SAGUARO ASTRONOMY CLUB DATABASE
VERSION 7.43 beta
dated June 24, 2006

This compilation of data was begun in an effort to provide a comprehensive observing list for use at the eyepiece of a modest amateur telescope. This data is released for private use of anyone who wishes to use this database. Please do not sell this database in any form.

The members of the Saguaro Astronomy Club (pronounced sa-war-oh) of Phoenix, Arizona have provided much of the effort to compile this database. However, it could not have been completed without the skill of a variety of people. Thank you to all.

The data is in ASCII format and is delimited with a double quote(").

To align the information in this document correctly, use a non-proportional font, such as Courier.

A description of the fields and what data they contain follows:

Field Number: 1 Name: OBJECT Size: 16
Object name, usually the NGC number is in field #1, but for objects with no NGC value the alphabetical name used is listed below. These abbreviations are also used in field #2 as an OTHER name for some objects.

Abell - George Abell (planetary nebulae and galaxy clusters)
ADS - Aitken Double Star catalog
AM - Arp-Madore (globular clusters)
Antalova - (open clusters)
Ap - Apriamasvili (planetary nebulae)
Arp - Halton Arp (interacting galaxies)
Bark - Barkhatova (open clusters)
B - Barnard (dark nebulae)
Basel - (open clusters)
BD - Bonner Durchmusterung (stars)
Berk - Berkeley (open clusters)
Be - Bernes (dark nebulae)
Biur - Biurakan (open clusters)
Blanco - (open clusters)
Bochum - (open clusters)
Ced - Cederblad (bright nebulae)
Cr - Collinder (open clusters)
Czernik - (open clusters)
DDO - David Dunlap Observatory (dwarf galaxies)
Do - Dolidze (open clusters)
DoDz - Dolidze-Dzimselejsvili (open clusters)
Dun - Dunlop (globular clusters)
Fein - Feinstein (open clusters)
Frolov - (open clusters)
Gum - (bright nebulae)
H - William Herschel (globular clusters)
Haffner - (open clusters)
Harvard - (open clusters)
He - Henize (planetary nebulae)
Hogg - (open clusters)
HP - Haute Provence (globular clusters)
Hu - Humason (planetary nebulae)
IC - 1st and 2nd Index Catalogs to the NGC
(All types of objects except dark nebulae)
Isk - Iskudarian (open clusters)
J - Jonckheere (planetary nebulae)
K - Kohoutek (planetary nebulae)
King - (open clusters)
Kr - Krasnogorskaja (planetary nebulae)
Lac - Lacaille (globular clusters)
Loden - (open clusters)
LDN - Lynds (dark nebulae)
Lynga - (open clusters)
M - Messier (all types of objects except dark nebula)
MCG - Morphological Catalog of Galaxies
Me - Merrill (plantary nebulae)
Mrk - Markarian (open clusters and galaxies)
Mel - Melotte (open clusters)
M1 thru M4 - Minkowski (planetary nebulae)
NGC - New General Catalog of Nebulae & Clusters of Stars.
(All types of objects except dark nebulae)
Pal - Palomar (globular clusters)
PC - Peimbert and Costero (planetary nebulae)
Pismis - (open clusters)
PK - Perek & Kohoutek (planetary nebulae)
RCW - Rodgers, Campbell, & Whiteoak (bright nebulae)
Roslund - (open clusters)
Ru - Ruprecht (open clusters)
Sa - Sandqvist (dark nebulae)
Sher - (open clusters)
Sh - Sharpless (bright nebulae)
SL - Sandqvist & Lindroos (dark nebulae)
SL - Shapley & Lindsay (clusters in LMC)
Steph - Stephenson (open clusters)
Stock - (open clusters)
Ter - Terzan (globular clusters)
Tombaugh - (open clusters)
Ton - Tonantzintla (globular clusters)
Tr - Trumpler (open clusters)
UA - Catalog of selected Non-UGC galaxies
UGC - Uppsala General Catalog (galaxies)
UKS - United Kingdom Schmidt (globular clusters)
Upgren - (open clusters)
VV - Vorontsov-Velyaminov (interacting galaxies)
vdB - van den Bergh (open clusters, bright nebulae)
vdBH - van den Bergh & Herbst (bright nebulae)
vdB-Ha - van den Bergh-Hagen (open clusters)
Vy - Vyssotsky (planetary nebulae)
Waterloo - (open clusters)
Westr - Westerlund (open clusters)
Zw - Zwicky (galaxies)

Field Number: 2 Name: OTHER Size: 18
Other catalog designations by which this object may be known. The same abbreviations as the OBJECT field are used in this field. The 'M' designations for Messier objects are in this field.

