Keep a notebook!

[RikM]

Well, I 've only had a couple of sessions since I got my scope, but I want to keep a record on my (so far limited) observations. Don't really like to move my eye away from the EP once I've found something interesting so using a notebook might not work that well for me. So I thought I'd use my old, cheap Olympus voice recorder with voice activation, the next time I'm out. Ok I hate the sound of my own voice, but I only have to listen to it until I'm done writing my personal observation reports afterwards. Silly idea?

I think that's a great idea. I have a voice recorder app on my iPod so I'll give that a go next time out.

[acey]

There's nothing new in visual astronomy and Herschel cracked note-taking in the 1780s. To avoid spoiling his dark adaptation he dictated (to his sister some distance away with a shielded lamp) - nowadays a dictaphone or well-filtered red light does the job. To make DSO observations systematic he concentrated on particular features and devised an abbreviated scale, which was used by all the subsequent visual astronomers and is found in the NGC. I use much the same system in my own note-taking, adding verbal comments on any unusual or exceptional features, and sometimes a rough sketch. And as for sketching, the works of art done nowadays with Photoshop etc are lovely, but Herschel and subsequent 19th century visual astronomers made do with very rudimentary sketches, sometimes made up into more detailed drawings subsequently. But often these drawings ended up being very little like the original view - the Earl of Rosse's famous illustration of the Crab Nebula was crticised from the start as being more a fantasy by the engraver than a true representation of what was seen. A picture can tell a thousand words, but not necessarily the truth.

[cantab]

I have a book with a few pages of very scruffy notes, that only cover a small number of my observing sessions (though I did notetake last time I was out). I'm not a neat person, and I'm useless at art so I'm not going to bother much with sketching. If I need to confirm if a barely visible faint fuzzy was real or my imagination I might roughly sketch the nearby asterisms and mark the position - I confirmed my observation of M14 this way.

I use a bike light for notetaking and reading the charts; it's on the bright side, but the way I see it there's a tradeoff between dark adaptation and convenience. I used to have a torch with red paper over the lens, which gave a really dim and diffuse light, but that made it a struggle to read my star charts. No good having perfect dark adaptation if I can't navigate the sky.

I think if I dictated notes, the neighbours might question my sanity!