www.inthesky.org
www.the-sky-live.com
my2cents worth.
Dave
www.inthesky.org
www.the-sky-live.com
my2cents worth.
Dave
with emphasis on enter your specific location - or suffer the default locations rise and set ,transit times ect
Hi Dragan and others,
Here's what I use,
To pick objects:
The RASC Challenge List -- http://messier.seds.org/xtra/similar/rasc-dsc.html
Steve's Adventures in Deep Space -- http://www.astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/
The Deep Sky Forum OOTW (duh)
Reiner's observing guides -- http://www.reinervogel.net/index_e.html
Martin Schoenball's Arp page -- http://arp.schoenball.de/index_e.htm
Uwe's observing projects -- http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/
Wolfgang Steinicke and Richard Jakiel's book titled "Galaxies and how to observe them" (Springer Verlag)
To find out more about objects:
SIMBAD -- http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fid
STScI DSS -- https://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form
(The DSS query is built into my planetarium, and we're working towards building SIMBAD/NED/VizieR in)
Last edited by akarsh; March 28th, 2016 at 04:33 PM. Reason: Added Wolfgang Steinicke's book
28" f/4
18" f/4.5 Obsession Classic
6" f/8 Orion SkyQuest
Garrett Optical 25x100
Homepage
DSS Tool : Logbook Project : KStars : Adventures in Deep Space
The Astronomy Connection : Austin Astronomical Society : Bangalore Astronomical Society
Visual Sky Assist http://www.ar-dec.net/vsa/
The three you mention are absolute staples of mine. Ivan mentions Aladin and that's another excellent resource as well.
Last edited by acheter; June 18th, 2017 at 05:43 PM.
I'm adding to the list after this thread has resurfaced, and since I gathered all of this in one place for a recent visual observing talk.
Paul's Page -- www.pnalsing.com
As of this writing, SIMBAD is also built into my planetarium (KStars), and Jimi taught me a few more tricks:
The Hubble Legacy Arcihve: https://hla.stsci.edu/
And of course SDSS DR10, NED.
Great for interpreting redshifts, Ned Wright's Cosmology calculator:
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/CosmoCalc.html
Clear Skies.
Akarsh
28" f/4
18" f/4.5 Obsession Classic
6" f/8 Orion SkyQuest
Garrett Optical 25x100
Homepage
DSS Tool : Logbook Project : KStars : Adventures in Deep Space
The Astronomy Connection : Austin Astronomical Society : Bangalore Astronomical Society
I've used Aladin for years and have always found it intuitively obvious. In fact, I give a talk on astronomical resources that includes Aladin as a major asset. The PowerPoint presentation is given to attendees on a handout disk with clickable links that take the user to all the features I discuss. The talk shows how folks can find the answers to questions readers typically ask me. Now we have Aladin 10, and I find it obtuse. For example, I just spent quite a while trying to get a NED overlay that only identifies galaxies - to no avail, thus giving an annoyingly crowded overlay. It was quite easy to eliminate all other object types in Aladin 9. Anyone having better luck figuring out version 10?
Sue
To generate finder charts I use
http://server7.sky-map.org/
The beta version (click the mouse icon in the upper left) is easier to navigate. You can search on NGC, IC, UGC, PGC, PK, etc and these are also labeled when you mouse over them. You can also mouse over field stars to get their magnitudes.
For tracking comets I use
http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/
and
https://theskylive.com/comets
The Sky Live site is also good for finding where the planets and asteroids are currently.
BTW, I'd like to shamelessly add to this list my "slightly better UX" for DSS and SDSS queries, as well as being able to rotate them to match your dob view for the given time:
http://bas.org.in/dssdirect.php?id=M%2051
You see a list of survey options and image cutout size to fetch under "Step 1". In "Step 2" you can configure the rotation / flip etc. of the image -- if you have a dob with a focuser that's parallel to the tube and on the right side, you can just enter your latitude and longitude and it will orient the DSS image as it should be in your eyepiece at the present time. Finally, if you click on the image anywhere, it will place cross-hairs there. You can then click the "SIMBAD" link below the image and it will do a query around the point to tell you what the object at the cross-hairs is.
I've been telling myself that some day, I'll improve it and move it to the deepskyforum website, but not sure when that day will come...
28" f/4
18" f/4.5 Obsession Classic
6" f/8 Orion SkyQuest
Garrett Optical 25x100
Homepage
DSS Tool : Logbook Project : KStars : Adventures in Deep Space
The Astronomy Connection : Austin Astronomical Society : Bangalore Astronomical Society
I have often used the RC3 of Vaucouleurs as a reference
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/rc3.html
Does anyone know why I shouldn't rely on it?
You might want to look at Harold Corwin's update of that at http://haroldcorwin.net/ He calls it RC3.10
Owen
22" Obsession UC
15" Obsession UC
Takahashi Mewlon 210
TMB 130 LW
Thanks,
Don
I'll add these recommendations to our own UDSOR list here at DSF.
Thanks everyone!
Clear Dark Skies,
Dragan Nikin
25" f/5 Obsession #610 "Toto"
30" f/4.5 OMI EVO #1 "Tycho"
www.darkskiesapparel.com