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Old 17-05-2017, 09:13 AM
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Nebulous (Chris)
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How do you plan your viewing sessions?

Hi all,

How do you plan your viewing sessions - do you have particular types of target that you search for? And do you set goals in advance or do you just wing it on the night?

I spent the first couple of weeks of owning a telescope mostly scanning the skies in a fairly random fashion, looking for the quick “Wow!” objects - the moon of course, plus Jupiter, Saturn, a crescent Venus, and various interesting clumps of stars near the Southern Cross, such as the Running Chicken Nebula, Carina Nebula and the Southern Pleiades. Some I deliberately looked for and some I found by happy accident and then researched what they were later (e.g. The Jewel Box, and also the globular cluster Omega Centauri). With clear skies and a little bit of luck they were all reasonably easy to find with my basic low magnification telescope. With practice, I was even able to find them again the following night. Well, usually….

So what next?

This is probably the point at which many telescopes get put in the garage “temporarily” alongside the home exercise equipment that was going to give you back a teenage body with a set of six-pack abs. And for those who do stick at it there are probably many possibly directions to go in. Doubtless it depends on the individual.


For me it’s been going back to basics. I’ve stopped coveting bigger and more powerful telescopes and I’m learning to use what I’ve already got (an 80x400 refractor and a 150x750 Newtonian reflector). I’ll pick a very small area of sky (just part of a single constellation) and attempt to learn it more thoroughly - section by section. And I’m finding it really enjoyable and satisfying. Even a tiny area seems to contain a massive amount of intriguing patterns and potentially interesting targets.

For guidance I’ve been using the amazing free Stellarium software and have recently bought Sky Safari 5 Plus. I did try printed charts and a planisphere but found them awkward to use, with dodgy old eyes, compared to the amazing versatility and adjustable depth of the software on a laptop.

And bit by bit, little by little, I am starting to work my way around a constellation, or part of one, starting at the more obviously bright stars and then hopping from star to star. It feels a bit like trying to learn a new language - inirtially it all sounds (or in this case looks) like random noise - but over time you begin to recognise subtly different patterns. Eventually, moving round a small patch becomes as familiar as walking round the garden. Or that’s the plan anyway…

How about you? Do you have a system, or a list of targets you’d be especially interested to see, or what?

Cheers,

Chris
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Old 17-05-2017, 09:24 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Hi Chris,

There is a list somewhere on this site prepared by John Bambury which has about six hundred southern hemisphere objects, which can be ordered in terms of best month for seeing - I tend to use this as an excellent resource for my monthly dark sky trip for my 16" dob, where I'll tend to attempt the fainter DSO's not readily captured at home with an 8" dob. Trying to get through 50-100 objects in a night is a little ambitious though, so I'll plan ahead and work out a few of the more interesting objects, particularly planetary nebula which are all but non-existent at home, and hope to get about 30 for the evening. Stellarium is a great app for targeting particular areas of the sky as you're doing, which is a good idea. It's hard not to track down the old favourites every time you pull the scope out though! Another option if you've got good skies is to use stellarium (or similar) and try to track down one type of object for the whole evening - this can reduce the time spent changing eyepieces, but can get a little tedious. Best of luck.
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Old 17-05-2017, 12:19 PM
Sconesbie (Scott)
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I used to just go outside and start looking with no clear objective. Yep, the easier ones, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Orion were all go to then I used to look aimlessly in hope to find something different. To be quite honest, I found that I wasn't outside very long and whilst I was still enjoying it, I could have been enjoying the sky even more.

I now use Sky Safari when I am inside at home and go to the "search" function and then look at "tonight's best". I then write all the bold ones in a note book and take that outside with me. It gives the Alt and Az figures. I was starting to write them down too but soon realised that they are forever changing as the night went on. A trap for young players that one.

I generally only write down the ones that are in my reach in the backyard or wherever I am going as per the altitude but sometimes I will note down some obscure ones in hope that I can find something different. You never know.

I take my phone or ipad outside with me (ensure the red light display is on) and use that for the co-ordinates as I am searching.

