In April 1990, our universe opened up to us in a whole new way.
That’s when the Hubble Space Telescope was launched and implemented, the most powerful space telescope ever created.
Although the instrument started in a rough way, Hubble has been in operation for three decades since April this year. And to celebrate this wonderful stage, NASA has just handed us space riches: 50 newly processed images of objects from the Caldwell catalog, released to the public for the first time.
Cosmic objects can be classified in many different ways. What makes the Caldwell catalog special is that it contains only objects that can be observed by astronomers in the backyard. Take a telescope (or, in some cases, your own two eyes) and you can find these objects for you in the night sky.
The Caldwell Catalog, compiled by amateur astronomer and writer Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, was first published in 1995 in Sky & Telescope, intended as a complement to the Messier catalog of 110 objects compiled by the French astronomer Charles Messier in the 18th century.
Galaxy NGC 55, also known as Caldwell 72. (NASA, ESA, R. de Jong, G. Illingworth; prosecuted by Gladys Kober)
Messier, famous, compiled his catalog out of frustration. He was interested in finding comets; The catalog was a list of annoying things that not bad comets and therefore they could be safely ignored by comet hunters.
Ironically, it proved to be a really useful list of bright targets for amateur astronomers, including nebulae, star clusters, and nearby galaxies.
Star cluster NGC 6193 or Caldwell 82. (NASA, ESA and J. Maiz Apellaniz; processed by Gladys Kober)
The Caldwell catalog, which contains 109 objects, consists of 28 nebulae, 46 clusters and 35 galaxies that were not included in the Messier catalog, but are still of intense interest to anyone who likes to look at the sky at night.
It is a joy to find these objects alone and to see them, light-years away, with your own eyes. There is also joy in comparing his own observations to what Hubble saw with his much stronger “eye.” And, well, they’re just glorious.
Thirty Caldwell objects appear in the 50 new NASA images, some objects appear in several images.
Caldwell 45 or NGC 5248 spiral galaxy (NASA, ESA, J. Lee and A. Filippenko; processed by Gladys Kober)
“Due to Hubble’s detailed field of view, some of his images do not capture the entirety of a Caldwell object, sometimes magnifying groups of young stars in the arms of a spiral galaxy, stars on the periphery of a cluster, or a zombie star in the heart of a nebula.” written by Vanessa Thomas of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on NASA’s website.
“But in other cases, a mosaic of Hubble observations gathers to create a complete or near-complete portrait of the heavenly wonder.”
In total, Hubble’s Caldwell catalog – first published in December 2019 – now includes 87 of the 109 Caldwell items. The space telescope did not ignore the Messier catalog either; Hubble imagined 96 of the 110 Messier objects. Each item in both catalogs includes a visual guide for how to see it in the sky.
Coalsack or Caldwell 99 Nebula (NASA, ESA and R. Sahai; processed by Gladys Kober)
Together, the two collections contain some of the most amazing images of the space around us – an amazing tour of the wonders of the cosmos.
And an absolute proof of the priceless treasure of Hubble proved to be.
You can browse more amazing photos in the complete Caldwell collection and the Messier collection on the NASA website.