Orion's Deep Map 600 by Constellation

Orion's DeepMap 600

In 1997, Orion Telescopes and Binoculars brought together the talents and expertise of the well-known stellar cartographer Will Tirion, and deep-sky observer extraordinaire, Steve Gottlieb. The end result was a handy, foldable road map-like star chart and reference that goes beyond--but includes--the Messier Catalog.

Thanks goes to Steve Peters, the DM600 editor from Orion Telescopes and Binoculars--the man that not only conceived of the idea of the DeepMap 600--but also directed its content, design and production; including writing copy for it. Thanks also to Steve and Orion for allowing me to post the data here!

537 Deep-Sky Objects Sorted by Constellation (from DM600). A huge file; please be patient!
85 Interesting Double and Multiple Stars Sorted by Constellation (from DM600).
22 Interesting Variable Stars Sorted by Constellation (from DM600).

The Herschel 400, a compilation of 400 deep-sky "bests" compiled by The Astronomical League of Florida is culled from the 2500+ list compiled by Sir William Herschel over 200 years ago. The H400 is the normal list most amateurs "graduate to" after viewing the spectacular--but relatively few (110)--Messier objects. As rewarding as many have found the Herschel 400 to be, I believe Orion's DeepMap 600 list is superior for several reasons:

DM600 contains a list of 85 interesting double and multiple stars, and stars that exhibit interesting color..

DM600 contains a list of 22 interesting variable stars.

DM600 is more biased towards interesting galaxies and nebulae--from a modern observer's point of view--rather than uninteresting (though relatively bright) field galaxies, or, even worse, in my opinion: open star clusters like the H400 seems to concentrate on... (If you've hunted down some of the star clusters in the H400 list, you know how non-descript and unexciting many star clusters can be!)

It is the quest of this Page to make the DM600 more popular.

I recommend you first pick up your copy of The DeepMap 600 from Orion Telescopes and Binoculars. All three lists within (deep-sky, multiple stars, and variable stars) are sorted by Right Ascension... However, you may find the re-sorted lists above--by constellation--more useful; especially if you use these lists in conjunction with other popular sources like Burnham's Celestial Handbook, or The Night Sky Observers' Guide (by Kepple and Sanner), both of which are organized by constellation.

For another discussion on observing lists, see Alister Ling's article elsewhere on this Webpage.