As I find the object, I have a bit of a look at it and stay on it for a few moments, changing eyepieces to try and get a better (or worse) view and see what else is around it. I then tick it off on my notebook and write down the time I saw it. I also note any features or interesting facts about it that I saw.

After I am finished, I head back in and search for the things I saw, use Google images and take a snapshot of the image and note down the light year or other bits that I can relate to later on. Plus if anyone asks, I can show them.

I have only done this a few times and it seems to work ok for me and is allowing me to learn the names of the objects plus get a rough idea on where they are in the sky for when I am looking with the naked eye.

Slowly but surely this allowing me to enjoy viewing much more.


Regards
Scott
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Old 17-05-2017, 04:39 PM
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madwayne (Wayne)
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I have Sky Safari Pro on my iPad. I connect it via wireless to a wifi telescope control module. Take the iPad out with me and use the built in observing lists or one of the imported lists. I like hunting down carbon stars and the Astronomy League have a good list of those. The beauty of the pro version is you can record your observations on your iPad. Be it just date and time or more in depth notes. I try to remember to dim my iPad brightness before and after and have Sky Safari in night, red light, mode.

I also carry with me a pocket sky atlas and it has enough NGCs and all the Messiers by season. It's also laminated for those dewy nights.

You can also have a look at NGC/IC project website and if you've got some Excel skills write macros to capture the note pad it generates and export to Excel. You can then sort the results, I find RA best, to make for ease of viewing. Remember with this it is one constellation at a time, so if you're setup to view Eastern constellations and there is cloud there you'll need a back up plan.

I also run through sky safari on Jupiter for shadow transits and GRS, make a note of the times and go from there. Always revisit the old favourites which include Ruby Crucis, the carbon star near Mimosa, particularly if there are people who have not seen it before.

Personally I live in pretty dark skies, often cloudy, but I still like to be organised when I observe.

Clear skies.

Wayne
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Old 17-05-2017, 06:26 PM
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Nebulous (Chris)
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Thanks Patrick, Scott and Wayne for your interesting and informative replies. Some useful ideas and suggestions in there.

I've tracked down John Bambury's list here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=45678

There's a link in the top post of that thread. Pretty impressive list! So thanks for the tip on that one.

Please excuse brief reply but it's getting dark and it's looking clear out there at the moment...

Cheers,

Chris
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Old 17-05-2017, 07:51 PM
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Atmos (Colin)
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I do almost all of my observing from my house in Melbourne, a location where on some nights I struggle to see the fifth star in the Southern Cross :/
I almost exclusively observe with a 4" doublet where I spend most of my time viewing the moon or planets, so for me I don't do any planning.

Most of my observing sessions are quite short as well, mostly focus on imaging Sometimes setup the little scope next to its slightly larger brother for something to do while running setup routines on the imaging run.

Around this time last year I was following the mind set that I really needed to upgrade my 12" to get more aperture. A year later I still plan on upgrading the 12" but going smaller (8"-10"), something that I am more likely to use! Even my longer observing sessions aren't long enough for the telescope to completely acclimatise considering some nasty temperature drops. My 12" is that telescope that sits in the garage (corner of a spare room) that only comes out when I do public outreach events. it is a telescope that I've setup for just myself literally a handful of times (4-6) in two and a half years. I have spent more time at the eye piece of my 4" in a month than with my 12" in 2.5 years. Comfort is also something to consider!
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Old 18-05-2017, 12:56 AM
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Benjamin (Ben)
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After being able to track down the few objects I was desperate to see (M8 and all the nebulae around it) I started on the Messier list (found that across the year I could see about 96 of the 110), and then added a Dunlop and Bennett list of various Southern objects (John's list is probably more comprehensive), and then a few more... (Herschel etc.). I used to store the lists in astoplanner but now store them all in Sky Safari Pro (on my iPhone) where you can both tick off the objects you've seen and add observations. Under dark skies I add a red screen over the iPhone that still allows me to type etc.
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Old 18-05-2017, 02:20 AM
AEAJR (Ed)
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How I plan or don't plan depends on the night.

For example Monday night I got up from watching TV, done for the evening.
Did my usual look outside to see how the sky looked. It was clear and beautiful.

