a plan for porch observing

I built an observing plan in SkyTools3. I drew in objects from multiple sources. I was hoping to log a few unseen targets from the Turn Left at Orion autumnal list. Tossed in some of the planets, the supernova in M101, comet Garradd. But I knew that I would have the Moon to contend with, an increasingly bright Moon over the week, so some bright objects would be required. In fact, I built a separate list of double stars selected by the automatic generation tool. I reviewed items in the Urban Astronomy Club list. I also added a couple of items from the The Evening Sky Map for October.

The big challenge for these sessions would be coping with the limited pieces of sky that I could see given the many large trees nearby. I knew I could use the constellation filter to choose one area to view. That would be the theme: not hopping all over the sky; but exploring objects in one constellation. I kept thinking that a profile or horizon line might be useful in the software so to automatically limit choices. But then I'd need one for summer and winter. I didn't bother building one; I'd just do it manually.

I remembered I did not have my Pocket Sky Atlas; Kiron still had it. I asked if he was done with it. I considered just going through the lists in double stars for small telescopes, by constellation, of course. I could also use the Cambridge Double Star Atlas. Again, I could easily stay in one constellation in deeply explore it.

And through it all, I knew this plan would have to be flexible, dynamic. I had not observed from the porch before, with the trees in full foliage, with so much less of the sky visible. I knew I'd need to add things on the fly, add suggestions from my paper books, and toss out objects that would be hopeless for the conditions and with impossible sight lines. All the at said, I was increasingly excited at getting at least a couple of nights in.