Post by Len Philpot on Oct 19, 2018 18:49:05 GMT -6
What's a star party without an observing program? Well, we won't know this year because we have one!
A few days ago Barry asked me to come up with a list for this year, so I'd like to present The Lesser Messiers (and friends). It's a collection of maybe (?) lesser-observed Messier objects plus a number of other nice items that maybe should've been on Mr. M's list, but weren't. You may differ with my assessment of what's 'lesser', but hey -- I needed a title / theme and besides, it's better than "A List of Objects You Might Like to Look at During the Star Gaze" (or ALoOYMLtLaDtSG), so...
There are 31 deep sky objects, a couple of which are either related or visual neighbors in the sky. All are in the sky between sunset and 3 AM. For example, on Thursday night both the earliest-setting and latest-rising objects occur between 11:00 and 11:30 PM, if my software is being honest with me.
Disclaimer of sorts -
Three files are attached here:
Also... I can't speak officially but there might (??) be some kind of perk for completing the list -- Our BDFL* will have to comment on that
. And to "complete" it, you don't have to observe all 31 objects - Just observe a minimum of 20.
So let's have fun and will someone sacrifice an eyepiece to the meteo-gods so we'll have good weather??
* Benevolent Dictator for Life
A few days ago Barry asked me to come up with a list for this year, so I'd like to present The Lesser Messiers (and friends). It's a collection of maybe (?) lesser-observed Messier objects plus a number of other nice items that maybe should've been on Mr. M's list, but weren't. You may differ with my assessment of what's 'lesser', but hey -- I needed a title / theme and besides, it's better than "A List of Objects You Might Like to Look at During the Star Gaze" (or ALoOYMLtLaDtSG), so...
There are 31 deep sky objects, a couple of which are either related or visual neighbors in the sky. All are in the sky between sunset and 3 AM. For example, on Thursday night both the earliest-setting and latest-rising objects occur between 11:00 and 11:30 PM, if my software is being honest with me.
Disclaimer of sorts -
- Given the time frame and other factors, I have not observed these objects from WHCRC. But over the years I have observed all but three of them in scopes ranging from 4" to 14.5" in aperture. Besides, they're all Messiers or brighter NGC objects, so they shouldn't be torture.
- Since I've not physically been on-site and observed each and every one from WHCRC, if (for some unknown reason) it turns out there's a bona fide problem with observing any of them we can, by mutual consent, modify the list. But - I've tried to be careful and am highly skeptical there will be any problems ("I can't find it" isn't a problem ...sorry!).
Three files are attached here:
- Lesser Messiers - DSSG 2018.pdf
The list of objects themselves, sorted by Right Ascension - Lesser Messiers (images) - DSSG 2018.pdf
DSS2 images of the objects - Lesser Messiers - DSSG 2018 selected notes.pdf
A few selected objects' logs from my notes, for what it's worth
Also... I can't speak officially but there might (??) be some kind of perk for completing the list -- Our BDFL* will have to comment on that
. And to "complete" it, you don't have to observe all 31 objects - Just observe a minimum of 20.So let's have fun and will someone sacrifice an eyepiece to the meteo-gods so we'll have good weather??
* Benevolent Dictator for Life
