Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects

by Stephen James O'Meara

For more than two centuries, amateur astronomers have earned their stripes by observing the 109 star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies cataloged by French comet hunter Charles Messier. Sir Patrick Moore has compiled a new list of 109 deep-sky delights, the Caldwell Catalog, which covers the entire celestial sphere. Stephen James O'Meara has observed all 109 Caldwell objects and Deep Sky Companions presents his beautiful sketches and detailed visual descriptions and discusses each object's rich history and astrophysical significance. The latest fundamental data on each object are tabulated, and the book's star charts will lead observers to each object's precise location. Stephen James O'Meara is known worldwide for his precise drawings of astronomical objects as seen through the telescope. Among his many astronomical achievements, he was the first to sight Halley's Comet on its 1985 return; he noticed the dark spokes in Saturn's B ring before the Voyager 1 spacecraft imaged them; and he was the first person to determine the rotation period of the distant planet Uranus. The International Astronomical Union named asteroid 3637 O'Meara in his honor. He is also the author of Deep Sky Companions: The Messier Objects (Cambridge, 1998) and co-author with his wife, Donna Donovan O'Meara, of Volcanoes: Passion and Fury (Sky Publishing, 1994).

Genres: Astronomy, Nonfiction, Science

500 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Aprilleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing. When I originally put it on hold at my local library, I was wondering why it was so big. There are, after all, only 109 objects in the Caldwell Catalogue. If I could see more of these objects from my location I’d want my own copy, but even without light pollution I could only see about half of these.

Each entry includes all the relevant data: names (many are known by more than one name), type, the constellation they’re located in, right ascension, declination, magnitude, dimensions, distance, discoverer(s), and the Herschel, GC/NGC, and IC designations as appropriate. Each entry also includes at least one photograph, as well as a sketch by the author and a finder chart. The sketches are outstanding and I hope to one day produce that kind of quality (one of the sketches for Caldwell 76 made me smile because it was unexpected - check it out).

The amount of information for each object varies, but they tend to include a detailed description of the object, a lot of historical information, directions for finding the object, some useful information for observers using a variety of observing equipment, and some suggestions of other things to look at while you’re in the neighborhood. That doesn’t even begin to do justice to the richness of the information provided for each object. The entries are frequently written in a first-person conversational manner that makes the information seem more immediate and less technical. For example, in his entry for the Pac-Man Nebula (Caldwell 56) he interacts with the observations of others as well as his own notes. It’s like listening to a scientist think their way through something, and makes this much more than the reference book I initially thought it was (but it’s a great reference book, too).

[Matthew Gleich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its amazing and also a good guide to some really good telescope objects for you to find...it can be very challenging and to be honest, don't think you will get to see every one of them.