Astronomical catalogues such as those for asteroids may be compiled from multiple sources, but most modern catalogues are the result of a particularastronomical survey of some kind. Since the late 20th century, catalogues are increasingly often compiled by computers from an automated survey, and published as computer files rather than on paper.
Tycho Brahe completed his catalogue with the positions andmagnitudes of 1004 fixedstars in 1598. It was the major achievement in astronomy since the days ofPtolemy. Brahe'sastrometric observations greatly improved on the positional accuracy achieved by his predecessors.[6][7]
TheMessier catalogue: the Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects first listed by French astronomerCharles Messier in 1771.Nebulae and Star Clusters was published in 1781, with objectsM1–M110.
TheNew General Catalogue or NGC, compiled in the 1880s by J. L. E. Dreyer, lists objectsNGC 0001 – NGC 7840. It is one of the largest historical comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of non-stellar deep space objects.
Henry Draper'sHenry Draper Catalogue, published between 1918 and 1924, lists more than 225,000 of the brightest stars, named usingHD followed by a 6-digit number.
SirPatrick Moore compiled theCaldwell catalogue in 1995 foramateur astronomers, as a complement to the Messier catalogue. It lists 109 bright star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, named C1 to C109,[8] and is a list of deep-sky objects of interest rather than a catalogue in the professional science sense.[clarification needed] Other deep-sky observing lists for amateur astronomers predated it.
