Observing Lists For Amateur Astronomers: The Astronomical League Observing Clubs

When I started (sporadically, at least) posting to this blog, my intent was to chronicle the steps necessary to build up skills and equipment for respectable astrophotography. During the course of this little project, I picked up my Orion 12 Inch XT, a visual only instrument, and since that time I have spent far more time observing with it than taking photographs. But as you may have noticed, space is a pretty large place, filled with more than a few things to look at, and being a complete OCD, I needed something to bring order to my observing chaos.

Thankfully, astronomy is full of OCD types. How else can you explain the willingness to dump tons of money into buckets of glass? Anyway, the good folks over at the Astronomical League have put together numerous programs to guide visual astronomers through the heavens. These range from the very simple to the very complex, with difficulty levels everywhere in between. Currently, I am working through the Messier lists (telescope and binocular), lunar list, solar system list, deep Sky binocular, and finally, the Herschel 400 list. That last one is a real dinger. Comprised of objects ranging from the marginally faint to the not really an object at all just put it in the list to screw with you it is so faint, this list has really made by observing sessions more interesting.

I strongly recommend anyone with binoculars or telescope to try some of these different lists. It is easy to get wrapped up in all of the new technology available for amateur astronomy, but these lists help to remind us of the joy of plain Jane visual observation. Give it a try! The link to many of the lists is:

http://www.astroleague.org/observing.html