Caldwell Objects? Do you do them?

Hi...how many of you are actually working through the Caldwell objects (at least those that you can see from your latitude)? Despite O'Meara's excellent book I find the list to be rather "pretentious" of the originator, especially when he gets to stick his name to objects already long discovered. Many objects like the Helix, Sculptor Galaxy and the Double Cluster are already known by their NGC numbers or other popular names. It's hard to get excited over C13, C23 etc. I do have to say that O'Meara's book is really well written and fun to read but something like the R.A.S.C.'s Finest NGC Objects list is more fun to work through.
Ivan

I have the book and it does provide some new targets. My problem is that you really need a 12-inch scope for a lot of his objects. That puts a lot of it out of my range and the range of a lot of other less fortunate astronomers with more modest sized scopes.

Daryl

Yeah, I've done them some years ago, before the book, when it was just a list published in S&T.

I agree that the renaming of everything with his name was bogus - I pretty much ignored those names. But they were a good starting point after observing all the Messiers. Some of the objects are real stinkers, they need such perfect observing conditions that they're near impossible to see for many of us. Plus, I have little hope of ever finishing the list unless I can arrange a trip to South America or Australia.

Doug Scobel

The Caldwell Catalog is not even a particularly good list of non-Messier objects. Adding yet another set of designations to well-known deep-sky objects, some of which already having multiple designations and nicknames, is ludicrous, IMHO.

Dave Mitsky

Gamma Virginis has closed to less than 1" separation now. It will be very difficult for the next several years. Its orbit is on this site: http://www.dibonsmith.com/vir_g.gif

Search the Double Star forum if you're interested in more info. A couple of the guys with larger scopes got it last year. It would take very high magnification on a large, high-quality scope in perfect seeing.

Gary

I went for the Herschel 400 list also. I'm not officially doing the Caldwell list but some are interesting to view. I've done about 80 objects on this list, most were on other lists. I especially like the DeepMap 600 List. It is sorted by constellation. See http://pages.sbcglobal.net/raycash/dmcon.htm

Debbie