Outlines for Deep-sky objects

[deepskywim]

Hello,

As this is my first post on this forum, I would like to introduce myself a bit ;-)
I'm a deepsky observer from Belgium and the proud owner of Obsession #693 (an 18''). I'm also one of the developers of DeepskyLog, an online logging tool for Deepsky observations.

Does anyone know where I can find the outlines of deepsky objects (including the milky way)? On the website of Jose Torres (www.uv.es/jrtorres), I could find some files which where made by Mark Smedley. However, I can not find a mail address of Mark Smedley, I don't know the format of these files or whether I can use these files myself...
Does anyone know of some other outline files which can be used freely? What are the most recent and best of these outline files?

Thanks a lot,

Wim

[Dragan]

Wim,

What do you mean exactly as an outline?

[deepskywim]

Sorry for not being clear enough.
In most of the catalogs, you only get information about the location of the deep-sky objects and the size of the object.
However, some objects, like M 42 or ngc 6960/6992 have a very typical shape. I'm looking for a list of coordinates describing how these objects really look like. I found some lists and here is an example of the coordinates that should be connected to draw M 42 :

05.56401 -05.49880 start M 42
05.56759 -05.39201 vertex
05.56635 -05.31749 vertex
05.57158 -05.21922 vertex
05.57601 -05.21716 vertex
05.58830 -05.30164 vertex
05.59140 -05.34341 vertex
05.59028 -05.37076 vertex
05.59008 -05.38175 vertex
05.59581 -05.37159 vertex
05.59943 -05.47123 vertex
05.59912 -05.65838 vertex
05.59520 -05.73212 vertex
05.58490 -05.68102 vertex
05.56948 -05.57675 end

What I'm looking for is an up to date list, with the coordinates describing the shape of as many deep-sky objects as possible.

Thanks a lot!