58 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE April 2019
Omitting duplicated Messier objects in Herschel’s
catalogues, I observed my first Herschel object — or should I
sayobjects—onthenightofOctober6,1974,witha75-mm
f/10 Newtonian at 45×.TheywereNGC 869andNGC 884,
theDoubleClusterinPerseus.IcompletedtheHerschel
400 in 1981 and received the certificate in June that year. I
never thought about observing all 2,500+ deep-sky objects
identified by Herschel at that time or even after I finished a
secondsetof400objects25yearslater.Andyet,42years,6
monthsand20nightslaterIbaggedthelastone,NGC 5592
in Hydra, on the night of April 26, 2017, at the Amateur
Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh’s (AAAP) observing
site in Greene County, Pennsylvania, using my 40-cmh f/4.5
Dobsonian.
Thequestionmanyofushavebeenaskingforyears
is, “How many observable objects are there in Herschel’s
catalogue?”Tackling the observing
Ipurchasedaused40-cmhf/4.5Meadereflectorin1987.
In1998theAAAPreplacedthe50-cmmirrorontheManka
Memorial Telescope at Wagman Observatory with a 52.5-cmf/4.75mirrordonatedbyL3Brashear.Theperformance
of these larger scopes was improved when both the 40- and
52.5-cmwereresurfacedto98%reflectivityseveralyearsago.
This helped with my search for faint to very faint deep sky
objects. However, there’s one problem with larger scopes that
weoftenforget:Theymaygathermorelight,butthatlight
can include glow from homes and street lights. This light
pollution reduces the darkness of the background when trying
to spot faint, diffuse objects in suburban and even some rural
areas. In addition to these larger scopes, I also used a 75-mm
f/10, a 15-cm f/6.6 and a 20-cm f/5, with magnifications
rangingfrom31×to 508×. All were Newtonians.
All of my observing is done via star-hopping. I wouldn’t
considerusingaGoTosystem,asIpersonallyfeelnosense
of accomplishment using a computer to move my scopes to
the objects on my search lists. Also, I wonder whether the
GoTosystemsincludethe‘nonexistent’objectslistedinthe
catalogues. I didn’t use setting circles, either, but that doesn’t
mean you shouldn’t support your search with either of these.
Herschel ‘swept’ the sky — he’d study the sky for an hour or
more with a telescope aimed at the meridian mounted on a
transitcircle,pausingonlyifcloudsinterferedorifhehadto
reset his telescope — to acquire each object for his catalogue
without any extra aid, and I feel that star-hopping is theYou have to be obsessed, crazy, or both
to attempt this. IfeelIwasboth.TFORTY-TWO YEARS, SIX MONTHS, AND 20 NIGHTS Tom Reiland
bagged his last Herschel source, NGC 5592 (below, far right), in 2017.
He estimates he’s recorded more than 153,000 observations (amounting
to 5,665 hours) on several thousand pages in 15 logbooks since 1974.
The first source he observed was the Double Cluster in Perseus (below),
and his most successful night pursuing the AL 400 was in 1979. SOURCES AND LOGBOOKS: ESO / S. BRUNIER / POSS-II / CALTECH / STSCI / PALOMAR OBSERVATORY / TOM REILANDCATALOGUE CHALLENGE