Assembling the NGC was a challenge, as Dreyer had to deal with many contradicting and unclear reports, made with a variety of telescopes with apertures ranging from 2 to 72 inches. While he did check some himself, the sheer number of objects meant Dreyer had to accept them as published by others for the purpose of his compilation. Dreyer was a careful transcriber and made few errors himself, but the catalogue nonetheless contained several errors (mostly relating to position and descriptions).