Jack Bennett Catalogue of Southern Comet-like Deep-sky Objects (1969 & 1974)

South African Jack Bennett (1914-1990) was an extremely skilled amateur astronomer and dedicated comet-hunter. He drew up two lists of southern objects that appeared comet-like in his telescope. He referred to them as “shades of Messier…”

Apollo Navigation Stars

Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, and quite possibly the oldest use of astronomy is navigating by the stars. How appropriate that the astronauts and engineers of the Apollo programme used celestial navigation to chart their way to the moon and back. This is a whole sky catalogue as the stars were evenly distributed across the sky so as to maximise their utility during missions.