I said to my wife, I am going outside for a while and headed out the door.
I grabbed one of my 3 scopes, all of which live in an unheated garage so they are always ready to go.

I pulled out the 8" Dob, which is on a cart. Put my observing chair on the cart.
I grabbed my bucket of accessorizes and rolled along the driveway and sidewalk
to my observing spot and spent 45 minutes on Jupiter.

Sometimes I pull out a Planisphere or a star chart, "Turn Left at Orion, or an app
on the phone with no pre planning. These are usually short sessions of 30 minutes to an hour.


Other times my sessions are planned.


I might sit with Stellarium and see what is in my prime viewing area and work out the star hops
on the screen.

Other nights I start with a target list using "Tonight's Sky", a free web site that will
allow me to run a report of what is in the sky tonight. It will let me select the difficulty of
the targets and will provide a printed, PDF or HTML report that I can use
when you are at your telescope.

Since all of my scopes are computer assisted I can just align them and work off the list.
Sometimes I will use a chart to star hop. Depends on my mood.

The default sort is by difficulty, from brightest to dimmest. That is
great but you could end up all over the sky trying to work the list. I
normally sort it by constellation. Then I can mark the constellations that
are in my best part of the sky and focus on them. You could spend an
entire evening working on small part of the sky finding all sorts of cool
stuff.

Aside from making it easier to observe, I can get to know a specific region of
the sky. I can focus on Orion, for example. See all that is in Orion
up to the capability of the telescope. Then move on to Taurus or
Cassiopeia or whatever constellations are in the best area.

Not sure which constellations are in your best viewing area? I use
Stellarium to help me see which constellations are in my best viewing area.
For me that is NE to SE and directly overhead.


Here is how you do it.

Tonight's Sky Web site
http://www.tonightssky.com/MainPage.php

Put in your location and time settings and click the box to remember them

Select the difficulty level - If you are using binoculars then select that.
If you are in a highly light polluted area work naked eye and binoculars
first, maybe small telescope. If you can find all of those then on the next
report raise the difficulty level.

Select what types of targets you want to see - Planets, clusters, whatever
you want.

Run the report - standard sort that will be displayed is by increasing
magnitude number, that is to say brightest to dimmest

Choose which ones you want in the printed report, or select all.

Select Print or right click and select print. If you want a PDF select
"save as"

I change default print out sort to "by constellation"

Run the report and it will be sorted by constellation. This is how I
normally sort it.

You can print it or save it as a PDF or a web page. If you save it as a web
page there are live links to resources for each item.


That's how I do it.
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Old 18-05-2017, 02:56 AM
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Generally I have a list of events/objects that I hope to observe or image throughout the week/month/year or upcoming years. However, sometimes I just like to have fun and wing it. Observing either by naked eye, binoculars, scope, live video or even through animation/simulation. Some nights I'll use a tracking mount and other nights it's just the good ol' push and nudge or walk around for a bit and point up. After a while you become more familiar with the sky above and begin to understand more about the objects you're been looking at.
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Old 22-05-2017, 09:08 AM
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Nebulous (Chris)
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Thanks to everybody for the great descriptions and suggestions. The weather is getting more wet and wintery here now but I'm still getting enough clear patches to be able to make some progress.

Even when the conditions are not favourable for locating a planned target it can still be interesting (and often surprising) to just point at a clear spot and wing it.

Cheers,

Chris
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Old 09-06-2017, 02:43 PM
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Hi Chris,

Personally I find it very frustrating and a time waster going outside without a plan. The sky teases me just when then the fun starts after viewing old favourites. I do though often go outside without a scope and learn/re-acquaint myself with the constellations- I find that's just as important as observing. When I first started out, for a long time, I used to (like yourself) stay in the one constellation and observe it well and still often do. It always ended up being a lot of fun and gives a more personal experience with that constellation. And because you spend so much time there, you get to know where things are naked eye, even though you can't see many of them without a scope, there's that great feeling of ah-hah I know what sits next to that star.