Field Number: 3 Name: TYPE Size: 5
Type of object. The code that applies is:

ASTER Asterism
BRTNB Bright Nebula
CL+NB Cluster with Nebulosity
DRKNB Dark Nebula
GALCL Galaxy cluster
GALXY Galaxy
GLOCL Globular Cluster
GX+DN Diffuse Nebula in a Galaxy
GX+GC Globular Cluster in a Galaxy
G+C+N Cluster with Nebulosity in a Galaxy
LMCCN Cluster with Nebulosity in the LMC
LMCDN Diffuse Nebula in the LMC
LMCGC Globular Cluster in the LMC
LMCOC Open cluster in the LMC
NONEX Nonexistent
OPNCL Open Cluster
PLNNB Planetary Nebula
SMCCN Cluster with Nebulosity in the SMC
SMCDN Diffuse Nebula in the SMC
SMCGC Globular Cluster in the SMC
SMCOC Open cluster in the SMC
SNREM Supernova Remnant
QUASR Quasar
#STAR # Stars (#=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.)

Field Number: 4 Name: CON Size: 3
Constellation in which the object is found in IAU format, given in the table below. Only upper case abbreviations are used for ease of programming using case-sensitive commands.

ANDROMEDA AND LACERTA LAC
ANTLIA ANT LEO LEO
APUS APS LEO MINOR LMI
AQUARIUS AQR LEPUS LEP
AQUILA AQL LIBRA LIB
ARA ARA LUPUS LUP
ARIES ARI LYNX LYN
AURIGA AUR LYRA LYR
BOOTES BOO MENSA MEN
CAELUM CAE MICROSCOPIUM MIC
CAMELOPARDALIS CAM MONOCEROS MON
CANCER CNC MUSCA MUS
CANES VENATICI CVN NORMA NOR
CANIS MAJOR CMA OCTANS OCT
CANIS MINOR CMI OPHIUCHUS OPH
CAPRICORNUS CAP ORION ORI
CARINA CAR PAVO PAV
CASSIOPEIA CAS PEGASUS PEG
CENTAURUS CEN PERSEUS PER
CEPHEUS CEP PHOENIX PHE
CETUS CET PICTOR PIC
CHAMAELEON CHA PISCES PSC
CIRCINUS CIR PISCES AUSTRINUS PSA
COLUMBA COL PUPPIS PUP
COMA BERENICES COM PYXIS PYX
CORONA AUSTRALIS CRA RETICULUM RET
CORONA BOREALIS CRB SAGITTA SGE
CORVUS CRV SAGITTARIUS SGR
CRATER CRT SCORPIUS SCO
CRUX CRU SCULPTOR SCL
CYGNUS CYG SCUTUM SCT
DELPHINUS DEL SERPENS SER
DORADO DOR SEXTANS SEX
DRACO DRA TAURUS TAU
EQUULEUS EQU TELESCOPIUM TEL
ERIDANUS ERI TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE TRA
FORNAX FOR TRIANGULUM TRI
GEMINI GEM TUCANA TUC
GRUS GRU URSA MAJOR UMA
HERCULES HER URSA MINOR UMI
HOROLOGIUM HOR VELA VEL
HYDRA HYA VIRGO VIR
HYDRUS HYI VOLANS VOL
INDUS IND VULPECULA VUL

Field Number: 5 Name: R.A. Size: 7
Right Ascension of the object in equinox 2000.0 coordinates. The RA is in the form XX XX.X, such as 14 34.8 or 05 04.7. Leading zeros are present so that a sort of the data will be numerically correct.

Field Number: 6 Name: DEC Size: 6
Declination of the object in equinox 2000.0 coordinates. The DEC is in the form +/-XX XX, such as +48 10 or -88 04. Use the sign and leading zeros. The declination is given in degrees and minutes.

Field Number: 7 Name: MAG Size: 5
Magnitude to nearest tenth in the form XX.X, such as 12.3. There are many objects which have no published magnitude, they have been assigned a magnitude of 99.9. Dark nebulae obviously have no magnitude, so we assigned them a mag of 79.9 to differentiate them from objects with no magnitude given. The reason we chose large values for objects without magnitudes is that a sort would find 0.0 or "" as a large value of brightness. A "p" in the last column means the magnitude listed is photographic magnitude.

Field Number: 8 Name: SUBR Size: 4
Surface brightness as given in the Reference Catalog of Galaxies 3. Dr. Harold Corwin calculated these values of surface brightness and has supplied them to us, along with much other valuable galaxy data.

Field Number: 9 Name: U2K Size: 3
The charts in the first release of Uranometria 2000.0 that map the area of sky in which the object is located. It is not guaranteed that all objects plotted on U2000 are contained in the database.

Field Number: 10 Name: TI Size: 2
The charts in the Tirion Sky Atlas 2000.0 that map the area of sky in which the object is located. This is included so that a less detailed view of the area will be available to star hoppers.

Field Number: 11 Name: SIZE_MAX Size: 8
The large dimension of the object. A lower case "m" was used for arcminutes and a lower case "s" was used for arcseconds. In general, only Planetary Nebulae have sizes in arcseconds. A lower case "d" is used for degrees.

Field Number: 12 Name: SIZE_MIN Size: 8
The small dimension of the object. A lower case "m" was used for arcminutes and a lower case "s" was used for arcseconds.

