Observable objects in order of difficulty?

[Alasdair]

I have just downloaded the "Bambury 600" list, of which I have seen a few with the naked eye, and a few more with binoculars.

I have only recently acquired a 10" telescope, and of course my observing abilities are those of a complete beginner. So I'm wondering if there's a version of the Bambury list sorted by observational difficulty? I appreciate that this is highly subjective, but certainly there are easy bright objects such as the Magellanic clouds, which anybody can see in a dark location, and other objects which require trained eyes and very good scopes to see anything of.

Thanks!

[JoelyE95]

Alasdair,

Attached is an excel spreadsheet and a PDF ordered by visual magnitude. The smaller the number (ie. -1.5 and 0) the brighter the object. Larger the number (ie. 14.2) the dimmer the object.

With the spreadsheet, you can also order by more than 1 column and can also order by magnitude and best month to observe.

Hope this helps,

Joel

P.s. If you give me a little bit of time, I can give you a document that will show you were each object is in the sky and what the object looks like.

[Alasdair]

Many thanks - well, as I already have the complete spreadsheet I have taken your advice and ordered it by visual magnitude within each month.

It should have occured to me that visual magnitude is really the defining factor for observability of DSOs; whereas for Lunar observation some things are simply too small to see in any but large telescopes.

Now hoping for a night or two of clear skies!

[JoelyE95]

Alasdair,

I managed to compile all 600 items into a document that will show you what the objects look like.

http://www.joelye95.com/BAM600.pdf (198MB)

The All-Sky chart is localised for SE QLD for the time I generated the document (sorry bud) and is sorted alphabetically (you'll see why), but the 60 degree chart is centred for the object and shows you what is nearby. Use the spreadsheet to find out what constellation it is in. The 5 degree chart is what you should see in your finder scope (it may be inverted, I did not check) and the 1 degree chart shows you what you would see through your scope with a 25mm eye piece (again, may be inverted). Finally, there is an infra-red image of the object so you know what to look for.

The size of the circles in the fields of view are the size of the object in the view. Use the 25mm to start with as some of these dimmer objects are easier to see.

Hope that helps you out and doesn't freak you out.

Joel

[Alasdair]

Would you mind letting me know what software you used to generate those skycharts? Maybe I could re-generate them for Melbourne.

I've just learned that Melbourne is, apparently, Australia's cloudiest city. Yay.

[JoelyE95]

Alasdair,

The program I used was AstroPlanner. It isn't free, but most features are available in the free version. If memory serves, you'd just need the file I used and you should be away. I'll be able to post it in the morning for you to try your luck.

The program can be set for a specific time for generating charts, or can automatically update each objects location and give you a lot of information on.

Joel

[Alasdair]

Hmm... what I need is software which can be used - or compiled from source - for linux. But I suppose given the coordinates of each of the objects, any decent astronomy program or programming library should be able to generate suitable charts.

[BeanerSA]

CdC works on Linux. I'm pretty sure it's in most of the major repos.

[JoelyE95]

If you are committed enough, you could install DistroAstro (or run from disk) or look through the website to see the programs that are in it. It has CdC and PP3 for charts as well as Stellarium .

http://www.distroastro.org/