming the first person ever to visually discover a supernova since the invention of the telescope.

John Caister Bennett was born on April 6th, 1914 in Estcourt Natal; his mother was British and his father was from Longford, Tasmania.   A long-standing member of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA), he was elected President in 1969. The Society awarded him the prestigious Gill Medal for services to astronomy in 1970 and in 1986 he received an Honorary Degree of Master of Science from the University of Witwatersrand. In 1989, at the recommendation of Rob McNaught of Siding Springs Observatory, the asteroid VD 4093 was named after him.  Bennett passed away on May 30th, 1990 in Pretoria.

 

This picture was taken on occasion of Jack's visit to the USA to accept an award for the M83 supernova visual discovery. 

Source: Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of
Southern Africa (MNASSA), Volume 49, No. 9, page 114

This photo, taken in 1977, shows Bennett at the eyepiece of the 12-inch telescope belonging to the Pretoria Centre of the ASSA.   In Bennett's handwriting, and initialled by him, on the back of the photograph, in his typical humorous shy style:  "With antiquated observer."

 

Jack was a skilled observer and in the spirit of Charles Messier drew up two lists of southern objects that appeared comet-like in his telescope. He referred to them as "shades of Messier...".  His first list (Bennett, 1969) was published four months before he discovered his first comet. The supplementary list (Bennett, 1974) was followed three months later by his second discovery.  These two lists have been combined to form the Bennett Catalogue (Table below).

Bennett's Catalogue reads like the "Who's Who of the (Southern) Deepsky". Among the 152 objects are the Tarantula,  Omega Centauri,  47 Tucanae,  Sombrero, Helix,  Centaurus A  and the Silver Coin.   Twenty-six of Messier's objects are listed. Bennett noted that including such bright objects may be unnecessary, but added: "it is surprising how easily even these can be mistaken for comets when seen at low altitudes and poor conditions."    Almost half the objects in Bennett's list are globular clusters, which makes sense since these bear a striking resemblance to comets. The constellation richest in Bennett objects is Sagittarius, followed by Ophiuchus. Bennett wrote that "the constellations Scorpio, Ophiuchus and Sagittarius . . contain a bewildering variety of comet-like objects. These are mostly globular clusters and all except the largest defy attempts to distinguish them from tailless comets. This relatively small area of sky contains about a third of all the comet-like objects visible with small telescopes south of the equator."   Dorado also contains many "Bennetts" - five galaxies and six clusters and nebulae. The latter lie within the Large Magellanic Cloud which, according to Bennett, "should normally be avoided like the plague by anyone looking for comets. There are, however, a few objects on the outskirts of the Clouds which are regularly encountered in comet sweeps, and these have been included in the list, if only as a warning to the observer of the perils that lie ahead of him!"

 

The Essay 

When I was a young student in my native Belgium, Jack Bennett's first comet discovery  - C/1969 Y1,  the great comet Bennett  that reached mag 0 (!) in March-April 1970 -  constituted a landmark and major motivation point in my personal  astrophotography  roadmap.  

The image of Comet Bennett on the right was taken in 1970 near the town of Waasmunster in Flanders (Belgium) using Kodak Tri-X B&W 400 ASA film developed in Promicrol, a popular astrophotography methodology in those years.  The camera was a Pentax Spotmatic SLR camera riding piggy-back on an 4" Polarex-Unitron refractor and mount. I made a whole stack of 30 x 40 cm prints  and offered them for sale to help finance my astrophotography endeavors.

It is thus with a special dedication and fondness that I go about imaging and documenting Jack's collection of  "comet-like"  objects.

This is a work in progress:  the  table below lists all 152 Bennett objects.  A click on the Bennett number in the first column will take you to the image.  The second column shows the corresponding NGC number for all but three objects and other designations if available.  My special thanks to South-African Auke Slotegraaf for the background info on Jack Bennett and especially for the two images of the late Mr. Bennett, courtesy of ASSA (Astronomical Society of Southern Africa)  http://www.saao.ac.za/assa .