Field Number: 13 Name: PA Size: 3
The Position Angle of an elongated object. The value is in degrees, starting with north as zero degrees and progressing clockwise from north. So, an object which William Herschel would have described as "Elong. NE-SW" is elongated in a PA of 45 degrees.

Field Number: 14 Name: CLASS Size: 11
Several professional classification schemes are contained here.

----Trumpler type for open clusters-----
Concentration
I. Detached, strong concentration toward the center
II. Detached, weak concentration toward the center
III. Detached, no concentration toward the center
IV. Not well detached from surrounding star field

Range in brightness
1. Small range 2. Moderate range 3. Large range

Richness
p Poor (<50 stars)
m Moderately rich (50-100 stars)
r Rich (>100 stars)

An "n" following the Trumpler type denotes nebulosity in cluster

----Shapley-Sawyer concentration rating for globular clusters---

The values range from 1 to 12, smaller numbers are more
concentrated clusters.

----Vorontsov-Velyaminov type for planetary nebulae-----

1. Stellar
2. Smooth disk (a, brighter center; b, uniform brightness;
c, traces of ring structure)
3. Irregular disk (a, very irregular brightness distribution;
b, traces of ring structure)
4. Ring structure
5. Irregular form similar to diffuse nebula
6. Anomalous form, no regular structure

Some very complex forms may combine two types.

-----Hubble type for galaxies-----

E elliptical, E0 is roundest to E7 is flattest
subgroups; 'd'is dwarf, 'c'is supergiant, 'D' has diffuse halo
S Spiral, 'a' has tightly wound arms, 'b' has moderately wound
arms and 'c' has loosely wound arms
SB Spiral with central bar
Ir Irregular

Field Number: 15 Name: NSTS Size: 4
Number of stars within a cluster from a study of POSS plates by R. Lynga.

Field Number: 16 Name: BRSTR Size: 5
Magnitude of brightest star in cluster or central star of planetary nebula.

Field Number: 17 Name: BCHM Size: 4
Catalogs that include this object. There are four catalogs included in this field. B=Best of the NGC from SAC, C=Caldwell catalog from Patrick Moore, H=Herschel 400 from Astronomical League, M=Messier object. The letters for each catalog are aligned under their respective letter abbreviation. Some objects do appear in several catalogs and therefore have several entries.

Field Number: 18 Name: NGC_DESCR Size: 46

Visual description of the object. Most of these are from the NGC, some are from prominent amateurs. Back issues of Deep Sky Magazine, Astronomy magazine, Sky and Telescope magazine and Burnham's Celestial Handbook are used as a source of some of these descriptions. The descriptions use the abbreviations from the original NGC and Burnham's. They are given below:

! remarkable object !! very remarkable object
am among n north
att attached N nucleus
bet between neb nebula, nebulosity
B bright P w paired with
b brighter p pretty (before F,B,L,S)
C compressed p preceding
c considerably P poor
Cl cluster R round
D double Ri rich
def defined r not well resolved
deg degrees rr partially resolved
diam diameter rrr well resolved
dif diffuse S small
E elongated s suddenly
e extremely s south
er easily resolved sc scattered
F faint susp suspected
f following st star or stellar
g gradually v very
iF irregular figure var variable
inv involved nf north following
irr irregular np north preceding
L large sf south following
l little sp south preceding
mag magnitude 11m 11th magnitude
M middle 8... 8th mag and fainter
m much 9...13 9th to 13th magnitude

If you have never dealt with the NGC abbreviations before, perhaps a few examples will help.

NGC# Description Decoded descriptions

214 pF, pS, lE, gvlbM pretty faint, pretty small,
little elongated, gradually very
little brighter in the middle

708 vF, vS, R very faint, very small, round

891 B, vL, vmE bright, very large, very much elongated

7009 !, vB, S remarkable object, very bright, small

7089 !! B, vL, mbM extremely remarkable object, bright, very
rrr, stars mags large, much brighter middle, resolved,
13..... stars 13th magnitude and dimmer

2099 ! B, vRi, mC remarkable object, bright, very rich,
much compressed

6643 pB,pL,E50,2 st p pretty bright, pretty large,
elongated in position angle 50 degrees,
two stars preceding

Field Number: 19 Name: NOTES Size: 71
Some of this field notes provided by Jim Lucyk. Much of the rest of this information is from a variety of sources. Most of the abbreviations used by the NGC apply here also. Several other common names are included in these notes, so you may search for the "Owl Nebula" in this column. There are some other names listed in this field. If there is a PA in the NOTES that is providing a companion objects' angle in relation to the main object. Another abbreviation that is used often is P w N ( paired with NGC ###) or P w U ( paired with UGC ###). Most of the data on companions to an object have been marked to make recognition easier, but some did not fit into the 60 spaces we alloted. So, the data is always in this order: distance in minutes from main object, PA from main object, then size and mag of companion. Example: P w N4566 @ 4.5,120,0.9X0.7 says that the main object is paired with NGC 4566 and is at 4.5 arcminutes distance, in a direction of PA 120 degrees and 0.9'X0.7'in size.