MONTH BY MONTH OBJECT LIST

[DAVE AMENDALL]

Hi, Anyone know of a month by month list of Messier,NGC & IC objects.(Example objects visible in UK for say month of September ? )

Would be a good time saver..........Dave

[rockystar]

Really unscientific, but for the Messier's I used stellarium to find the altitude at 11pm on the 15th of each month. 

Max Altitudes.xlsx

[Demonperformer]

Here are a list of Messier & Caldwell objects. The general principle was, for each date, find the time 2 hours after sunset and then list each object on the first date that it had just passed the meridian (highest point in the sky). The columns are:

Object, RA, Dec, Date, Sunset+2hrs, Az & alt of object from my location (S England).

An asterisk refers to objects that are circumpolar and therefore have an Az of just under 360 rather than just over 180.

You can obviously select objects on either side of the appropriate date, and would also need to adapt it if you are a morning observer, but it might provide you with a starting point.

HTH

M+C 2016.txt

[Demonperformer]

Actually, I should add that:

(1) it is provided on an "as is" basis. No liability is accepted for errors.

(2) Although it was specifically calculated for 2016, I see no reason why it would not work for subsequent years, albeit that the specific times might vary a little and so objects might be at their "optimum" on a day or two either side. If you are doing "visual" rather than "imaging" this should be no problem.

[cloudsweeper]

That would be one heck of a list, but it quite possibly exists out there, along with several other online compilations.

But what I do is look at a Planispshere or Dorling Kindersley's The Night Sky Month By Month (which is a sort of upgraded Planisphere!) to see what constellations are in various directions, then find those constellations in S&T's Pocket Sky Atlas, which shows a huge range of objects in various classifications.  I prefer all this at my fingertips so to speak rather than on Stellarium, but Stellarium is of course also great, and to see a large range of objects with it, just push up the DSO Marker Slider.

Doug.

[rockystar]

1 hour ago, Demonperformer said:

Actually, I should add that:

(1) it is provided on an "as is" basis. No liability is accepted for errors.

(2) Although it was specifically calculated for 2016, I see no reason why it would not work for subsequent years, albeit that the specific times might vary a little and so objects might be at their "optimum" on a day or two either side. If you are doing "visual" rather than "imaging" this should be no problem.

Mine too

 

[Putaendo Patrick]

David Paul Green provides a Messier list divided into half seasons (early spring/late spring etc.) at the back of his The Ultimate Messier Object Log:

http://www.davidpaulgreen.com/tumol.html

[ronin]

I tried this and found that it didn't really work.

Using an "old" idea of 22:00 as the observning time and using South as the "ideal" position you will find that Orion is due South at 22:00 on Jan 5th. The problem is you are not going to wait until Jan 5th next year then go and look at Orion. In effect M42 is available from November to March for relatively easy viewing.

The "best" I sort of managed was a list of constellation that were due South at 22:00 sometime around the 10th of each month. This provides me with an idea of what is best placed.

One option may be to aim Stellarium East and for say the 1st of each month at say 22:00 list what has appeared at or more then 30 degrees high from the previous month..

[popeye85]

To be honest I just get a selection of magazines every month-most of them do a 'what's on this month' section and between them I can generally keep myself occupied!

[BGazing]

you may find this selection helpful, made by tony flanders

https://tonyflanders.wordpress.com/urbansuburban-messier-project/

[Demonperformer]

As your OP was for "Messier,NGC & IC objects":

If you want a full list, probably your best bet would be to download Wolfgang Steinicke's spreadsheet from section 3 on this page.

Sort it in declination order and delete all the entries that are too far south for you to see, then re-sort it in RA order.

Then either download this, (or use an online LST clock). This will direct you to the RA of the objects which are closest to the meridian at your time of observing.

That said, you would probably find this list overwhelming if you are not experienced. Many of these objects (particularly in IC) are extremely faint, and would require something like a 40cm-50cm scope under a dark sky to see them [have a look at this page to see the observing notes of one very experienced observer].

The Messier & Caldwell lists are much brighter, and would probably keep you going for a couple of years, while you gain experience.

HTH

[cotterless45]

Beyond Messiers there are so many targets. You can either concentrate on each constellation discovering its treasures. You can pull info off various sources of start looking at lists such as the Caldwells and planetary nebulae. Observing reported lower down in the forum will give you things that folk have seen,t

its a fun thing to construct your own lists based on what you want to and can see,

old Nick.

[acey]

As other posters have indicated, "month by month" only really makes sense if you observe at about the same time every night, and want to view in a particular direction (south being most sensible as it's where objects rise highest). All the Messiers are theoretically viewable in a single night during March if you stay up all night to do it - many people have managed it in the US, and a few have got very close in UK. The best way to judge what you can see is by looking at the object's right ascension. A planisphere makes it all very easy to understand: turn it to the date and time you're interested in, read off the hour of right ascension that is due south, and pick objects with a co-ordinate near that. The NGC is ordered by right ascension so NGC number is the best indicator of when an object will be well placed.

[OneEyedSam]

Try DSO browser on tinternet

[Dave In Vermont]

As Sam has astutely suggested - the Deep Sky Browser is a very good addition which will show you the types of objects available to you for your exact location every night. It is completely free, and all you need to do is tell it where you are and create a name and password. That's it that's needed, but you can refine the types of obects you'd like it to find for you. Here you go:

http://dso-browser.com/

Enjoy -

Dave

[OneEyedSam]

... you can also export lists from DSO Browser to CSV (choose 100 items per page).  I tend to do that, import the CSV into Excel, format, print and laminate. 

[DAVE AMENDALL]

Thanks guys for all the info.There is certainly some good leads in the posts submitted. Excellent choices I may add..........Dave

[Jokehoba]

Although not free, I've found AstroPlanner to be quite useful and comprehensive.

http://www.astroplanner.net/

Or even What'sUp... http://www.whatsup.ricksastro.com/

[PorkyB]

There's a list on the front page of the Bromsgrove AS website (about a third of the way down the page).  Not surprisingly it is tailored for central England.  There is no distinction between easy / difficult or visual / imaging targets, but it's a starting point.

http://www.broms-astro.co.uk/

 

[Putaendo Patrick]

For a specific date/time parameter for your particular location and time zone, http://tonightssky.com/MainPage.php  is useful.

You can filter by types of object as well as magnitude. Objects are listed according to their main catalogues, with secondary references (for example, Messier).

[-Dougal-]

You could also try http://www.skymaps.com/skymaps/tesmn1610.pdf

[Timmers]

On 06/09/2016 at 06:27, Dave In Vermont said:

As Sam has astutely suggested - the Deep Sky Browser is a very good addition which will show you the types of objects available to you for your exact location every night. It is completely free, and all you need to do is tell it where you are and create a name and password. That's it that's needed, but you can refine the types of obects you'd like it to find for you. Here you go:

http://dso-browser.com/

Enjoy -

Dave

 

On 05/09/2016 at 22:38, OneEyedSam said:

Try DSO browser on tinternet

Dave. Top link for someone new to this. Cheers