Planning your night

I know posters have talked about this, but I think it deserves repeated attention. For me, a night unplanned is a night mostly wasted. I have gotten to the point that I now plan my nights around one constallation, and try to see everything of interest in that constallation. I use a variety of reference material and try to memorize as much as I can, or become very fimiliar with the objects before night comes. The reason is that I find myself slewing this way and that, back and forth, no rhyme or reason. Another problem is that I will see an object that is not a star and will then start searching the field references, wasting time and needing light (red) in the process to read by. I could just as easily wait until I get home to look it up, but I want to know.

Now I'm not just a stick in the mud. I save a portion of my night just for hopping around from one known object to the other, or to a special object I missed a few nights before. Anyone else use a system for observing?

regards

david roberts

David,

When I'm "working" on my AL lists, I plan with SkyTools 2 --> http://www.skyhound.com/skytools.html

At star parties or observing with friends, I just "wing it."

Regards,
Lou