Daniel Verschatse, Santiago de Chile in March of 2005

 

 

 

Bennett

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10a


11
12
13
14
14a
15
16
17
18
19
19a
20


21
21a
22
23
24
25
25a
26
27
28
29
30


31
32
33
34
35
36
36a
37
37a
38
39
40
40a


41
41a
41b
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
59a
60


61
62
63
63a
64
65
66
67
68
69
70


71
72
72a
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
79a
79b
80


81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90


91
91a
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
98a
98b
99
100


101
102
103
104
105
106
107
107a
108
109
110


111
112
112a
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120

121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
129a
129b
130

Other designation(s)

NGC 55
NGC 104,  47 Tuc
NGC 247
NGC 253,  Sculptor, Silver Coin Gal.
NGC 288
NGC 300
NGC 362
NGC 613
NGC 1068,  M 77
NGC 1097
NGC 1232


NGC 1261
NGC 1291
NGC 1313
NGC 1316
NGC 1350
NGC 1360
NGC 1365
NGC 1380
NGC 1387
NGC 1399
NGC 1398
NGC 1404


NGC 1433
NGC 1512
NGC 1535
NGC 1549
NGC 1553
NGC 1566
NGC 1617
NGC 1672
NGC 1763
NGC 1783
NGC 1792
NGC 1818


NGC 1808
NGC 1851
NGC 1866
NGC 1904,  M 79
NGC 2070,  Tarantula Nebula,  30 Dor
NGC 2214
NGC 2243
NGC 2298
NGC 2467
NGC 2489
NGC 2506
NGC 2627
NGC 2671


NGC 2808
NGC 2972
NGC 2997
NGC 3115
NGC 3132,  8-Burst, S. Ring Nebula
NGC 3201
NGC 3242,  Ghost of Jupiter
NGC 3621
Melotte 105  
NGC 3960
NGC 3923
NGC 4372

NGC 4590,  M 68
NGC 4594,  M 104,  Sombrero Gal.
NGC 4697
NGC 4699
NGC 4753
NGC 4833
NGC 4945
NGC 4976
NGC 5061
NGC 5068
NGC 5128,  Centaurus A


NGC 5139,  Omega Centauri
NGC 5189,  Spiral Nebula
NGC 5236,  M 83,  S.Pinwheel
NGC 5253
NGC 5286
NGC 5617
NGC 5634
NGC 5824
NGC 5897
NGC 5927
NGC 5986


NGC 5999
NGC 6005
Tr 23  (Trumpler)
NGC 6093,  M 80
NGC 6101
NGC 6121,  M 4
NGC 6134
NGC 6144
NGC 6139
NGC 6171,  M 107
NGC 6167
NGC 6192
NGC 6218,  M 12


NGC 6216
NGC 6235
NGC 6254,  M 10
NGC 6253
NGC 6266,  M 62
NGC 6273,  M 19
NGC 6284
NGC 6287
NGC 6293
NGC 6304


NGC 6316
NGC 6318
NGC 6333,  M 9
NGC 6356
NGC 6352
NGC 6362
NGC 6388
NGC 6402,  M 14
NGC 6397
NGC 6440
NGC 6445
NGC 6441
NGC 6496


NGC 6522
NGC 6528
NGC 6544
NGC 6541
NGC 6553
NGC 6569
NGC 6584
NGC 6603,  in M 24
NGC 6618,  M 17
NGC 6624
NGC 6626,  M 28


NGC 6638
NGC 6637,  M 69
NGC 6642
NGC 6652
NGC 6656,  M 22
NGC 6681,  M 70
NGC 6705,  M 11
NGC 6712
NGC 6715,  M 54
NGC 6723
NGC 6744

NGC 6752
NGC 6809,  M 55
NGC 6818
NGC 6864,  M 75
NGC 6981,  M 72
NGC 7009,  Saturn Nebula
NGC 7089,  M 2
NGC 7099,  M 30
NGC 7293,  Helix Nebula
NGC 7410
IC 1459
NGC 7793

R.A.

