Amateur Astronomer Observing Programs
Published on May 28, 2006 at 11:18 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under amateur astronomy, skywatching.
In thinking about my next post, I thought that I’d do a follow-up to my last post. So, this is also aimed at amateur astronomers.
Often people will buy a telescope, or get one for Christmas, birthday, or whatever. Then, comes the task of learning how to use it. That is often a steep enough hurdle, even for some of the fancy goto telescopes that, once set up, will point themselves at whatever object the operator enters into a keypad. First, you need to know the sky. Second, you need to know what to look at.
Knowing the sky means learning stars and constellations. I often suggest a simple bare-bones star chart, or a planesphere, or somesuch. A simple star monthly star chart can be found in many amateur astronomer magazines, or even online. Go outside, and learn which stars are which. You’ll need this in order to find anything. Next, get practice using the telescope. Eventually, you get to where you can find lots of things.
Now, as an amateur astronomer gets better and better at finding things, a problem eventually creeps up. First, many amateurs get tired of looking at the same things over and over again. After all, how many times can you look at the Orion Nebula? Saturn is cool, but unless you know what you are looking for, even it gets tiresome. You look at the Moon and marvel at how clearly you can see craters. Then what? At this point, many amateur astronomers get bored with their hobby, and they put their telescopes away.
Is the problem that there aren’t many things to look at? NO!!!!!! There are far more things that can be seen with amateur equipment than most people would ever have time to see all of. However, the problem is knowing what to look for. On any given night, there are hundreds of available interesting targets to point your telescope at. Of course, if all you know are a couple dozen things in the sky, you miss out. This is where an observing program comes in. If you plan ahead a little, you can enjoy a night out with the telescope.
One of the first things that I suggest is to get an inexpensive star chart that shows lots of objects within reach of amateur telescopes. Find out what is up on the night that you are going out, and then look for these objects. This gets you started. But, it is only a start. Next, you will want to have a list of objects that you want to see. This is important, because the list then becomes a goal. You look at the first thing on the list, then the second, then the third, and so forth. OK, you might have to skip a couple, depending upon sky conditions, difficulty of seeing them, etc. Still, try to follow the list. Where do you get a list? There are several ways.
First, you could make a list of your own. Pick out a constellation that is high in the sky when you want to observe. Look on a good star chart for objects in that constellation. Then, just go from object to object. I recall many nights when I got started in astronomy doing just that. It was lots of fun.
Secondly, you could use a ready made list. Again, when a student, our astronomy laboratory manual had a list of various objects. There was a goal to see them. Also, several astronomy handbooks have lists of nice open clusters, interesting nebulae, etc. Follow those lists.
Third, a ready made list is often available in amateur astronomy magazines. There is usually a monthly sky guide of some sort that gives a list of several interesting things to look that month. There you have a wonderful list! Even better, this list often has some explanation to go along with the list of objects. This will tell you what to look for, and what makes certain objects interesting. For example, it may tell you to look for the shadow of Saturn on its rings. Unless you were told that, you might miss it. The list may tell you to pay careful attention to the group of stars in the middle of some nebula, such as the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula. Again, this adds interest to the observation, even of an object that you’ve seen many times before. Or, the list may tell you that NGC 7006 is one of the most distant globular clusters of our galaxy. That makes seeing that tiny smudge very interesting.
These get you going. But, still there is often a motivation issue. If you live where the sky is dark, and you have your own permanently mounted telescope easy to get to, then you can go observe with little problem. However, for most people, the sky at home is bright, the telescope has to be hauled out and set up — sometimes quite a task itself. Often, you have to pack up the telescope and all your other equipment and drive for miles to get to a dark sky location. These all add obstacles to observing. So, you need something else to motivate you.
Along come organized observing programs. The Astronomical League is a confederation of astronomy clubs here in the US. They have several wonderful observig programs for amateur astronomers. They call them “observing clubs.” You select one that interests you, and on their web page they have a list of rules for the observing program and a list of targets. Once you see everything on the list, you send in your observations. Then, you get a little pin and a certificate, and your name is printed in their national newsletter. This really motivates a lot of people. Now you have a specific goal. You need to observe each object on the binary star list to get your certificate. This makes you want to observe those binaries. You need to observe each crater on the Moon list to get that certificate. That makes the Moon far more interesting to observe, since you are trying to match up a map with what you see in the eyepiece. Now, all those craters take on a special meaning for you. There is a list of objects that you are supposed to see with just binoculars. So, many amateurs head out with just binoculars to observe that list. Such a targeted program is a lot of fun, it really helps you get to know the sky, and it is a great motivator.
For amateur astronomers who want to go on to even more serious work, they can monitor variable stars. There are far more variable stars than there are astronomers, so amateurs take up a lot of the slack in monitoring these stars. The American Association of Variable Star Observers collects their observations and makes them available to professional astronomers. There is even an organization called the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers that collects amateur astronomers’ data on planets, asteroids, and meteor showers. Many amateur astronomers move on to these serious observing programs where they are doing real science. Again, this is a good motivator to go out and make your observations.
It doesn’t matter what program you use. However, an organized observing program of some sort really does help get you out observing.
-Astroprof
Jack on November 13, 2008 at 5:18 am: 1
Very cool article. I can relate to some of this. Some things I never get tired of looking at, others are you see in once that’s enough. Great article and very cool site.