The Herschel 400 catalogue is a subset of William Herschel's original Catalogue of Nebulae, selected by Brenda F. Guzman (Branchett), Lydel Guzman, Paul Jones, James Morrison, Peggy Taylor and Sara Saey of the Ancient City Astronomy Club in St. Augustine, Florida, USA c. 1980. They decided to generate the list after reading a letter published in Sky & Telescope by James Mullaney of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
In this letter Mr. Mullaney suggested that William Herschel's original catalogue of 2,500 objects would be an excellent basis for deep sky object selection for amateur astronomers looking for a challenge after completing the Messier Catalogue.
The Herschel 400 is a subset of John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters published in 1864 of 5,000 objects, and hence also of the New General Catalogue.
The catalogue forms the bases of the Astronomical League's Herschel 400 club.
Read more about Herschel 400 Catalogue: Vital Statistics, Herschel 400 Objects Which Are Also Messier Objects, Herschel 400 Objects Which Are Also Caldwell Objects, Number of Objects By Type in The Herschel 400, Number of Herschel 400 Objects in Each Constellation
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