New General Catalogue

The New General Catalogue (NGC or the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars) is an 1888 astronomical catalog of 7840 galaxies, stellar clusters and nebulae, i.e., astronomical objects observationally larger than stars. Such objects known since the 1800s are often identified by their NGC designator, e.g., NGC 3314 and NGC 2770. The NGC is John Dreyer's update to William Herschel's earlier 1786 Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (CN) and his son, John Herschel's 1864 update, General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (GC). Enlargements of the NGC have come out since: the Index Catalogs are supplements, and more recently, the Revised NGC (RNGC) in 1973, NGC2000.0 in 1988, and the Revised NGC and IC (RNGC/IC) in 2009.