Clear Skies Observing Guides

The appeal of astronomy is both intellectual and aesthetic; it combines the thrill of exploration and discovery, the fun of sight-seeing, and the sheer pleasure of firsthand acquaintance with incredibly wonderful and beautiful things. But it also offers the privilege, not to be taken lightly, of adding something to the knowledge and understanding of man.

- Robert Burnham, Jr.

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CSOG, short for Clear Skies Observing Guides, is a digital publication. The first and only publication that enables stargazers to target thousands of deepsky objects and carbon stars in reach of telescopes up to 12-14 inches of aperture.

CSOG contains almost fifteen thousand objects, including all Herschel objects, Arp, Hickson, Holmberg Groups, Abell and Minkowski nebulae, all deepsky objects in Burnham's Celestial Handbook and many more.

CSOG is a concept, a combination of observing guides and software. The observing guides contain relevant object information and a description of the surrounding starfield. A DSS images is included for every object. The guides are intended to be used on a tablet, under the stars, at the telescope's eyepiece. More about using a tablet in the article iPad Astronomy.

Matching AstroPlanner planfiles make planning of observations a breeze. Matching tours for Meade's Autostar controllers, NexTours for Celestron's NexRemote, EQTours for use with EQMOD and Argo Navis User Catalogs allow goto telescope users to target thousands of objects with ease.

CSOG allows observers to methodically target a huge number of objects, far beyond the NGC and IC, off the beaten track.

No other publication comes close in content and information.

Not a book, not a starchart

Books on amateur astronomy are as numerous as the stars, as are maps of the sky. CSOG is neither. CSOG is a concept.

In CSOG the mechanics of the sky are not explained. There are no analyses of stellar spectra, nor are there endless tables filled with abbreviated object names, sorted only by right ascension. There are no esthetically pleasing but unuseful images. CSOG does not leave you guessing whether or not an object is in reach of your telescope. It takes out the guesswork and will not leave you in the dark.

How CSOG stands out

CSOG is truly all-sky, covering all of the 88 constellations. It is the first and only publication to:

• List many thousands of DSO's and carbon stars visible in telescopes up to 12-14 inches in aperture, in detail.
• Use an ergonomic "observing card" style layout in a dedicated dark color scheme, perfect for use on tablets.
• List object synonyms, not just the most commonly used designation.
• Clearly list useful information: classification, size, position angle, etc.
• Contain a field description for each object, with bearing and distance to stars and objects in the vicinity.
• Include a DSS image for every object, uniformly scaled, uncompressed and with a known scale and orientation. A "standard candle" for visual astronomy.
• Be available in editions with mirrored or unmirrored images to best match the view in your eyepiece.
• Sort objects not purely in R.A. (right ascension) but in an order that minimizes the distance between them, using "blocks of declination" where required.
• Include AstroPlanner planfiles & matching tourfiles for Meade Autostar controllers, Celestron's NexRemote, EQMOD (via EQTour) and Argo Navis User Catalogs.
• Be available in 58 separate editions.
• Continue to be updated: not just existing content, but complete celestial catalogs are incorporated.

CSOG 2.4 Editions

Published on 23 June 2021

Future editions

Read about CSOG 3.0 and later editions on the page Future CSOG.