Sorry for such a late response everyone, I got really busy studying and honestly forgot to check my post again. Thankyou heaps both Andrew and Patrick, that’s super helpful!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ausastronomer
Hi Aaron,
Patrick and Andrew have pointed you in the right direction.
As Andrew mentioned sorting by Visual Magnitude is a good place to start. If you've downloaded the Excel Version, keep that as a "clean" copy and save another version as a "working" copy. You can than sort and edit to your hearts content and re save with a descriptive file name. eg. Bam 600 (by magnitude); Bam 600 (by month to observe).
If you can let me know what telescope and eyepieces you have and also where you live (more specific than Australia) and what your sky conditions are, I can then help you refine the list to give you something to work with over the next 6 months. These are all pretty important factors. Over 95% of the targets are very achievable in a 10" telescope and dark skies. Over 60% are achievable in a 6" telescope from dark skies. You will struggle to get 25% of them in a 20" telescope from suburban skies in a heavily populated area. Consequently if you live at Maroubra, my advice would be a lot different than if you lived at Coonabarabran. Also if you live in a city, but plan to travel to a dark site, that is an important factor.
You can also save a version of the Excel Spreadsheet as your "observing log" and enter some comments as you tick the targets off the list.
Cheers
John B
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Hi John, thankyou heaps for commenting on this post! I will definitely try and sort out the excel spreadsheet like you have recommend, that sounds like the best way to go. I have only recently (probably a month or just over) bought my first telescope. It is a 8” Dobsonian. I only have the provided eyepieces (so 9mm, 15mm, and superview 2” 30mm). I live just out of Ballarat, Victoria. When checking the clear outside website for where I live it says I have a Bortle scale of 4. However, I have looked into a location that apparently is a Bortle scale of 2 which I would use as my dark skies site.
Thankyou heaps again for the information. I can’t describe how helpful that is. If you need anymore information I’d be happy to provide it.
Thanks,
Aaron