Monthly Observing Challenge

[AlexN]

monthly observing challenge hasnt been updated in quite a while.....

just a thought.

[iceman]

Yeh i'd love to get back to doing it. It just took a fair bit of my time and relied on volunteers to contribute the info.

If there's still people that want to contribute the info, i'd be happy to start it again.

[ausastronomer]

Hi Alex,

The monthly observing challenge was something Mike implemented when the forum was in its infancy. I assisted doing the write ups and commentary on a lot of the observing challenge targets. Mike did some of the write ups and Andrew Durick did some write ups and the finder charts. A couple of other forum members assisted with the odd write up.

To do these write ups properly was a very time consuming onerous job and the task fell on the hands of a select few. At the time we felt the feedback and utilisation from forum members was very poor. I got the feeling I was spending a lot of time for nought.

I also don't think Mike set it up properly on the forum by breaking the monthly challenge into two components, visual and imaging. I believe it should have all been kept together in the one thread and the one section to stimulate combined interest from both camps.

In the interim couple of years the forum has grown significantly in its membership base. Importantly there are quite a few more experienced observers now in the membership that could assist with the monthly write ups.

If Mike wants to re introduce the monthly observing challenge and a few guys stick their hands up to assist with the write ups, I am happy to do the write-up for one target per month. I would be happy to alternate month about between the globular cluster and the double star.

Anyone keen to help with the write-ups and finder charts?

Cheers,
John B

PS: I have compiled a 600 target observing list of Southern Hemisphere Splendours for use by our US visitors each year when they come to Coonabarabran, so I got enough to keep most going for quite a while :)

[Terry B]

John
Could you post an example of the write ups that were done? (or a link to one. I haven't found them in search). This would give an idea of the amount of detail needed and the work entailed.

[Terry B]

Doesn't matter. I found one here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=69,217,0,0,1,0). I hadn't thought to look in the resources section only the forum. :doh:

[iceman]

Start here, Terry:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/?moc

It's under the "Resources" menu on the left.

[Terry B]

Having now looked at them I'm impressed with the amount of work that was put into them. I suppose my comment would be that they don't really need to be so detailed. Just a name, position details and a finder chart and let the replies do the description as seen in the eyepiece. Could be broken into real challenge objects for big scopes and not so challenging objects for smaller scopes.
Imaging challenges are different. I favour trying to get any image of dim objects rather than lots of pretty images of bright objects that we image anyway.
I'm happy to help.

[ausastronomer]

Terry,

At the time we were previously doing the MOC there were proportionately a large number of beginners on the forum. They were done in this detail in an effort to try and pass on some scientific/astronomical knowledge to the forum members, as much as giving them something to look at or image.

Cheers,
John B

[iceman]

.. and I think they'd still be extremely useful as that tool. There are just as many, if not more, beginners on IceInSpace now.

Definitely still a nice to have and very useful feature - I'll see if there's a way I can set it up that doesn't require so much admin work from me to load it all on the site.

[ausastronomer]

Mike,

I think the above is an important consideration to factor in also.

I think we need the whole thing set up as one section, with one thread per month following on from it. Maybe one thread per target within that section?

Because we would have visual and imaging combined, we may need to be a bit more selective of the targets. eg. I doubt that imaging double stars appeals to very many people, so maybe we select three of the six targets each month as the imaging targets ?

Cheers,
John B

[AlexN]

Picking 6 - 10 targets for the month, and outlining the focal length/aperture required to view the specific target, just so us beginners don't get disappointed if they cant find something.. I like the way it was set up giving a more educational angle, because, as a beginner, Its nice to be able to look at the challenge page, get an idea of where to look, a description of what you're looking for and a bit of information about it all in one place is very handy.

At the moment, im finding objects slowly, having to reference from a star chart, star hop around a bit till i find it, then find yourself questioning if its the right thing because the scale of the chart compared to whats in your ep is very different, then referencing a different book to read a bit about what you are looking at, whilst its character building, its a bit tedious.

Having said that, tedious or not, Im still out every night at the moment, with 2 books, a sketch pad a few of the IIS observation report templates printed out... :)

However it comes together, If they can be started back up I think at the very least it would be helpful / educational for the beginners like myself.

[iceman]

yeh agreed, John. We'll work it out.

I'll get back to you guys soon.

[ausastronomer]

Hi Mike,

You never did get back to us. I assume the change of job had something to do with that :)

I am still keen to contribute something if you wish to resurrect this.

Cheers,
John B

[iceman]

yeh it's been a busy year! I'm keen too, but won't have time to think about this for a few months.

Happy for everyone to remind me then :)