Telescope Reviews: how do you plan your observing sessions?

Planning?
Simple.
1) use a planisphere to see what constellations are on/near the meridian (imaginary N-S line) at the hour of the night that astronomical twilight ends on the date of your observing session.
2) Write down the constellations from north to south along the meridian at that hour.
3) repeat the above for one hour later and continue until astronomical morning twilight begins (who knows how late you'll stay up?).
4) Now, use an observing list like the one on the Saguaro Astronomy Club's website(highly recommended), and sort the list by contellation.
5) looking at the magnitudes of each object, choose 2-5 bright objects in each constellation going from north to south.
6) repeat for the skies one hour later.
7) repeat until you have a fairly long list of objects to observe.
8) Print the list for the field.

Will you observe them all? Probably not. If you do, you will have had an incredibly productive observing session. But even if you only see 5-8 objects per hour, you will have seen a lot by the time dawn comes.

Save the list of objects for the next new moon period, crossing off the objects recorded. Repeat the above steps to add to the list to increase the number of choices. Some constellations will no longer be up during the next month's new moon and some new ones will appear.

Why stick to the meridian? Because every scope sees every deep-sky object best when it is on the meridian and in its highest position relative to the horizon. This will give you a leg up when looking for details in each object. Also, your scope will essentially be going back and forth along the meridian, making obstructions like trees along the horizon less consequential.

What happens if, after a few years, your list of new objects begins to have only the fainter objects on it? (I'm in that boat, now, nearly 11,000 objects later). Well, then spend some of each observing night looking at eye candy. After becoming experienced at looking at the faint "breath on the eyepiece" objects, the brighter stuff will appear spectacular. You'll want to go back and redo your notes from earlier (what was I, blind?) because you'll see more, and you'll be branching out into some exotic lists of objects to observe.

And, every now and then, take a night to relax and peruse your star atlas or observing book to get some ideas for next month.

All this presumes you travel to see dark skies. If you have dark skies in your backyard, you can run through your list any clear night. Oh, and I hate you.....

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Don Pensack
12.5" Truss Dob, 5" Maksutov, Fujinon Binos
Sustaining Lifetime IDA member