Choosing Targets

[SAYADEE (Darren)]

Hi all

Is there a good resource to choose what good targets are on the night?

Kind of like the asiair 'tonights best' is there something online like this?

[Startrek (Martin)]

Stellarium is one of the most popular planetariums across the globe
It’s your “live” road map and object locator across the night sky 24/7 year after year , anywhere in the world plus loads and loads of useful features for both observer , imager , beginner and experienced astronomer.

https://stellarium.org/

My Basic user guide attached

Cheers
Martin
PS: There are many others but this software is free open source and has been around for a long long time with excellent support and ongoing development

[SAYADEE (Darren)]

Will check it out thankyou!

[DarwinAstro (Chris)]

https://telescopius.com/

or

You could download N.I.N.A and use the Sky Atlas.

[Tulloch (Andrew)]

I use SkySafari on my phone and take it with me outside. There's a free version, but the Plus version is good value for money.

[joshman (Josh)]

that's a difficult one... I'll usually use:
Stellarium for getting my rough imaging parameters - availability above my horizon, camera/scope combo, general looking around. i use it for "broad stroke planning" I'll add some vague details to a spreadsheet - target name, rough RA/DEC coordinates, some comments about potential imaging settings.
I'll use Telescopius to better refine my imaging parameters, exact position, orientation, camera/scope combo, etc. I drop all of this information into my spreadsheet for later reference
And finally, the NINA Framing Tool where i'll actually setup and save a location/orientation for a target ready to be imaged.

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Some of the more advanced folk here, looking for the 'rarely imaged by amateurs' type targets use a tool like this, look up the Finkbeiner Ha!

http://galaxymap.org/mwe/mwe.php

[triplej3 (Jordo)]

+1 for stellarium setting it up isnt very intuitive had to google how to save current settings -.-

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

hi Darren

https://www.skymaps.com

geoff

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Originally Posted by SimmoW

Some of the more advanced folk here, looking for the 'rarely imaged by amateurs' type targets use a tool like this, look up the Finkbeiner Ha!

http://galaxymap.org/mwe/mwe.php

I have that one loaded up in Stellarium

[Renato1 (Renato)]

I'm old school.
The biggest and brightest deep sky objects in each category, are listed and marked in Tirion's Bright Star Atlas.

I look at the sky, find the corresponding maps, check out the objects.
Regards,
Renato

[Kenz (Ken)]

I look for brightest galaxies using sky charts as a guide