What exactly is 'Deep Space'? Well, it depends upon your perspective. NASA's Deep Space Tracking Network communicates with their spaceprobes throughout the Solar System. In NASA's terms these probes are in deep space because they are not in orbit around the Earth. They have also launched some spaceprobes called Deep Space but again they are confined to the Solar System. Astronomers call 'Deep Space' anywhere beyond the Solar System - so this will include nebulae in our own galaxy (The Milky Way) and distant galaxies beyond the Milky Way. And from the perspective of this web page, it includes stars and star clusters.
There are millions of deep space objects and only a selection of interesting ones can be listed here. They are listed in various catalogues. One of the oldest catalogues in use today was drawn up by Johann Bayer in 1603. He denoted the brightest stars in each constellation by a Greek letter (the brightest star being Alpha, the second brightest Beta and so on). There are exceptions and the Beyer letters do not always correspond to brightness in this way. In 1725 John Flamsteed drew up a more extensive catalogue giving numbers to the stars in each constellation. Variable stars are often designated by letters in each constellation.
Some objects have their own name, often of Arabic origin. This leads to some confusion since one star can be refered to by several different designations. On this website I have listed the more interesting objects and given cross references from the various catalogues and naming systems.
The Alphastro Home Page is http://www.alphastro.com and is operated by Lindoponline
Alphastro.com was registered through Names.co and
I recommend their service to all webmasters. Click the banner for more details.
Should you have any comments about this site, please email the webmaster