Hello sky watchers! It's with great pleasure that I make available my Royal Astronomical Society of Canada "Finest NGC Objects" sky charts. This 110 objects list, which appear annually in the Observer's Handbook, is a great challenge for those who have observed all Messier objects and want to observe other deep sky objects. Objects are sorted by season and constellation. You will find 12 open clusters, 2 globular clusters, 15 diffuse nebulas, 24 planetary nebulas and 57 galaxies (2 elliptical, 2 irregular et 53 spiral). I have worked hard to make those charts easier to read and use, so I hope you will enjoy them.
Here are the main chart's characteristics:
- The charts have been produced with Coelix Apex (an excellent french software that will be available in english soon).
- Two charts for each of the 110 objects; one wide field 40° X 48° (1X) and one narrow field 5° X 6° (8X).
- In some cases the wide field chart is 20° X 24° (2X).
- If printed on both side, the 1X chart will be on the front page and the 8X on the back.
- For clarity purpose only bright stars usual names have been kept.
- For clarity purpose deep sky objects labels have been repositionned.
- On wide field charts Caldwell # are used instead of NGC (33 of 110 objects are Caldwell objects).
- On wide field charts Telrad circles are displayed, centered on objects.
- Each chart have a title including object's NGC #, type and # in the list.
- Charts are in PDF format (superior quality), no need to have Coelix.
- Chart's legend are in french but I don't think it will be a problem to use them.
I highly recommand to print on both sides of sheets using a laser printer, quality will be better and charts will be ordered efficiently. You should place the charts in sheet protectors (you will need 112 of them) and put those in a 1.5 inch binder. Sheet protectors are good for humid nights and you don't need to make holes in the charts. PDF files are big, you should download them to your hard drive using your mouse right button. Clear Skies!!!
P.S.: If you use Coelix Apex software and want the CXM files, you can download them here.
Last update: September 18, 2016 at 11:30 EDT.
