The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxies, star clusters, emission nebulae and absorption nebulae. Dreyer published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues, describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects. Thousands of these objects are best known by their NGC or IC numbers, which remain in widespread use.
Messier 61 is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. It was first discovered by Barnaba Oriani on May 5, 1779, six days before Charles Messier discovered the same galaxy. Messier had observed it on the same night as Oriani but had mistaken it for a comet. Its distance has been estimated to be 45.61 million light years from the Milky Way Galaxy.
Messier 46 or M46, also known as NGC 2437, is an open cluster of stars in the slightly southern constellation of Puppis. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. Dreyer described it as "very bright, very rich, very large." It is about 5,000 light-years away. There are an estimated 500 stars in the cluster with a combined mass of 453 M☉, and it is thought to be a mid-range estimate of 251.2 million years old.
Messier 63 or M63, also known as NGC 5055 or the seldom-used Sunflower Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici with approximately 400 billion stars. M63 was first discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, then later verified by his colleague Charles Messier on June 14, 1779. The galaxy became listed as object 63 in the Messier Catalogue. In the mid-19th century, Anglo-Irish astronomer Lord Rosse identified spiral structures within the galaxy, making this one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified.
Messier 85 is a lenticular galaxy, or elliptical galaxy for other authors, in the Coma Berenices constellation. It is 60 million light-years away, and it is estimated to be 125,000 light-years across.
NGC 6210 is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Hercules, approximately 5.4 ± 1.3 kly from the Sun. It is positioned about 38° above the galactic plane at a vertical distance of about 3.3 kilolight-years (1 kpc) and thus has little extinction from intervening interstellar dust. This object was first recorded as a star-like feature by Joseph Lalande on March 22, 1799. However, credit for the discovery of a nebula goes to Wilhelm Struve in 1825. John L. E. Dreyer described it as, "a planetary nebula, very bright, very small, round, disc and border".
NGC 2867 is an elliptical Type II planetary nebula in the southern constellation of Carina, just over a degree to the NNW of the star Iota Carinae. It was discovered by John Herschel on April 1, 1834. Herschel initially thought he might have found a new planet, but on the following night he checked again and discovered it hadn't moved. The nebula is located at a distance of 7,270 light-years from the Sun.
NGC 6250 is a young open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Ara.
NGC 5806 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered on February 24, 1786 by the astronomer John Herschel. It is located about 70 million light-years away from the Milky Way. It is a member of the NGC 5846 Group.
SN 1895B was a supernova event in the irregular dwarf galaxy NGC 5253, positioned 16″ east and 23″ north of the galactic center. It is among the closest known extragalactic supernova events. The supernova was discovered by Williamina Fleming on December 12, 1895 after noticing an unusual spectrum on a photographic plate taken July 18, 1895, and was initially given the variable star designation Z Centauri. The light curve is consistent with an event that began ~15 days before the discovery plate was taken, and this indicates the supernova reached a peak visual magnitude of up to 8.49±0.03.
NGC 1398 is an isolated barred spiral galaxy exhibiting a double ring structure. It is located 65 million light years from the Earth, in the constellation of Fornax. The galaxy, with a diameter of 135,000 light years, is smaller than the Milky Way. Over 100 billion stars are in the galaxy. It was first discovered by Friedrich Winnecke of Karlsruhe, Germany, on 17 December 1868, while he was searching for comets.
WR 42e is a Wolf–Rayet star in the massive H II region NGC 3603 in the constellation of the Carina. It is around 25,000 light-years or 7,600 parsec from the Sun. WR 42e is one of the most massive and most luminous stars known.
NGC 444 is a spiral galaxy of type Sd located in the constellation Pisces. It was first discovered on October 26, 1854 by R. J. Mitchell, and was also spotted on October 17, 1903 by Stéphane Javelle. It was described by Dreyer as "very faint, much extended 135°, a little brighter middle."
NGC 446 is a lenticular galaxy of type (R)SAB0^0 located in the constellation Pisces. It was first discovered on October 23, 1864 by Albert Marth ; it was also seen on August 20, 1892 by Stéphane Javelle. It was described by Dreyer as "faint, very small, stellar."
NGC 7209 is an open cluster in the constellation Lacerta. It was discovered by William Herschel on 19 October 1787. The cluster lies 3,810 light years away from Earth. It has been suggested that there is another cluster at a distance of 2,100 light years projected in front of a cluster lying at 3,800 light years away, based on the reddening of the cluster, however, further photometric studies of the cluster did not support that claim.
NGC 1858 is a bright, large, irregular open cluster and emission nebula. It is found in the Dorado constellation. It is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was first discovered by James Dunlop on August 3, 1826, and was first recorded as Dunlop 120. John Herschel recorded it on November 2, 1834. However, at the time, he did not associate it with Dunlop 120. Astronomers have now realised that Dunlop 120 and NGC 1858 are the same object.
NGC 4709 is an elliptical galaxy located in the constellation Centaurus. It is considered to be a member of the Centaurus Cluster and is the dominant member of a small group of galaxies known as "Cen 45" which is currently merging with the main Centaurus Cluster even though the two subclusters' line of sight redshift velocities differ by about 1500 km/s. NGC 4709 was discovered by astronomer James Dunlop on May 7, 1826.
NGC 7679 is a lenticular galaxy with a peculiar morphology in the constellation Pisces. It is located at a distance of circa 200 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 7679 is about 60,000 light years across. It was discovered by Heinrich d'Arrest on September 23, 1864. The total infrared luminosity is 1011.05 L☉, and thus it is categorised as a luminous infrared galaxy. NGC 7679 is both a starburst galaxy and a Seyfert galaxy.
