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Old 16-02-2009, 08:10 PM
ausastronomer (John Bambury)
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Shoalhaven Heads, NSW
Posts: 2,618
I would set all the Messier objects in an Excel spreadsheet. Sort them by declination and then delete those that have too northerly a declination for you to see from your latitude.

Take the remaining targets and sort them by right ascension. Work out which is the most westerly target that is visible at sunset and put this target first on the list. Then re sort the list by cutting and pasting so that everything follows in right ascension order from your first visible target on the list. Save the file as a comma delimited ascii file, upload it to Argo Navis as a User Defined Catalogue.

Start your scope, wait for dark, align argo; and then just go through the targets in right ascension order by turning the detent wheel one click at a time. Everything in your list will be visible at the appropriate stages of the night this way and you just turn the wheel one click at a time.

I am pretty sure if you hunt around you will find a user defined catalogue of Messier Targets ready for uploading to AN, just for such a purpose.

Cheers,
John B
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