objective observing

While winding down in bed, I considered something I had stumbled upon this evening, while visual observing, double stars in particular.

What an interesting way to observe...

Near the end of tonight's session, I had checked items to view in the SkyTools observing list and then used the option, View Interactive Atlas for all checked entries, to highlight these specific targets on the chart.

Of course, that presented the chart with multiple cross-hairs. And if I focused on this—and I could use it to slew in Real Time mode—and avoided the observing list proper, I could tackle some double stars without bias.

Working from the observing list, one can't help but seem details of the target. Magnitudes, separations, splittability rating, colours (from my custom lists), the number of stars, etc.

Working from the chart, it was simply an object of interest to look at. I didn't know anything about the star and its companion(s).

I really liked this. Not knowing what I would see. Impartial. It surprised me how much I enjoyed this.

I'll have to use this technique more...