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How many nebulae and star clusters did William Herschel catalog?
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William Herschel
Sir William Herschel, detail of an oil painting by L. Abbott, 1785; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Between 1786 and 1802, William Herschel, with the assistance of his sister Caroline Herschel, compiled three catalogs that totaled approximately 2,500 star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.1
These observations served as a foundational contribution to the New General Catalogue (NGC), which was later compiled by J.L. Dreyer in 1888.21