Star Gazing Diary? or excel spreadsheet?

[drahyrt (Steve)]

Hi All,
Just started my quest into space, and after a few nights feel I really want to start a list of objects I have seen and understood.
I have downloaded several messier lists and 100 top objects etc etc, and was looking to record what, roughly where or exactly where, when and observations.

What do people use? Spreadsheets? Software programs? Diaries, books?

I was thinking excel spreadsheet, anyone got any better ideas?

Thanks all,
Steve

[jungle11 (Greg)]

Hey again, I was told about this a few days ago. Go to Resources (left of screen), go into the files section and you will see observation logs. You can print these, I'm using them for now but I might end up putting them on the computer so the logs are easier to reference. Good luck.

[drahyrt (Steve)]

Thanks Jungle, this is a good start, I need to scan the rest of the site obviously.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

get into the digital age, use the pdf from the web site, print it, go out fill it out take it inside scan it and then presto there you go.
If your really nifty write a small search program or even use a google search engine in a folder. yay

[xelasnave]

I record stuff on paper so I dont have to look at a bright screen and destroy my night vission

alex

[Solanum]

I record stuff on paper and then enter it into 'Observation manager', a cross platform program that is whilst a bit clunky works well and has databases of DSOs and some other objects. Find it at: http://observation.sourceforge.net/en/

I have actually just bought a little digital voice recorder and plan on using that at the eyepiece instead of going to my outdoor table and writing stuff down. Should increase observing time and reduce errors of memory I hope.

[drahyrt (Steve)]

Thanks all for the replies and advice. Helpful once again,
Will try that program, the screen shots look great.
I was hoping for a computer based record, so that appears to fit nicely.
Cheers all,
Steve