[ngcles]

Hi Mbaddah & All,

As others have replied, it does depend much on what you are doing, what you are observing, whether you have DSC and whether you are taking notes for one purpose or another.

I take notes about 1/2 the time I observe -- the other half I just look at what is "in season" or favourites.

In the latter case, the speed I go varies a lot between about 6 and 20 objects an hour. Some it is just a matter of taking a peek to remind yourself of what it looks like.

If I'm taking general notes for my log -- particularly on new objects, my average rate is about 8 an hour. That amounts to about 7 1/2 mins per object to look it up on the list, find it on the planetarium software, do the go-to and about 5-6 mins to observe and make a meaningful note. But that is an average. A small, faint, single "plain-jane" galaxy can be done quicker. Groups and/or clusters take longer to disentangle and properly identify members and make the notes etc. I've sometimes spent 90mins on a complex field of galaxies like Abell 1060 for example.

Sometimes, particularly if I'm making a fresh observation of a previously observed object to use as a reference because I'm going to write about it. I'll spend about double normal time trying to tease detail out etc at the ep -- in that case about 4 per hr.

So, I guess it varies a lot.


Best,

Les D