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My broad observing list for 'beyond Messier' : Objects In The Heavens

KevUU

By KevUU
in Observing - Discussion

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KevUU

KevUU

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A while ago I mentioned I was thinking of making the contents of the book Objects In The Heavens my long term observing goal. Well I got the book a little while ago and have just managed to finish getting my observing spreadsheet setup to track progress against it :)

The attraction is that it has much more than just Messier's (NGCs, ICs, asterisms, Collinders, Trumplers, ...), and it has everything down to mag 10 that's visible from the Northern hemisphere (-45deg), with a brief description of each object. It's ordered by constellation and has a rough chart of where the objects for that constellation are, so you can find them in PSA - it even gives the PSA and SA2K chart references. There're also various stars listed if that's your bag.

There are (in v4):

697 DSOs to mag 10

73 occasional further DSOs to mag 10.5

235 single, carbon, double, multiple stars

I may be some time :D

I discovered that of the 67 DSOs I've observed to date, 66 of them are in OITH so I'm off to a reasonable start for not quite a year with a 3" frac :)

(The one that isn't in there is NGC 6800 in Vulpecula, a faint OC in a nice ring arrangement that cotterless45 recommended).

I'm adding it to my sig, we'll see how it goes :)

Hopefully better than my progress against DKDs ABC, with the weather we've had I've still only got 2 of those, how pathetic! :rolleyes:

Now I've got this sorted and decided on my next scope I'm getting that astro buzz again - just need some compliant skies!

Kev

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Double Kick Drum

Double Kick Drum

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Hopefully better than my progress against DKDs ABC, with the weather we've had I've still only got 2 of those, how pathetic! :rolleyes:

Unlucky with a lack of clear skies is more like. My arbitrary list was a highlights package of a year's observing beyond the most obvious 50 objects or so and is no gimme.

Your extended wish list is the way forward. I took a while setting up my own and since have located all sorts in the night sky and i'm sure your discovery rate will increase. Planning is everything!

I see you've included Trumplers and doubles, which is something I have largely overlooked up until now.

Good luck with it.

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KevUU

KevUU

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Cheers DKD. It is true that many of yours would be a struggle with my ST80 I think.

I haven't actually been 'going' for yours, partly for that reason but also as I've had no structured way of bringing everything together into one place to plan from - so hopefully with an 8" dob and my new reference bible I'll make some progress :)

I took a while setting up my own

Yes, it's taken a while to get things organised. My copy of OITH is now my reference bible, I've added references for the Caldwell's and yours in there and ticked off everything I've seen to date. My spreadsheet keeps track of everything, so I've added all the DSOs from OITH to it (snore). It's still nowhere near as sentient as yours though! :Envy:

I'm not really planning on going for the doubles (etc), so the 773 total in my sig is just the DSOs...

Of course, if it had been clearer I'd have seen much more and spent far less time getting over-organised ;):D

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acey

acey

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Good luck with your observing programme - magnitude limit is not necessarily the best guide to visibility, but Objects In The Heavens sounds like a nice guide - according to the website http://www.birrendesign.com/astro.html there are 213 non-Messier DSOs in it, which is a sensible number for a small scope. And all the doubles plus Lunar 100 would make a nice rounded guide for people wanting to do more than deep sky. (It also looks to be a lot more portable than Burnham's Celestial Handbook).

Apart from Caldwell, another nice post-Messier list is the RASC "finest NGC objects": http://www.rasc.ca/o...ing-certificate I managed them all with an 8". Then there's Herschel's "bright nebulae" (nearly all of which are galaxies) plus his catalogues of clusters - a total of about 600 objects, all within reach of an 8" at a dark site. Mullaney's book "The Herschel Objects" is a nice observing guide, and I believe his "Cambridge Atlas Of Herschel Objects" plots them. Or of course there's the "Herschel 400" selection: http://www.astroleag...el/hers400.html No shortage of lists - what we need are more clear skies!

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KevUU

KevUU

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Cheers acey :) A few others commented about the mag limit not necessarily being that relevant when I first mentioned this - specifically that there's load more than mag 10 visible in an 8". But, it seems a good rounded place to start and 773 objects seems plenty to aim at for now :D

btw I guess you mean 213 non-NGC objects (unless there are significantly more Messier's than I thought! ;)), which sounds about right for the number of Stocks and Trumplers and Berks and vdBs and god knows what else I typed in yesterday! ;):D

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KevUU

KevUU

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I don't have the latest version. But after my initial dismay at receiving v4 not v5 from Amazon I noticed there're only 20 ish new objects out of 1010, and the new lunar section in v5 isn't that great, so I just kept it.

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  • 3 weeks later...
rory

rory

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ive got this on order now kev,thanks for the info. it went up by ten quid by the time i went to order off amazon , so found a copy on abe books.

paired with the s&t pocket atlas ,should be interesting.

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rory

rory

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I'll be interested to hear what you make of it rory :)

will let you know. im going to put a effort into getting out of town now and then to take the edge offf the l/p. new books, new e/p's , now we need new weather !
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rory

rory

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the book arrived today kev . ( objects in the heavens by peter birren.)

have to say i have mixed feelings on first glance through.

i really like the lay out with room for notes ect. i also like the way many objects have a small description next to them or a fact related to it.

which will make observing the objects that bit more satisfying.

the down side for me is its so flimsy and thin ,its not what you expect from a book of £28 ,never mind the £100 now being asked by some folk !

im already thinking of taking the pages out of the ringbinding and laminate them and make a new cover . (something to do on the many cloudy evenings we have ! )

so yes big thumbs up for the content , bit of a thumbs down for the build quality .

i look forward to combining it with the atlas .

clear skies. :smiley:

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KevUU

KevUU

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Glad you're happy with what's inside, rory, wouldn't like to've recommended something you hated!

the down side for me is its so flimsy and thin

im already thinking of taking the pages out of the ringbinding and laminate them and make a new cover . (something to do on the many cloudy evenings we have ! )

Hmmm, that doesn't sound so good... Mine has I guess 'normal paper' pages - it certainly isn't as heavy sheet as the PSA pages are, but its not tissue paper either - and the binding feels sturdy enough, has been okay so far and coped with getting dewey a few times (and iced up at SGL8!) so so far so good. But yours doesn't sound quite so good, unless you're rather more discerning than me ;)

What version is yours, out of interest?

Hope it works out okay for you, anyway :)

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rory

rory

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its the forth edition . dont get me wrong ,it seems worthy of a place in the case for observing sessions, indeed its just what i wanted ,as i can tick and check off objects for reference ect.

i tried doing one of those computer file wotsits that many people do ,but i can write on a stamp what i know about computers ! so that went nipples northwards from the off !

so yes this book is excellent in that regard. just feels delicate for a field guide ,and its not like its a cheap offering.

tonight went like this ... scope out to cool , go out to start 40 minutes later, clouds . so ill take the book to bed for a flick through . :smiley:

cheers kev , clear skies.

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AndyWB

AndyWB

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I ordered a copy of this too, on the basis of Kev's description - that's probably why Amazon are showing it as being 100 quid - a lot of retailers automatically increase the price algorithmically, and this can lead to some amusing results.

My impressions - seems sturdy enough. I received v4 not v5 via Amazon too, but I'm not bothered about the lunar section. Seems like a useful way of finding what things are up there. I might try to manufacture a cover for it to keep the dew off. I do like that it's small - Turn Left at Orion might be great, but it is huge too. I did think OITH would fit nicely my binoculars case...

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