Planning a session / evening

[ddefoe]

Hi All, 

Just a bit of advice from some more expert minds...

I'm starting to try and put together evenings of observing...my question is how do i put together things to view?

I want to look at the most 'popular' things first i.e. nebulas/galaxies etc... then i need to try and match these with what I can see from my house and whether they are showing at the time.

Is there a list of some of the brighter / more popular nebulas to look at that you will be able to get some viewing from?

THanks

[Astro Imp]

You might find this helpful:- http://tonightssky.com/MainPage.php

[domstar]

Hi,

If you haven't got stellarium, then it's the most helpful thing and it's free to download. You can see the stars at your location at any time. Apart from that, Turn left at orion is a great book to show the most impressive things in the sky- I suppose a greatest hits for each season. I tend to use both to give me ideas of what to look for, and of course when people talk about targets on this forum, I listen (unless it's the big dob dudes who are observing stuff I couldn't dream of seeing- although I still enjoy reading about it).

If it all goes badly, I still sort of enjoy sitting outside in the dark on my own.

[rockystar]

Try dsobrowser on the web too, you give it some info and it works out what's visible. 

[popeye85]

I use DSO browser as well. Another sourse I like to use is monthly magazines like sky at night or astronomy now.  most of them usually have a 'target list' for each month and a guide for what you can see for your did size of scope.

Just a word of warning of using DSO browser though. Some of the targets they suggest might be pretty low to the horizon maxing them rough to observe so be sure to check out their positions on stellarium before you head out.

[alhiggs]

try messier catalogue good list of all sorts of stuff to see

[Buzzard75]

On ‎10‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 15:03, Astro Imp said:

You might find this helpful:- http://tonightssky.com/MainPage.php

I use this myself. Unfortunately, it returns so many results I have a hard time picking and choosing what I want to look at each night.

 

[Vox45]

I've been using this free tool : www.univers-astronomie.fr/generateur-soiree/

There is an english and spanish version. You can either use the online tool or install on your computer. It generates a very nice pdf file that you can print to bring into the field. See attached example.

soiree-observation-13-10-2017.pdf

[ronin]

Get Stellarium, set it to your location - likely already have . Ste date and time to observing time, press F4 and set DSO magnitude to 6 - give the brighter ones only.

Then swing the view round to the South and see what is displayed for the observing time. You can scan to the East and West - West can/may show the sky a little brighter (Sunsets)

To list options use a table in word and just print it off. Just pick 10 or 12, otherwise you can be going round the sky a lot.

 

ZZ64A4.doc

Thinking something along these lines ? Made this for myself a couple of weeks ago, just a general mishmash of options - never did use it.