> Have to put on a public show here Monday night (people have actually paid $$
> for this) and need to know where I might be able to get astronomical data
> online for things like NGC galaxies and such. What I need is technical
> information for things like distance, size, mass and so on, so I can give
> some information as people are looking through the eyepiece. I of course
> have Burnham's but need information for more objects than he lists.
I sent to this personal note to Ray Gralak yesterday about identifying the
galaxies in the M84/M86 field:
Are you familiar with the NED web site? (http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/).
Data, bibliography and images are available online for literally *every*
catalogued galaxy. You can search by Name, Position, Near Name, or Near
Position. I use this resource ALL the time for positions, magnitudes,
identification, bibliographic references, etc. For example a search within 15
arcminute of M84 (using the Near Name search) netted 40 objects including
galaxies, supernovae, QSO's, Radio Sources and even UV Sources. Another click
on NGC 4387 will bring up data on 9 other aliases, accurate positions (1999),
radial velocity, diameter, magnitude, morphological type, 135 bibliographic
references, a DSS image and numerous links to external catalogues which
include NGC 4387!
Steve Gottlieb
Adventures in Deep Space NGC/IC Project
http://redshift.home.pipeline.com/ http://www.ngcic.org/