Developing a Plan of Action

[mtc666]

I'm going to be vacationing in Maine and I will be taking my 6" Orion SkyQuest with me. I don't have many objects under my belt, so I'm thinking my choices for observing are wide open.

I am curious how people might approach a situation like this (and any particular recommendations are great too).

I plan on building a list of about two dozen DSOs to look for, given acceptable weather. I thought I'd peruse Turn Left at Orion and NightWatch for some ideas, and then just look to see what Messier objects will be in view at the given latitude and season (first two weeks of September).

Given I can develop a nice list, what's next? Do folks familiarize themselves with the relevant charts and the hops they'll have to take for each object? (Yeah, I plan a bit too deeply.)

Any recommendations that will help me maximize the opportunity are appreciated. Thanks for helping a newb!

[umadog]

I find I can locate the brighter objects using only the Sky and Telescope Pocket Atlas and a Telrad. I just find the object in the Atlas, identify some good naked eye stars which point to the object in some way. Using these "guide stars" I point the Telrad. There's really no planning necessary. I just make patterns in my head with the stars and use those to find the target. In fact, planning would be hard since the only potentially tricky part is identifying your guide stars in the sky. You can't really plan that, you just have to go out and try it. So my main advice is that you get yourself a good chart.

Other piece of advice is that you use this: http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/ to locate a nice dark site. I've observed from Acadia National Park once, but the moon was out so I can't comment on how dark it is. The top of the mountain is rather windy, but part way up is ok. There's a private observatory north of the national park (you can find it with the website I linked to). Perhaps the owner will let you set up there if you ask nicely?

[paul schofield]

I generally set out with a plan of action for an observing session such as selecting a constellation and deciding what objects I will try to find depending on what is available at certain times of year. For instance my last time out was with Hercules and Lyra and managed to find M13 cluster, M92 cluster, M57 Ring Nebula and M56 Cluster too so generally a good night, for me anyway. You wont go far wrong with Turn Left at Orion, look at what is the best targets for the time of year and off you go. Lately I have been using SkySafari on my phone to see what is where and when, and that has helped me a great deal with my search for Messiers etc. I also find a Telrad or Rigel finder helps a lot with locating various objects in relation to star positions. You will find your own way of doing things over time & figure out what works best for you. I used to just point and hope, but over time I feel it works for me to have a plan of action.

[Capricorn]

Plan:

Visit: http://en.wikipedia....Messier_objects

Click on the column for "Constellation"

Reorder by the constellation then identify which are the prominent constellations for your vacation.

Go looking in each one for the various objects.

Constellations: Lyra, Vulpecula, Cygnus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus.

[mtc666]

I'm going to be five miles off the coast on an island. Looks to be pretty dark. We'll see!