It was later expanded into the General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (GC) by his son, John Herschel, in 1864.
The CN and GC are the precursors to John Louis Emil Dreyer's New General Catalogue (NGC), compiled in 1888 and used by current astronomers.
The Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars was first published in 1786 by William Herschel in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
[4] In 1864, the CN was expanded into the General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (GC) by John Herschel (William's son).
[6] In 1886, he suggested building a second supplement to the General Catalogue, but the Royal Astronomical Society asked Dreyer to compile a new version instead.