'It's All Greek to Me': Reading Charts

You can go to http://www.aspsky.org/ngc/ngc.html for a partial listing of NGC objects. But I would also recommend getting a book with a thorough listing. (Yes, books printed on paper do still have a place in this high-tech world -- if for no other reason than the fact they don't glow in the dark and ruin your night vision.)

Finally, there is the Messier catalogue. Back in the late 1700s, Charles Messier was hunting comets and found himself deeply frustrated by comet-like objects in the sky. He made a list of these objects to help other comet-hunters to not be fooled. It turned out that his list contains many of the most fantastic objects in the night sky. Ironically, they were to him just a nuisance. Examples are M1, the Crab Nebula, and M45, the Pleiades. Go to http://www.seds.org/billa/dssm/ for a complete list.

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