Bright NGC Objects this winter

Don't get me wrong I am not getting tired of the Messier objects.. but was going to go after some of the brighter NGC targets that are within the grasp of my 9.25" SCT. I live in the Pacific Northwest and when it's not raining or snowing the nights are bright and almost transparent... So if there are any "easy capture" NGC object that you have found interesting.. I would love to hear about them.. thanks all.. John M

John Meiners said: Don't get me wrong I am not getting tired of the Messier objects.. but was going to go after some of the brighter NGC targets that are within the grasp of my 9.25" SCT.... So if there are any "easy capture" NGC object that you have found interesting.. I would love to hear about them. John M

John: I would recommend you obtain a list of the "Herschel 400" objects and make your selections from the objects on this list that are currently in our evening skies (e.g., right ascension about 0 to 7 hours, and declination well above your southern horizon). You might also check the list of deep-sky objects for January that Dave Mitsky has posted on this Astromart forum.
I could mention a few of my favorites among those now in our skies, but most of them would be open clusters which may not be as interesting to you as some of the nebulae and galaxies that I usually ignore.

Here are a couple best of type lists:

http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/similar/rasc-ngc.html

http://www.astronomyboy.com/saa/saa100.html


In addition, one can observe near the meridian at what ever hour out with the scope, with an atlas at hand. Those atlases with data/tables on a page right next to the charts pages work very well for bright target tours near the meridian IMHO.