Mid year observing reports review - by the numbers

[Tyson M]

Hello fellow SGL members!

7 months is almost up and I did a tally of total # of observing reports logged this year. 

34 total sessions since Jan 1st. Up from 20-25 estimated for the entire year last year. 

 

18 solar sessions- which can be broken down further into:

0 for Jan, 1 for Feb, 1 for March, 3 for April,  3 for May, 7 for June, 3 for July 

 

16 night sessions- which can be broken down further into:

2 for Jan, 1 for Feb, 3 for March, 2 for April, 2 for May, 3 for June, 3 for July. 

A lot of the extra outings were due to the fact I bought a grab and go night refractor and grab and go alt az mount, and moving from an apartment to a house with a yard. 

 

April and May was limited for various observing because of packing and moving out of the apartment and finishing up night school before the summer. 

 

Let hear your observing report mid year review here! 

 

 

[Tyson M]

I also noted that I have only seen on record, 34 messier objects, which seemed surprisingly low.

 

 The number is likely 10-15 higher but I haven't listed them in my reports. I plan to attack these more going forward. 

[Paz]

This has promoted me to take stock. Excluding naked eye sessions I've got 64 sessions so far. Of these maybe 5 or so were write offs due to cloud rolling in and maybe 10 were to do with 2 or more outings in a day (solar or daytime solar system stuff, followed by night time observing).

MC127... 29 outings mostly on eq5 but many on porta 2.

 

ST80... 14 outings,  many on AZ3 before I had the az4 or porta 2. It never gets an outing at home any more, it only gets used if I can't smuggle anything bigger into the car for holidays.

 

VX14... 10 outings only due to house build works meaning I had to hide it for a while, but each session is epic - invariably I stay out longer than I am supposed to and the views are in another league compared to my other scopes. Always look forward to sessions with this like looking forward to Christmas.

 

ST120... 9 outings. This surprises me, I thought the st120 and mc127 were getting equal use but things have changed without me realising it.

Other scopes... Had a go with a Celestron 76 travel dob, sky watcher 60mm sw607, and a 10" SW dob.

The use of mounts is interesting, the eq5 being most popular despite being slightly more effort to set up... I guess because it's much easier to track.

Eq5... 19

Az4... 8

Porta 2... 14... Slow motion controls make this more popular than the az4.

Az3... 10 I don't use this since getting the az4 and porta 2.

Horizon 8115... 1 I don't really use this any more.

 

Of those sessions about 10 are solar.

I can see January and April were relatively busy, but all the other months were quiet.

 

 

 

 

[Tyson M]

Interesting report! I just bought a preowned ST120 w/ upgraded focuser myself for rich field and dso's. It will be interesting to compare it to the Equinox 80mm.

 

It is good to take stock, see how your year is progressing. I realized I have only listed a total of 34 messier targets observed. I bet the number is 10-15 higher than that but I plan to make a more concerted effort in seeing more of them before the year is up.