Contemporary civilization, whatever its advantages and achievements, is characterized by many features which are, to put it very mildly, disquieting: to turn from this increasingly artificial and strangely alien world is to escape from unreality; to return to the timeless world of the mountains, the sea, the forest, and the stars is to return to sanity and truth.
- Robert Burnham, Jr.
Observing
Since the year 2007 I have logged all of my observations. I always strive to observe objects I did not observe before. At the eyepiece I log my observations on a digital memo recorder to be worked out later in AstroPlanner.
It should come as no surprise that my observing plan is CSOG. It was first written with a 12" telescope in mind. Other editions were filtered from that concept, with new ones such as Arp and Hickson added later.
My observations can be viewed on the Observing Log page and on the individual observing sessions pages.
Click here for the latests observing session, click here to read my latest observing blog.
Deep Sky
Dutch skies are often humid, transparency is generally suboptimal. Quite serious light pollution deteriorates conditions even further. Brighter objects reveal little detail while fainter ones struggle not to drown in the atmosphere. This is why I save serious deep sky observing for trips abroad. Southern France is a favorite, but so is the Karoo desert of South-Africa.
Carbon Stars
Carbon stars are an interesting object category, one of the few to reveal unmistakeable color. From deep red (R Leporis, T Lyrae) to orange and paler hues. Quite a few bright ones are in reach of telescopes of smaller aperture. Even under poor skies, many of these colored stars can be observed with ease. CSOG's 5-6" & 8-10" editions provide plenty of bright ones to observe.
Double Stars
Double stars are my main targets when observing under Dutch skies. Even when the atmosphere steals a magnitude or two, lots of double stars remain to be observed. Literally thousands of them. While transparency can be poor in this part of the world, the seeing can be quite good, allowing for many close pairs to be split.
As I do for the deep sky, I use a targeted approach to observe doubles. Currenly my focus is on Struve (STF, STT, STFA, STFB, STTA), Burnham (BU, BUP), John Herschel (HJ) and Espin (ES) doubles. I use a workflow in AstroPlanner with macros in Excel and Word to quickly create observing guides and Autostar tours for all WDS double stars of a specific naming in a constellation.
