This is the interactive NGC (and IC, and Messier) catalog at SEDS, based on the famous NGC 2000.0 by R.W. Sinnott of Sky Publishing Corp., who also created the electronic version used by this online service (thanks to Sky Publishing - now skyandtelescope.org - for permitting us this kind of use). Only some minor corrections have been included in our online database. The HTML interface and its features were created by Hartmut Frommert. Thanks to Bill Arnett for helpful hints and support, and the admins of SEDS who provided the appropriate hardware and software basis for this service. Thanks to Bernard Trézéguet, this service is now available in French language also.

The NGC and its supplements IC I and IC II were originally compiled by J.L.E. Dreyer and published 1887 (NGC), 1895 (IC I) and 1908 (IC II). It contains open and globular star clusters (and some asterisms), diffuse and planetary nebulae, supernova remnants, galaxies of all types (and some knots in bright galaxies), and some erroneous entries corresponding to single or double stars, or no objects at all.

You will get the NGC 2000.0 data for each NGC, IC, or Messier object, including J.L.E. Dreyer's description code. Moreover, for most of the objects, cross identifications are given for some (mostly older) catalogs, including John Herschel's GC of 1864 (with Dreyer's later extension), John Herschel's 1833 and 1847 catalogs ("h"), William Herschel's catalog published between 1786 and 1802 ("H"), Lacaille's catalog of 1755 ("Lac") and James Dunlop's catalog of 1828 ("Dun"), as well as the sources and references given in Dreyer's original catalog, and some collected remarks.

In addition, you get a link for downloading an image from the Digital Sky Survey for each object, as well as a link to the data of Wolfgang Steinicke's Revised NGC and IC Catalog, a link to the data of the NGC/IC Project, a link to the data of NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) (classic), a link to the data of the SIMBAD Astronomical Database, a link to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Archive images for each object, a link to the publication references at the NASA/Harvard Astrophysics Data System (ADS), and a link to the observing reports collected at the IAAC NetAstroCatalog. If available, you will also get a link to some descriptive HTML page, and an image of the object. Most of the images and descriptive pages are from the SEDS server, but some external links are included, notably from Digital Images of the Sky by Till Credner and Sven Kohle, the Advanced Observing Program (AOP) of the Kitt Peak Visitor Center, the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), and the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) (now NOIRlab).

Please type in the NGC number (either as number only, or preceded by 'NGC' or 'N'), or the IC number preceded by 'IC' or 'I', or the Messier number preceded by 'M', of the object you'd like to find. Some browsers (e.g., Lynx) require that you hit a key ('s' or 'S' for Lynx) to activate the input line.

Statistics:

Type       M(+)  NGC    IC   NGC+IC+M

Galaxy    40+2  6029  3971   10000
DN/SNR     7     144    97     241
PN         4      94    35     129
OC        28     684    38     723(*)
GC        29     115     8     123
Pt.        0      27    24      51
Dup        0     255   338     593
Stellar    2     395   651    1047(*)
NF         0      97   224     321

Total    110+2  7840  5386   13228(*)

Type Key: Galaxy: Galaxy; DN/SNR: Diffuse Nebula or Supernova Remnant; PN: Planetary Nebula; OC: Open Cluster (including Milky Way star cloud); GC: Globular Cluster; Pt.: Part of other object: mostly Gal, 1 PN; Dup: Duplication (in IC, may be from NGC); NF: Not found.
Remark: (*) Including non-NGC/IC Messier Object (OC: M45, Stellar: M40).
Remark: (+) Two extra Messier objects, M51B (NGC 5195) and M109B (NGC 3953)
Most Messier objects are also contained in either NGC or IC catalog.
Of the globular clusters, 104 NGC and 3 IC objects belong to the Milky Way galaxy, 9 NGC and 5 IC objects to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and one NGC object each to the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC, NGC 292) and the Fornax Dwarf galaxy; see a summary list; this count is based on Wolfgang Steinicke's revngc/revic.

