Herschel II: 400 More Herschel Objects

Observe and describe all 400 to earn the Herschel II certificate and pin

• Observe all 400 objects. The League sets no minimum aperture: an 8-inch telescope shows a good part of the list, and a 10-inch or larger will probably be needed for all of it.
• Describe each object in your own words, with the date and time, your latitude and longitude, seeing and transparency, the telescope, and the eyepiece and magnification.
• Send an index of the observations in NGC order, with the page number of each description, to the Herschel II coordinator or your club's awards coordinator.
• A southern supplement of 134 more Herschel objects replaces the far-northern ones for observers near or south of the equator. This page lists the original 400.

The full Herschel II list, in the League's order, with a page for each object

Sort any column, or type a name or constellation. The type buttons above the map also filter this table. Best is the month the object is highest at 9 pm. Also on lists the other observing lists the object belongs to, so one observation can count toward more than one program where the League allows it.

169 of the 400 are best in spring: plan the list by month

Each bar counts the objects highest in the sky at 9 pm in that month. An object is also well placed in the month before, late in the evening, and the month after, early in the evening.

35 of the 400 are on another list you may already be working

• Bright Nebula: 19 of the 400
• Caldwell: 10 of the 400
• Planetary Nebula: 7 of the 400
• Deep Sky Binocular: 3 of the 400
• Globular Cluster: 3 of the 400
• Open Cluster: 1 of the 400
• Herschel 400: 1 of the 400

The Herschel II is the 400 Herschel objects that come after the Herschel 400

The Rose City Astronomers of Portland, Oregon, chose the Herschel II from the 2,000 or so Herschel objects left after the Herschel 400, and the Astronomical League adopted it in August 1997. Only NGC 7814 is also on the Herschel 400, so the two lists together hold nearly 800 of the brightest objects William and Caroline Herschel found.

The League has since swapped three objects: NGC 1750, NGC 1990 and NGC 2253 came off the list, and NGC 1985, NGC 4517 and NGC 7492 went on. This page uses the current list.

325 of the 400 are galaxies, and 82 lie in Virgo and Coma Berenices, where the Virgo galaxy cluster fills the spring sky.

More Astronomical League observing programs on Go Astronomy

• Binocular Messier: any 50 Messier objects with binoculars
• Urban: 100 objects for light-polluted city skies
• Bright Nebula: emission, reflection and supernova-remnant nebulae of both hemispheres
• Globular Cluster: any 50 of 190 globular clusters, with their concentration class
• Open Cluster: 100 or 125 open clusters, sketched and classified
• Planetary Nebula: 110 planetary nebulae, from the Ring to 16th-magnitude Abell shells
• Deep Sky Binocular: 60 non-Messier objects for binoculars, the step after the Binocular Messier
• Southern Skies Binocular: any 50 of 73 southern objects with binoculars
• Southern Sky Telescopic: 50 of 100 southern objects, most south of -48°
• Messier objects: the Messier Observing Program, the League's first, since 1967
• Caldwell objects: the Caldwell Observing Program
• Herschel 400: the step before Herschel II