The Herschel Object Listings - Sorted by H-number

Sir William Herschel (1738 - 1822 ), his sister Caroline  (1750-1848), and his son Sir John Herschel (1792 - 1871) are credited with the discovery and documentation of roughly 2518 objects in the night sky, now known as the Herschel Objects, to include the famous Herschel 400 Observing List, the H2 Observing List. Notice in the “classifications” below, no reference to the term “Galaxy”. Today, we know that roughly 75% of the Herschel objects are indeed “Galaxies”. But to them, they appeared as “Nebulae”. The discovered Objects were classified into 8 catagories by the Herschels.  There were/are 2511 objects. However, some object numbers were used more than once (7), thus the actual list is 2518 objects.  The 8 catagories, and links to the listings including cross-reference to existing current NGC values, and links to observations appear below. Class I - Bright Nebulae (288) H1-1 through H200-1 H201-1 through H288-1 Class II - Faint Nebulae (910) H1-2 through H200-2 H201-2 through H399-2 H401-2 through H600-2 H601-2 through H800-2 H801-2 through H910-2 Class III - Very Faint Nebulae (985) H1-3 through H200-3 H201-3 through H399-3 H401-3 through H600-3 H601-3 through H800-3 H801-3 through H985-3 Class IV - Planetary Nebulae; stars with burs, with milky chevelure, with short rays, remarkable shapes, etc. (79) H1-4 through H79-4 Class V - Very Large Nebulae (52) H1-5 through H52-5 Class VI - Very compressed and Rich Clusters of Stars (42) H1-6 through H42-6 Class VII - Pretty Much Compressed Clusters of Large or Small Stars (67) H1-7 through H67-7 Class VIII - Coarsely Scattered Clusters of Stars (88) H1-8 through H88-8  

The 40’ Telescope