sponsored by psychohistorian.org

DOCdb

Deep Sky Observer's Companion – the online database

 

Welcome, guest!

If you've already registered, please log in,

or register an observer profile for added functionality.

List:

log in to manage your observing lists

 browse:

 

 position:

 

 next:

 

 options:

summary

rename

prune

trim

remove

close

copy

combine

plan

bookmark

load

new

delete

marathon

favourite!

Full database:

Entire DOCdb database of 18,816 objects.

 browse:

 position:

Seven Sisters of the Pole (1 of 18,816)

 next:

oc gc pln bn dn gx gxcl ast aka lost

show browsing

News archives

A charming planetary nebula in eastern Triangulum Australe.

A charming planetary nebula in eastern Triangulum Australe.

March newsletter of the ASSA Deep-Sky Section, featuring 47 Tuc on the cover.

"Nightfall" (2015 April) is the current newsletter of the Deep-Sky Observing Section of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.

A globular cluster in the realm of the galaxies

A rare gem - a bright globular cluster in the realm of the galaxies.

The Dark Emu rises, in pursuit of the Magellanic Clouds

The beautiful complex of dark nebulosity along the southern Milky Way appears like an ancient monster, its serpentine neck reaching out as if to gobble up the Magellanic Clouds.

Massive star forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Dale Liebenberg images NGC 346, a gigantic star forming region in the SMC.

Flocculent Galaxy in Southern Leo

Dale Liebenberg images the spiral galaxy NGC 3521 in southern Leo.

Ancient open cluster in Lyra

Anthony Ayiomamitis images the old open cluster NGC 6791.

Golden Coin Galaxy

Dale Liebenberg images the Golden Coin, NGC 4945 in Centaurus.

NGC 2467 in Puppis

Dale Liebenberg images NGC 2467 in Puppis.

Last but not least - Messier 103

Anthony Ayiomamitis images Messier 103 in Cassiopeia.

The Arkenstone of Thrain

Dale Liebenberg images Messier 22, the "Arkenstone of Thrain" according to Burnham.

ConCards available

A handy set of beginner's star charts, "Constellation Cards" are now available for free download.

Deep sky celebrations

Three deep sky observers of yore have birthdays this week: William Herschel (1738), the Fourth Earl of Rosse, and Stephane Javelle.

Necklace Nebula featured on APOD

The recently-discovered planetary nebula nicknamed the Necklace Nebula, recently featured on APOD.

Methuselah Nebula featured on APOD

The old bipolar planetary nebula MWP1, a.k.a. Methuselah Nebula, is today's APOD.

New deepsky book from CUP

Deep sky author Wolfgang Steinicke's latest book, "Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters: From Herschel to Dreyer's New General Catalogue", has just been published by Cambridge University Press.

NGC 1365 in infrared (ESO VLT)

The bright barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 in Fornax has been imaged in the infrared with the ESO VLT telescope.

New HST image of eta Carinae Nebula

New observations, combined with images made in 2005, show beautiful detail in part of the extensive eta Carinae Nebula.

First planetary in open cluster found

A team of astronomers from Australia, the UK, the USA and France have discovered the first planetary nebula known to be associated with a galactic open cluster.

NGC 300 in Sculptor imaged at ESO

The bright spiral galaxy NGC 300 has been imaged with the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Superwind galaxy NGC 4666

A remarkable galaxy with very vigorous star formation has been newly imaged on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

NGC 7793 measured

New Cepheid variables in Sculptor Group member NGC 7793 reveal its distance.

Westerlund 1 : Black holes 0

New observations of a magnetar in the open cluster Westerlund 1 challenge stellar evolution theories.

New Tarantula image

ESO's VISTA near-infrared survey kicks off with a spectacular image of the region around the Tarantula Nebula.

Hubble image of NGC 4696

Curling around itself like a question mark, the unusual looking galaxy NGC 4696 itself begs many questions. Why is it such a strange shape? What are the odd, capillary-like filaments that stretch out of it? And what is the role of a large black hole in explaining its decidedly odd appearance?

Hubble image of NGC 4911

A newly released HST image illustrates NGC 4911 and its companion, NGC 4911A, along with other members of the Coma Cluster.

Buckyballs in space

Giant carbon molecules, known as "buckyballs", have been found in the planetary nebula IC 1266 (Tc 1). This is the first evidence for the existence of these intruiging molecules in "the dark recesses of our galaxy".

Biggest stars

With a birth-weight 300 times greater than the mass of our Sun, astronomers at ESO have set a new record for just how big "big" is.

Sharp starforming region

A beautiful newly-released Hubble Space Telescope image of the star forming region NGC 2467 for your visual delight.

Black hole bubble

A superpowerful microquasar has been discovered in the galaxy NGC 7793, injecting oodles (i.e. tens of times more powerful than previously known) of energy into space, creating a 1,000 light year diameter bubble around its dark centre.

Impressions

A beautiful new image of the R CrA region, from La Silla.

Collision in Leo

The mysterious Leo Ring, a giant gas ring in the Leo galaxy group, resulted from a billion-year-old collision between two galaxies.

The Bug Report

DOCdb is still in beta-release.

Known issues, feature requests, and updates on bug fixes, are here:

> Bug Report

Feedback

Found a bug? Have a comment or suggestion to improve DOCdb? Please let us know!

> Contact us

Help!

DOCdb is a free online resource that exists to promote deep sky observing.

You could help by sharing your observations, writing an article, digitizing and proof-reading historical material, and more.

> Find out more

Collaborators

Special thanks to our volunteers:

• Magda Streicher

• Chris de Coning

> Find out more

Free downloads

Planisphere

ConCards

Star charts

Star charts

Everything on DOCdb.net is © 2004-2010 by Auke Slotegraaf, unless stated otherwise or if you can prove you have divine permission to use it. Before using material published here, please consult the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 License. Some material on DOCdb is copyright the individual authors. If in doubt, don't reproduce. And that goes for having children, too. Please note that the recommended browser for DOCdb is Firefox 3.x. You may also get good results with K-Meleon. Good luck if you're using IE. A successful experience with other browsers, including Opera and Safari, may vary.