Hogg Catalogue of Open Clusters (1965)

The twenty two Hogg open clusters offer an unusually rich observing project – not because the clusters themselves are rich – indeed, many of them are notably obscure – but because they all lie in exceptionally lush and beautiful star fields, with many of them juxtaposed with lovely NGC and Trumpler clusters.

Pişmiş Catalogue of Open Clusters (1959)

The twenty four Pişmiş open clusters make a delightful observing project. A few of them are exquisitely bright and delicate, others appear as tiny glints of stars mingled with a faint hazy glow of unresolved starlight, and yet others appear as little more than a faint and tantalizing mistiness.

Bochum Open Clusters (1975)

All but two of the fifteen Bochum open clusters reside in the southern hemisphere and can be found along our summer Milky Way in Gemini, Monoceros, and Puppis, with a couple in our rich winter Milky Way constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius.

Clyde Tombaugh’s Two Southern Open Clusters (1938)

The two southern clusters discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1938 may be very small and they may be very faint – but what a delight to observe the two southern clusters discovered by the extraordinary young man who discovered Pluto.

The Baracchi 59 (1884-1888)

The “Baracchi 59” are the 59 unpublished visual discoveries that Pietro Baracchi made using the 48″ Great Melbourne Telescope during the years 1884-1888.

Haffner Catalogue of Open Clusters (1957)

Both Canis Major and Puppis are treasure troves for the open cluster observer. And for the observer of small wonders the seldom-observed 26 Haffner open clusters they contain are a tremendous observing project.

Lacaille Catalogue of Nebulae of the Southern Sky (1755)

Observing the objects in Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille’s catalogue is fabulous because it contains some of the southern hemisphere’s greatest treasures (47 Tuc, Omega Centauri, Tarantula Nebula, Eta Carinae Nebula, et al)… all of which he discovered using an incredibly small 1/2-inch refractor.

Gum Catalogue (1955)

While some of the Gum nebulae are lovely brightish targets, many of those within reach of our telescopes are small, faint and elusive. But who amongst us doesn’t love the thrill of catching that small, faint, elusive nebula floating in the foreverness of space?