Guys,
You've all seen the
Monthly Observing Challenge, a list of 6 objects which we challenge people to go out and observe, take notes and sketches of, and take deepspace astrophotography of.
John Bambury (ausastronomer), Andrew Durick (astro_south) and I spend at least 1-2 weeks (on and off) each month coming up with the list, doing the charts, writing it up etc. We'd hoped that there'd be more response each month, but so far it's been a little disappointing.
The DSO imaging guys have been getting into nicely, there's been some great images to see, but there's only been a handful of reports or sketches each month.
Why isn't there more reports and sketches? Is it that there's no interest? Or is it to embarrassing to write up your reports and sketches and post them?
Even if you don't post any reports and sketches, do you still use the list of objects as targets for that month to go out and observe?
I'm trying to get some honest feedback, because due to the seeming lack of interest, there's been talk of reducing the list to 1 or 2 objects each month.
I'm not keen to reduce it, I think the DSO imagers are making it worthwhile from my point of view, but I'd LOVE to see some more reports and sketches. It does take considerable time each month to do the list, the writeups etc, and I'm just trying to find out if it's worth the effort that the three of us go to.
Your thoughts please.. be honest!