If you haven't already, and unfortunately Orion sets so early now, one of the best times I've had with exploring a constellation is Canis Major. It's packed with the most gorgeous golden stars, clusters, a blue/gold colourful double, and the biggest star we now of today- VY Canis Majoris.

My list is made around what object gets lowest in the sky first. It's preferable to catch them before they get to 30 degrees in the sky and get caught up in the atmospheric murk. I write down all my observations, and my list is sourced from a number of books, my main ones being Collins Stars & Planets (excellent resource of easy to get objects from a backyard) and Starry Nights software. I didn't go after galaxies for about two years, preferring to build up my observing skills with nebulae. It's a challenge after all observing from suburbia .

After doing lots of obs over the years of general things & running out of new things to observe under light pollution, I've moved onto double stars (still so many I haven't done), carbon stars (there's a ripper of one right next to beta Crucis known as Ruby Crucis, it's like a drop of blood! Use high magnification, beta is in the same field of view), supernovae when bright enough, nova and my favourite- comets and sketching them. Photographing Iridium flares, ISS passes, Moon/planetary conjunctions and of course the Moon. My new challenge is to take a pic of the ISS through the telescope, manually guided. So there's oodles of things to do up there, it never gets boring that's for sure.

I'm not sure how long/experienced you are with observing so forgive me if I mentioned some basic things . Some years ago I did a couple of challenge lists in the observation forum. They're broken down into easy, medium and difficult. The May/June challenge is for the one constellation only- Hydra .

May/June
July/August
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Old 10-06-2017, 02:19 PM
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Nebulous (Chris)
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Hi Suzy,

Thank you so much for that thoughtful reply and the links to your observing challenges. I’ll make a note of those and see if I can find some of them!

I’ve only been observing for a few weeks now but I’m gradually finding out where things are are and also what interests me the most. I’ve been experimenting with taking a few photos, both with the camera on a tripod and also through a telescope but I don’t think that I’ll be going the full hog on astrophotography. I just find it useful to be able to take a quick snap of an area I’ve been looking at so that I can view it later and identify a few more things. My current setup is a 150/750 Newtonian with a cheap 80x400 refractor mounted on the top (which I attach the camera to). I also just added a 9x50 right angled finder scope with an erecting prism so that it all looks the “right way up” when I’m searching. Much easier to find my way around at this early stage. Easier on the back too!

I was intrigued to hear of your interest in the carbon star near Mimosa (Beta Crucis) and to hear that it’s called Ruby Crucis. A couple of nights ago I took some pictures of that same area that included Beta Crucis and The nearby Jewel Box. I use iPhoto on a Mac for photo storage and it apparently has a built in algorithm that checks for hot pixels and removes them after a few seconds (my old Canon 600D always has a sprinkling of them). So when I looked at the photos later I noticed what I thought was another “hot pixel” near Beta Crucis and was waiting for the software to remove it!

When I checked other pictures I could see that the red dot had moved position and was it fact a star. So of course I then had to name it “Hot Pixel Crucis.” (Picture below although some of that lovely red has washed out in the transfer unfortunately.)

I got a few glimpses of Orion when I first began (which was only a few weeks ago, back in April) but it’s too low in the sky now to get a decent look. By the time it gets dark it’s more or less behind the house, and it’s also in the worst area for light, so I’ll need to wait a few more months to explore that one. In the meantime I get great views of anything anywhere near the S. Cross - such as Scorpius, Musca, Ara, Circinus, Carina, Lupus, etc. They're all easy to see from my position outside the shed, so that’s where I’ve been mostly looking. Currently trying to memorise the star positions and learn more about Scorpius.

I also made the intriguing discovery that I have a (very modest) family connection to the moon, but I’ll put that story in another post.

Thanks again for the tips.

Cheers,

Chris
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Old 11-06-2017, 03:07 PM
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Suzy
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Quote:
“Hot Pixel Crucis.”

Funny story, Chris!
Your pic captured it nicely .

You're very welcome, I'm glad I could be of some help. I nearly forgot about this list I did some years ago, it's a good list for people just starting out with easy to see goodies:
Highlights of the Winter Sky
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Old 15-06-2017, 11:18 AM
DarkKnight (Kev)
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Another for Stellarium.
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