AllAboutAstro Labeling Tool
Upload your own astrophoto. It gets plate-solved against the real sky, then you can add sliders that reveal labels for stars, galaxies, and clusters in the field -- each one down to whatever brightness you drag it to. When you're happy with it, download the labeled image.
Current version: v1.1 -- see the version history for a running list of updates.
JPEG, PNG, or WebP, up to 10MB.
About the catalogs
Messier
Charles Messier’s 1771–1781 list of 110 bright, fixed deep-sky objects -- compiled not to celebrate them, but to help comet hunters avoid mistaking them for new comets. Nearly all of the sky’s showpiece galaxies, clusters, and nebulae are on it.
NGC
The New General Catalogue (J.L.E. Dreyer, 1888), 7,840 deep-sky objects compiled from the Herschels’ visual survey work and other 19th-century observers. Still the primary reference designation for most galaxies, clusters, and nebulae.
IC
The Index Catalogue (Dreyer, 1895 and 1908), two supplements to the NGC adding 5,386 more objects found after 1888, many via early astrophotography rather than visual observation.
Barnard
E.E. Barnard’s 1919 catalogue of 349 dark nebulae -- obscuring dust clouds silhouetted against the Milky Way’s star fields, identified from his own wide-field photographic plates.
Sharpless
Stewart Sharpless’s 1959 catalogue (Sh2) of 313 HII emission regions -- glowing hydrogen gas clouds, mostly star-forming nebulae, mapped from the National Geographic-Palomar Sky Survey.
LBN
Beverly Lynds’s 1965 Catalogue of Bright Nebulae, ~1,100 emission and reflection nebulae identified visually from photographic plates and rated by surface brightness and form.
LDN
Beverly Lynds’s 1962 Catalogue of Dark Nebulae -- ~1,800 obscuring dust clouds cataloged from the same photographic survey work as LBN, rated by opacity rather than brightness.
Arp
Halton Arp’s 1966 "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies," 338 galaxies chosen specifically for unusual/disturbed morphology -- interacting pairs, tidal tails, ring galaxies -- rather than brightness or size.
Herschel 400
A 400-object observing list curated by the Astronomical League from William Herschel’s much larger 18th-century discovery catalogue (2,500+ objects) -- selected as a challenging but achievable "next step" past the Messier list for visual observers.
Herschel II
A second, complementary 400-object Herschel list, originally selected by the Rose City Astronomers (Portland, OR) in 1997 and adopted by the Astronomical League as a follow-on observing program to Herschel 400.
Caldwell
Patrick Moore’s 1995 list of 109 bright deep-sky objects, deliberately built to complement Messier’s list by including showpiece objects Messier missed -- mostly ones too far south for his Paris latitude, or just outside his comet-hunting focus.
Bayer
Johann Bayer’s 1603 system of naming naked-eye stars within a constellation by Greek letter, roughly in order of brightness (e.g. Alpha Canis Majoris = Sirius). The most recognized designation for bright stars, and the one usually paired with a common name.
Flamsteed
John Flamsteed’s early-18th-century numbering of naked-eye stars within each constellation (e.g. "51 Peg"), ordered roughly by right ascension. Still the standard designation for many bright stars without a proper name.
WDS
The Washington Double Star Catalog (US Naval Observatory), the world’s principal database of double and multiple star systems -- over 150,000 pairs, identified by coordinate-based designation and component letter (A, B, Aa/Ab, ...).
HIP
The Hipparcos catalogue, ~118,000 stars with precision positions/parallaxes/proper motions measured by ESA’s Hipparcos satellite (1989–1993) -- the standard reference for stellar astrometry before Gaia.
SAO
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog (1966), ~258,000 stars to about 9th magnitude with positions, proper motions, and photometry -- a workhorse all-sky catalog predating Hipparcos.
WD
White dwarf catalogues (McCook & Sion and successors) listing confirmed white dwarf stars -- the dense, faint stellar remnants left behind after a Sun-like star exhausts its fuel.
BD
The Bonner Durchmusterung (1859–1903), a massive 19th-century positional survey of the Northern and equatorial sky (~325,000 stars to about 9th–10th magnitude) -- one of the foundational all-sky star catalogues.