DIY Star Charts

[Ags]

I have started adding in the chapters like "acknowledgements" and "how to use this book". I also applied a consistent sort to the doubles in each section, so that everything is in a consistent order. I changed the style to use more blue and I'm trying out a thinning line for the double label pointers.

[Ags]

Had a quiet evening working on the spectral class / magnitude key.

[Ags]

Been plugging in star descriptions all weekend - adding textual finding instructions and general descriptions - and the odd factoid when I have one. I managed to get through 30 so far this weekend, a long way to go, especially as I keep thinking of new binaries to add! 

[Ags]

The Top 200 Doubles list to which I (and no doubt many others) owe a huge debt appears to have gone offline:

http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/

For those not aware of this brilliant resource, you can still find it on the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210419055115/http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/

[Spile]

9 hours ago, Ags said:

The Top 200 Doubles list to which I (and no doubt many others) owe a huge debt appears to have gone offline:

http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/

For those not aware of this brilliant resource, you can still find it on the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210419055115/http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/

I sadly noticed this as well. It was the main source for the Top 500 list I created. I particularly liked the star rating which I continue to use.

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Spile

[wookie1965]

I have several double star lists including 160 best doubles and many more if anyone would like some please pm me.

[Ags]

I have been a bit quiet on this thread for a while, but very actively working on the book. I am down to the last 40 stars needing descriptions and "finding" instructions, although I need to go over them all and make sure I haven't muddled my easts and wests! Also I want to add another level of detail to many of the stars. 

I did however find a suitable cover picture (11/12 Camelopardalis) for the book with acceptable licensing terms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dritter_wiki 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Ags

[Ags]

16 doubles to go, maybe I will finish tonight. There is nothing interesting on TV 😀

[mdstuart]

Amazing.

Maybe another book on globular star clusters next

Mark

[Ags]

@mdstuart globs and planetaries - good stuff for light polluted observing locations...

Good thing the game has gone to extra time, I still have seven doubles to go...

[Ags]

Let history record that I was documenting Struve 2313 when England went down.

Still 6 more doubles to go, but will definitely move to first edit next week. After that I will put the beta PDF for download to get some feedback 😀

Edited July 11, 2021 by Ags

[wookie1965]

12 hours ago, mdstuart said:

Amazing.

Maybe another book on globular star clusters next

Mark

I would love to find a definitive one I have one but it has not got a great deal in it.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Star_Clusters_and_How_to_Observe_Them/AgkCl1L1G2cC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=globular+and+open+clusters&printsec=frontcover

Edited July 12, 2021 by wookie1965

[Ags]

Define "definitive"... 😃

I have a number of ideas to improve the charts mostly revolving around my central use case of "non-expert with tons of light pollution and small scope seeks target type X", which wouldn't result in a definitive work, but practically I am getting to the point where I can scale up book generation significantly, and could support definitive-scale works shortly.

One limiting factor is written content, this just takes time, not only to write but also to proof. So I need to reduce the reliance on written material and only add it where it is truly valuable. It is taking a lot of time providing relatively general finding instructions for doubles, but for future versions I suspect the better approach is to use my knowledge of path finding algorithms from game development.

Looking at "Star Clusters and How to Observe Them", the google preview basically showed a lot of boilerplate content about Herzsprung-Russell diagrams and topics like "What is a globular cluster"? We've all seen this material before and not sure adding that class of content to a book is making it more unique or valuable, while it will increase print costs and weight. Some of it's nice to have but not needed for version 0.1 of a book.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Ags

[Ags]

Well, a moment of quiet celebration here - all 194 doubles in the book are documented.

[wookie1965]

19 hours ago, Ags said:

Define "definitive"... 😃

I have a number of ideas to improve the charts mostly revolving around my central use case of "non-expert with tons of light pollution and small scope seeks target type X", which wouldn't result in a definitive work, but practically I am getting to the point where I can scale up book generation significantly, and could support definitive-scale works shortly.

One limiting factor is written content, this just takes time, not only to write but also to proof. So I need to reduce the reliance on written material and only add it where it is truly valuable. It is taking a lot of time providing relatively general finding instructions for doubles, but for future versions I suspect the better approach is to use my knowledge of path finding algorithms from game development.

Looking at "Star Clusters and How to Observe Them", the google preview basically showed a lot of boilerplate content about Herzsprung-Russell diagrams and topics like "What is a globular cluster"? We've all seen this material before and not sure adding that class of content to a book is making it more unique or valuable, while it will increase print costs and weight. Some of it's nice to have but not needed for version 0.1 of a book.

You really have answered your own question, definitive what can be seen through a 4" scope in light polluted skies then scale it up to 8" and 10" after clusters and globule's from darker sites in constellations and magnitudes thus giving the reader an idea of what they are likely to see. 

[Ags]

First draft is complete and I am working through the first round of edits. Also playing with jazzing up the layout. My latest idea is adding icon bullets to the descriptions.

Edited July 21, 2021 by Ags

[wookie1965]

Brilliant looks good to me.

[glafnazur]

looking good👍

[Ags]

I reached a major milestone this morning when I finished the writing part of the book. Word count is around 12,500 words (and a further 6000 words of generated content), so more words than a long short story but not quite the length of a novella. 

Not much eye candy to share, but I  have made the icon bullets much more pretty.

Aside from the final proof read, I have a few small doc generation issues to address. Firstly, add all Caldwell, Messier, NGC objects mentioned in the text to the index. Secondly, index both Sigma Cas and Cas, Sigma. Thirdly, deal with some labels that are too long. Fourthly, some TOC entries reference the wrong page somehow.

Edited August 5, 2021 by Ags

[RobertI]

Great project and superb result. I'm in no doubt it will be come a fantastic resource. 👍

[Ags]

Da da dum! I have uploaded the first public version of the book for feedback. I would greatly appreciate hearing what people think of my efforts, and I am very open to making any suggested improvements.

I have not made the book available for print yet as I want it to accumulate a bit of feedback first. In terms of print formats, I am thinking about a spiral bound versions for budget color printing for use in the field, and a hardback version with premium color and some pretty pictures for my bookshelf. 

Note the the PDF is prepared for printing, meaning that blank pages have been inserted to ensure that overview charts start on even pages, so the facing odd page will be either the second part of the overview chart, or the first couple of stars from the overview chart. Of course an online-only PDF does not need the blank pages so I will get round to producing an online version as well.

Information about the book and download links are available from here. As you can see, my company Transtextuals does special editions of public domain English Lit books (definitely NOT a get-rich-quick scheme 🤣), this is our first astronomy book. 

https://transtextuals.web.app/discovering_doubles.html

I can't put a link to the book in the opening post of this thread, so I have started a new thread with the book title:

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Ags