Telescope Reviews: Do you create an observing list before Observing?

Hi Folks,

I have a question regarding how astronomers out here address the night sky. More often than not, I create some type of a game plan I take out with me, even if I'm just out for a few hrs. It usually includes a few objects I'm interested in seeing, or a full blown observing list I want to address throughout the night.
If nothing else, I sometimes just pick a few constellations I know are up in the sky, and focus on everything I can see in them, from double stars, globulars, nebulars, galaxies, and sometimes just the colors of the individual starts that make up the constellations.
I look at individual objects in depth, trying out a variety of eyepieces and filters, even over extending magnifications to see if there is anything out there that high power could bring out. At the other extreme, I go as wide as I can on whatever I'm looking at, just to see how it looks among beside its nearby neighbors.
On outings where I go away from home for several days, I could spend months putting together an entire observing list of new objects Ive never seen before, so I'm never just gazing into space and wondering what am I going to look at during the night. If Jupiters in the sky, I check to see if the GRS will transit during my time out, and I always check to see if the ISS or Hubble is going by overhead, and set my cell phone alarm to alert me a few minutes before it happens.
No one I observe with, prepares like this, so they more often than not, wait for me to find something in the sky, or just wander to objects they have seen a hundred times again and again.

On new moon weekends, I generally begin creating some type of observing list very early in the week, and keep notes of objects I either read about, or think about, on a piece of paper I carry around with me through out the week. Toward the end of the week I start looking at photos of these objects, and learn more about them, so I know what to expect once I get out side.

I just purchased The Complete Guide to the Herschel Objects, so this helps tremendously in helping me deceide what I want to look at for my time outside.

Do other astronomers observe like this, by creating observing lists they want to address, or do you mostly just get out and point your scope up, and see what you can find?

I'm just asking because I'm realizing there are many similarities in how I observe, compared to the many good people out here in these forums.

Thanks for chiming in...

Ralph in Sacramento...