How about a new observing list.....

[astroeddie]

Guys,

The thread of "How Messy are you ", has gave me a bit of an idea.

Not quite sure of how many members there are on this great forum, but how's about this (maybe mad) idea.

a) Each of us, in alphabetical order is to choose an object, that reaches the zenith at middnight 00ut during the week its posted. A limit to the amount of objects per week must be set ofcourse.

Full details of object choosen to be included

c) Has to be visible for mid to northern latitudes.

d) Telescope needed for observing to be determined, or gave a limiting magnitude.

e) Can be either sketched, CCD'd astrophotographed or just good old observed.

Sound like fun ??????

Could call it ...... The Stargazers' Lounge *** !

The members of them southern climes can do the same ofcourse.

I'll set a poll.

[Astroman]

Umm, one object per week per member alphabetically? Ahem, being rather high on the alphabet, it seems as those lower down would be off the hook more than, well, me. And whose zenith? Maybe "meridian" is what you meant?

[astroeddie]

Errm yeah,

Sorry MERIDIAN.

Also just noted that theres a whopping 1986 members. Obviously they wont all participate.

Lets see if anyone wants a bash and we'll sort out the numbers from there. IF ANYONE WANTS TO that is.

Eddie

[Astroman]

[spacemonkey]

As a longtime sceptic of any new lists, like the Caldwell and Levy catalogues which to my mind only serve to confuse new observers unfamiliar with the established lists (i.e. Messier and H400 + part II), and line the pockets of those who write books about them, I would not vote for the compilation of anything new at this time.

If you really want to increase your tally of M's, do a Messier Marathon next new moon (at the Spring Kelling would be ideal). In theory, it should be possible to get over 100 M's from the UK in either March or April from a good location.

Cheers, Dave

[Talitha]

...and line the pockets of those who write books about them..

Couldn't have said it better myself, Dave! :thumbup:

[spacemonkey]

How about some of these? -

http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/db/nakedeye100.pdf

http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/BEST-OBJECTS-IN-THE-NEW-GENERAL-CATALOG.htm

http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/BEST-MULTIPLE-STARS.htm

http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/Herschel-400-objects.htm

http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/BEST-OF-DEEP-SKY-OBJECTS-NOT-IN-THE-NGC.htm

All of which are borrowed from the pages of the Saguaro Astronomical Society -

http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/observing.html

- with my eternal gratitude and respect.

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada have a well organised and varied program -

http://www.rasc.ca/certificates/index.shtml

- and have the (dis)advantage of being on a similar latitude to us in the UK, so we should have no problem with their lists.

Should be more than enough to keep most list-hunters happy for a while....

Have fun, Dave

[Astroman]

Actually, it's the Saguaro Astronomy Club, of which I'm the current president.

I'll forgive them, eventually.

[spacemonkey]

My mistake, D'oh!

I've often used your site to look up lists of unusual stuff to observe, thanks. I wish some of our societies (or clubs!) put as much into organising their observing time as you do.

Regards, Dave

[Astroman]

NP.

SAC is fairly notorious for observers and observing. Our deep sky database is used by quite a few planetarium programmers as a reference. We have an observer, (that has recently joined SGL), that has observed every deep sky object in Burnham's Celestial Handbook, all three volumes! :shock:

They're a terrific bunch of people.

[Sam]

I don't know about a new list - what about people submitting their favourite object and we pick the most popular ten as the SGL top ten......

[Naz]

I don't know about a new list - what about people submitting their favourite object and we pick the most popular ten as the SGL top ten......

For each season?

naz

[Sam]

Naz,

For each season would work. I think keeping the list quite small would be the best option.

[algol]

agree with above post but instead of top 10 make it top 25 per season, everyone gets to vote for their top 3 in each season.

this will give us the SGL 100 for the year

???