Bode's "Complete Catalogue of Nebulous Stars and Star Clusters"

Bode's "Complete Catalogue of hitherto observed Nebulous Stars and Star Clusters"

Johan Elert Bode (1747-1826), astronomer in Berlin and discoverer of M81, M82, M53, M92, and M64, compiled a deepsky catalog of 75 entries published 1777 in the Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1779, entitled "A Complete Catalogue of hitherto observed Nebulous Stars and Star Clusters". This catalog was extended by 2 objects (M92 and M64) in its second edition, published in 1780.

Unfortunately, Bode's catalog contains many non-existent objects and uninteresting asterisms, mostly copied from elsewhere; personally he seems to have observed and determined the positions of only 21 of the 75 objects before publishing his catalog. At last, there is probably only one real object (NGC 2477 = Lacaille I.3, taken from Lacaille) which is not also listed in Messier's catalog. Of the first 45 objects in the earliest (1774) version of Messier's catalog, to which Bode had access, only M3, M23 and M43 are missing - the latter probably because Bode regarded it part of M42, especially as he mentions M43 in his description of M42, while only 9 of the more conspicuous Messier objects beyond 45 are included. 24 of the 77 entries do not match any deepsky objects and are either asterisms or simply errata, mostly copied without verification from other sources such as Hevelius.

Bode's Original Catalog

Bode's Original Object Positions

Please email me if you have or can point me to any help for identifying the remaining entries, or point me to any errors.

Bode  id     Date

  1
  2 = M32
  3 = M31
  4
  5 = M33    Aug 18, 1775
  6
  7 = M34    Sep 2, 1774
  8 = M45         
  9 = M38    Nov 2, 1774
 10 = M42                 M43 mentioned in description
 11 = M1     Nov 8, 1774
 12 = M36    Nov 2, 1774
 13 = M37    Nov 2, 1774
 14 = M35    
 15 = M41
 16 = M50    Dec 2, 1774
 17 = M81 !  Dec 31, 1774
 18 = M82 !  Dec 31, 1774
 19          
 20 = M44
 21 = NGC 2477, Lac I.3 ?
 22          
 23 = M40
 24          
 25 = M51    Jan 5 (or 15), 1774
 26 = M53 !  Feb 3, 1775
 27 = M83         
 28          
 29 = M5         
 30 = M13    Sep 9, 1774
 31 = M4     
 32 = M12    Aug 14, 1774
 33 = M10    Aug 14, 1774
 34       -                Asterism of 60 Her, 32, 33, 34 Oph
 35 = M19
 36 = M9         
 37 = M14
 38       -                (88 Her)
 39 = M6         
 40       -                (90 Her)
 41          
 42          
 43       -                (4 Sgr, near M8)
 44 < M8                   (pt of M8 ?)
 45 = M8  ?
 46 = M7  ??               (pos error)         
 47 = M20
 48       -                (7 Sgr)   
 49       -                (9 Sgr)
 50 = M21
 51 = M24    
 52 = M16         
 53 = M18         
 54 = M17         
 55
 56 = M25   
 57 = M22        
 58 = M28 ?                (pos error; later corrected)
 59 = M26        
 60       -                (Nu 1 Sgr)
 61       -                (Nu 2 Sgr)
 62 = M11    Oct 8, 1774
 63 = M55
 64    
 65         
 66         
 67 = M27           
 68 = M30           
 69 = M29    Dec 5, 1774  
 70 = M2     Sep (or Oct) 22, 1775  
 71 = M15    Sep 23, 1774
 72            
 73            
 74            
 75 = M39    Oct 27, 1774
[76]= M92 !  Dec 27, 1777
[77]= M64 !  Apr 4, 1779

Exclamation marks mark Bode's original discoveries, question marks doubty identifications and minus signs nonexisting objects (e.g., asterisms, stars taken for nebulae, and errors).

The present author is skeptical if Bode actually observed the double star M40 which is Winnecke 4, and is Messier's observation near a position given by Hevelius, who probably observed another star. It may be that Bode simply quoted Hevelius, or observed a third position in this area of the sky.

The author thanks Leos Ondra for providing him with a copy of Bode's original catalog which made this work possible.

More Deepsky Observing lists

History of the Discovery of the Deepsky Objects

Some other historical catalogs

Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

Last Modification: 29 Aug 1999, 20:00 MET