What's best to record in Observation notes?

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Hi,

Very new to this but curious what others record in their observational notes? Not being interested in astrophotography certainly places more importance on the ability to describe what I'm seeing and developing a language for this seems vital. So far in my own notes (using AstroPlanner) I'm listing eyepiece focal lengths used (rather than adding different observations for each eyepiece) and describing what I'm seeing through each one in quite vague terms: where various bright stars are (upper left, lower right etc.), shapes and patterns, any correlations to the objects name (Beehive, Swan, Lagoon etc.), but I doubt sharing these notes would help anyone else understand what I'm seeing (I'm also describing them upside down, as seen in the eyepiece). Are there useful observational tools for determining distances between stars (from the TFoV of the eyepiece perhaps?), magnitudes or brightness of the object, sky stability (seeing conditions), etc.? My main reason is being able to share something, without needing to try to photograph it. I've tried sketching and will continue to refine this too, but finding the words seems important. Any advice much appreciated.

[simmo]

Hi Benjamin,

I don't know if you've seen it yet or not but just look for the sticky in the observation sub forum. Scroll down a bit and the iceman has a few handy tips for what you could write as well as a template to use while observing. I was a bit lost first time as well but this helped. Look forward to your obs report.
Simmo

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Ah, found it! Thanks Simmo. I'll print some of those obs sheets out and see how it goes. I'm assuming A4 size.
Ben