Episode 86 – Chris and Shane’s Current Observing Projects/Lists Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 86 of the Actual Astronomy Podcast. I’m Chris and joining me is Shane. We are amateur astronomers that means we love looking up at the night sky and this podcast is for anyone who enjoys going out under the stars.

• Had some great suggestions about observing lists
• So what lists are you working on?
• At the RASC we have several Certificates:
  • Messier
  • Finest NGC
  • Deep Sky Challenge
  • Explore the Universe
  • Isabelle Williamson Lunar Observing Program
  • Deep Sky Gems
  • Explore the Moon
  • Double Stars
• Shane: I am working on the Finest NGC, Isabelle Williamson Lunar Observing Program, and the Bright Star Atlas lists when in my back yard. When I travel to dark dark skies, I like to observe the objects that Stephan James O’Meara writes about in a few of his books. I am also compiling a list of listener recommended objects…I will post this to the website at some point.
• Chris: I pulled one list from the RASC Archives, it doesn’t really have a title so  call it the RASC Classic List…of particular interest to me are the 35 or so “Galactic Nebula” I wrote about a couple years ago…but should really get on with it!

• Chris: I’ve been reading a lot about Rev. TW Webb at www.stellar-journeys.org/ by Larry McHenry, Webb has about 6 objects credited but was an amazing observer with a 3.7 Refractor & 9.5” reflector. He wrote a 2 VOl. set available very cheap used. McHenry also has some very interesting lists such as OB stellar associations wich make great binocular targets, we talked about the one in Perseus and another in Orion recently. That’s something I’ve been working on.
• Chris I’ve also been working on seeing h-beta targets
• Chris: I’m also working on a bit of an archeo astronomy project, mostly hunting down old asterisms that have long since been determined as unassociated stellar groupings. However, I think these are interesting, I believe the coathanger cluster is one such grouping, but there are lots of others like Ptolemy’s Quadrangle. There are also some interesting things that have been pointed out like an asterism in the Water of Aquarius and those fuzzy double stars Tycho observed in Capricornus.