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When I am tired, I tend to observe more quickly (perhaps 10-15 targets per hour), conversely when I have the energy to record my observations (dictate) while I am observing, I tend only to get through 5 or 6 an hour.
I find the sessions when I take more time to look and record my observations far more satisfying. During those sessions, if I can observe 5 or 6 new targets and get a really good sense of what I am looking at (including, for example, taking the time to understand how far away the object is, if it is a galaxy what its morphology is, etc), then I have a big smile on my face.
There are a lot of objects in Uranometria which are not in the Argo Navis database. Sometimes it takes some time with the aid of my finderscope to track objects down by star-hopping. This process slows me down, but it is immensely satisfying (assuming I find my targets).
One aspect to recording visual observations that I find immensely satisfying is coming back to objects which I may have struggled with the first time I observed it. Often I will conclude my observations of a particular object with the remark - I will return to this object another night/ under darker skies to see if I can make out more details.
Early on in this Great and Noble Pursuit I felt an inexplicable burden to hunt down as many targets as possible in the one night. I then came to the realisation that there are simply too many targets out there (particularly now within the reach of my 20 inch mirror), to be able to observe everything! If my task, then, is not to know and observe everything, I can relax and enjoy each object for what it is.
One of best observing sessions in recent time was a session I had in my backyard a few weeks ago. I observed some objects I had never observed before around the SCP. It was a mix of doubles, a few faint globs, some OCs. In total, over a four hour session, I observed about 18 targets. It was a great night, very satisfying. I made some good notes on the dictaphone which transcribed nicely the next day, bringing back all of the memories again!
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