On field trials conducted on the night of december 3, 2005, the search team found and identified the first 60 objects in the Herschel 400 compendium. The list contains faint and obscure galaxies, star clusters and nebula. The sightings of these stellar objects visually verified that a great dark site had been achieved. The Herschel 400 list is part of a much larger catalog as described below
The Herschel 400 list contains 400 deep-sky objects selected from the list of 2,477 objects originally observed and discovered by the english astronomer Sir William Herschel. They were first published in 1880 as part of the new general catalog of deep-sky objects. Many are faint and inconspicuoss, especially the virgo galaxy cluster which presents the greatest challenge.