NGC and IC only contain entries for 6 supernova remnants (SNRs), 4 in the Milky Way galaxy and two in LMC: The Crab Nebula (NGC 1952, M1), the Veil Nebula (parts of it cataloged as NGC 6960, 6974, 6979, 6992, 6995 and IC 1340), NGC 2736 as part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, and IC 443 in Milky Way, as well as NGC 1918 and NGC 2060 in LMC.

Note: NGC 2000.0 has one object classified as "Photographic Plate Defect;" that is IC 3601. It is actually a galaxy though.

Links:

• Cross Identifications and References for the NGC and IC objects and catalog
• The NGC on the Net, & NGC description codes: A collection of NGC related links and Dreyer code translation table by Bill Arnett
• J.L.E. Dreyer's NGC/IC description code [local]
• Dead Link! Images of NGC objects (Astronomical Society of the Pacific, ASP)
• Wolfgang Steinicke's NGC/IC site, including the Revised NGC and IC Catalog
• The NGC/IC Project maintains an online database of various versions of the NGC and IC catalogs and related material, including an interactive observing list generator. Note in particular the scanned online versions of the NGC and IC catalogs.
• Observing Reports for NGC objects (IAAC Netastrocatalog)
• Messier Catalog at SEDS with images and info; also contains information on and images of some Non-Messier Objects, mostly in the NGC or IC catalog.
• The Web Nebulae: Images of Deep Sky objects, compiled by Bill Arnett
• List of Common Names for Deepsky Objects, compiled by Hartmut Frommert
• A Guide to the Deepsky Astronomy Resources at SEDS
• View an image of J.L.E. Dreyer, the man who compiled the NGC and IC catalogs.
• Read of the History of Deep Sky discoveries and historic catalogs.
• RNGC: The Revised New General Catalogue of Nonstellar Astronomical Objects, by Jack W. Sulentic and W.G. Tifft, Tucson, 1973.
• NGC 2000.0, machine-readable version of the full catalog from ADC, © Sky Publishing Corporation and Cambridge University Press (1988)
• The full NGC 2000.0 Catalog was also available on diskettes and in paper form from Sky & Telescope (former Sky Publishing Corporation)

References:

• J. L. E. Dreyer, 1888. New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc., Vol. 49, Part I [ADS: 1888MmRAS..49....1D]. Reprinted 1953, London, Royal Astronomical Society. NGC. NGC 1-7840.
• J. L. E. Dreyer, 1895. Index Catalogue of Nebulae Found in the Years 1888 to 1894, with Notes and Corrections to the New General Catalogue, Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc., Vol. 51, pp. 185-228 [ADS: 1895MmRAS..51..185D]. Reprinted 1953, London, Royal Astronomical Society. IC I, IC 1-1529.
• J. L. E. Dreyer, 1908. Second Index Catalogue of Nebulae Found in the Years 1895 to 1907; with Notes and Corrections to the New General Catalogue and to the Index Catalogue for 1888 to 1894, Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc., Vol. 59, Part 2, pp. 105-198 [ADS: 1910MmRAS..59..105D]. Reprinted 1953, London, Royal Astronomical Society. IC II, IC 1530-5386.
• A reprint of all 3 catalogs was published by the Royal Astronomical Society, London, 1962.
• J. W. Sulentic and W. G. Tifft, 1973. The Revised New General Catalogue of Nonstellar Astronomical Objects. Tucson, The University of Arizona Press. RNGC. [ADS: 1973mcn.book......S]. Electronic version: SIMBAD/ADC catalog VII/1B [ADS: 1999yCat.7001....0S]
• R. W. Sinnott (ed.), 1988. NGC 2000.0, The Complete New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters by J. L. E. Dreyer. Sky Publishing Corporation and Cambridge University Press. NGC 2000.0. [ADS: 1988cngc.book.....S] Electronic version: SIMBAD/ADC catalog VII/118 [ADS: 1997yCat.7118....0S]
• Newer revised versions of the NGC and IC catalogs are available from and steadily worked upon by the NGC/IC Project.
• Wolfgang Steinicke has brought out, and steadily improves his Revised NGC and IC Catalog. revngc, revic.