'Exposure'

The Ultimate Astrophotography Challenge!

Astronomers, both professional and amateur alike, thrive on lists and catalogues. There is the Messier list of popular Deep Sky Objects (DSO), the Caldwell list of 109 other DSO’s, the Herschel 400 List, O’Meara’s Hidden Treasures list; the Dreyer New General Catalogue (NGC), the Index Catalogue (IC), the Principal galaxies Catalogue (PGC) and so on. List and Catalogues for DSO’s, Galaxies, Planetary Nebula, Dark Nebula, and Bright Nebula and…

However, there is no list specifically for the Astronomical Photographer, which catalogues the best subjects for imaging – the most beautiful, the most colourful, and the most interesting.

ArtdeCiel.com has created such a list – the 'A' List, comprising just like Messier’s of 109 objects, but including not just DSOs, but Planets, Lunar Features, and Earth related phenomenon like the Aurora and a simple Sunset.

Each object in the list is given its own number prefixed not by an ‘M’ as in Messier’s List, but by an ‘A’, so A1 in the list is the Aurora; A2 is the ‘Horse Head’ Nebula (Barnard 33); A24 is a Comet; A29 the Planet Jupiter; A50 the Lunar Feature known as the Mare Imbrium – the ‘Sea of Showers’; and A67 is simply a ‘Sunset’ and so on. 

The ‘A’ list is not only very diverse, but also challenging for both experts and beginners.

So, be the first to acquire all 109 objects!

You can download (see below) a detailed schedule of each object in the 'A' list as well as an article describing the thinking behind it.

A_List_Article.pdf (964.55 kb)

A_List_Schedule.pdf (1.68 mb)