00:14:54
00:24:06
00:47:06
00:47:36
00:52:48
00:54:54
01:03:12
01:34:18
02:42:42
02:46:18
03:09:48


03:12:18
03:17:18
03:18:18
03:22:42
03:31:06
03:33:18
03:33:36
03:36:30
03:37:00
03:38:30
03:38:54
03:38:54


03:42:00
04:03:54
04:14:12
04:15:42
04:16:12
04:20:00
04:31:42
04:45:42
04:56:48
04:58:54
05:05:12
05:04:12


05:07:42
05:14:06
05:13:30
05:24:30
05:38:36
06:12:48
06:29:48
06:49:00
07:52:36
07:56:12
08:12:00
08:37:18
08:46:12


09:12:00
09:40:18
09:45:36
10:05:12
10:07:00
10:17:36
10:24:48
11:18:18
11:19:39
11:50:52
11:51:00
12:25:48

12:39:30
12:40:00
12:48:36
12:49:00
12:52:24
12:59:36
13:05:24
13:08:36
13:18:06
13:18:54
13:25:30


13:26:48
13:33:30
13:37:00
13:39:54
13:46:24
14:29:48
14:29:36
15:04:00
15:17:24
15:28:00
15:46:06


15:52:12
15:55:48
16:01:30
16:17:00
16:25:48
16:23:36
16:27:42
16:27:18
16:27:42
16:32:30
16:34:24
16:40:18
16:47:12


16:49:24
16:53:24
16:57:06
16:59:06
17:01:12
17:02:36
17:04:30
17:05:12
17:10:12
17:14:30


17:16:36
17:17:48
17:19:12
17:23:36
17:25:30
17:31:54
17:36:18
17:37:36
17:40:42
17:48:54
17:49:12
17:50:12
17:59:00


18:03:36
18:04:48
18:07:18
18:08:00
18:09:18
18:13:36
18:18:36
18:18:24
18:20:48
18:23:42
18:24:30


18:30:54
18:31:24
18:31:54
18:35:48
18:36:24
18:43:12
18:51:06
18:53:06
18:55:06
18:59:36
19:09:48

19:10:54
19:40:00
19:44:00
20:06:06
20:53:30
21:04:12
21:33:30
21:40:24
22:29:36
22:55:00
22:57:00
23:57:48

Dec.

-39:11
-72:05
-20:46
-25:17
-26:35
-37:41
-70:51
-29:25
-00:01
-30:17
-20:35


-55:13
-41:08
-66:30
-37:12
-33:38
-25:51
-36:08
-34:59
-35:31
-35:27
-26:20
-35:35


-47:13
-43:21
-12:44
-55:36
-55:47
-54:56
-54:36
-59:15
-66:24
-66:00
-37:59
-66:24


-37:31
-40:03
-65:28
-24:33
-69:05
-68:16
-31:17
-36:00
-26:23
-30:04
-10:47
-29:57
-41:53


-64:52
-50:20
-31:11
-07:43
-40:26
-46:25
-18:38
-32:49
-63:30
-55:41
-28:48
-72:40

-26:45
-11:37
-05:48
-08:40
-01:12
-70:53
-49:28
-49:30
-26:50
-21:02
-43:01


-47:29
-65:59
-29:52
-31:39
-51:22
-60:43
-05:59
-33:04
-21:01
-50:40
-37:47


-56:28
-57:26
-53:32
-22:59
-72:12
-26:32
-49:09
-26:02
-38:51
-13:03
-49:36
-43:22
-01:57


-44:44
-22:11
-04:06
-52:43
-30:07
-26:16
-24:46
-22:42
-26:35
-29:28


-28:08
-39:27
-18:31
-17:49
-48:25
-67:03
-44:44
-03:15
-53:40
-20:22
-20:01
-37:03
-44:16


-30:02
-30:03
-25:00
-43:42
-25:54
-31:50
-52:13
-18:25
-16:11
-30:22
-24:52


-25:30
-32:21
-23:29
-32:59
-23:54
-32:18
-06:16
-08:42
-30:29
-36:38
-63:51

-59:59
-30:58
-14:09
-21:55
-12:32
-11:22
-00:49
-23:11
-20:48
-39:40
-36:28
-32:35

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