Something to share

[Clear Skies]

Hi all,

To make the most of my observations, using a mobile setup (12" SCT) in western European weather (mostly cloudy), I have always spent much time to make a decent observing plan. A plan to get the most out of every session and out of every opportunity I get to observe, which isn't that often. In 2004 I began compiling my own observation guides. A bunch of objects with some of the object's details described, the nicest image I could find on the web, and a matching tour for my Autostar controller.
In April of 2008 I decided it was time to complete rewrite it. I wanted to write guides for all of the deep sky objects I expected to be within reach of my equipment. I set the upper limit for galaxies and planetary nebulae at mag. 14 and let the DSS images speak for the others. This time I wrote the guides with accurate data (as accurate as I could find), similar DSS images, mostly 30'x30' for every object and all of the objects logically sorted. Two days ago, after more than four years of work, I completed the project. Where I initially expected the number of objects to reach 4000 it quickly became apparent this number could double. The final tally is, give or take a few, 13627, 12658 of which are DSO's (866 carbon stars, 97 asterisms and 6 "other") for all of the 88 constellations, with matching AstroPlanner planfiles and tourfiles for Autostar, NexRemote & EQTour (via EQMOD). Along with the objects that fall within the constraints I set, the guides contain all of the DSO's in Burnham's Celestial Handbook and all of the Herschel objects. That and a whole load of tiny, extremely faint open clusters in the Magellanic Clouds.
I am very glad the whole thing is finally complete.
Currently I am finishing up on translating the beast to English, as I originally wrote it in my native tongue, Dutch. Hopeful to (self)publish in a few months as Clear Skies Observing Guides.

Just something I wanted to share... Tonight I will pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate, 'cause that's how I feel with this project complete.

Cheers,


Victor

[deepskytraveler]

Victor,

Congratulations on the completion of your observing guides. Sounds like it required a Herculean effort. Best of luck as you move forward with publishing and distribution.