Publication of Herschel's Catalogue of Nebulae
- When
- 1786
- Where
- Unspecified
- Episodes
- 1
In 1786, William Herschel published his Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. This work was the first of three major catalogues he produced, documenting his systematic observations of diffuse astronomical objects and star clusters.
Episodes
Background and detail
Publication. The 1786 catalogue was the first of three major publications by Herschel, followed by a second thousand in 1789 and a further 500 in 1802. These works documented his discoveries of nebulae and clusters. His telescopes also revealed that many objects called nebulae in the Messier catalogue were actually clusters of stars.
People involved
- William Herschel · Astronomer and primary author
- Caroline Herschel · Assistant and co-astronomer
Sources
- William Herschel Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.