Observation Planning Tools

As a club we have a sortable MS Excel object list that you can download from the group site ( see the files section). However, in addition, I thought I'd set up a post about planning tools. I'll start off with one that I have used to plan my outing for tonight.

Tonight's Sky
Located at http://tonightssky.com/ , this site provides the observer the opportunity to input date, time span, the coordinates for their observing site, horizon limitations, equipment limitations, and select object type of interest. This generates an online list of objects that can then be researched with handy buttons to the side of each object generated. Researching is optional. Then, the observer can select from one of three types of printed reports including an export option to MS Excel. There are sorting options as well.

If you have a particular tool or system for planning your nights out with the scope, send it to me and let me post it here for all to see.

Eric esmithonline

Build a Solar Filter for Your Telescope

Source: Michael Portuesi, SidewalkAstronomers.org


Step-by-step instructions for building a filter for daytime Sun viewing with your Dobsonian telescope.

You can build a solar filter for a large aperture scope for less than $40, including the solar filter film. This is a great project to build with your kids, or perhaps as part of a classroom activity.
I describe how I built a solar filter for my 10" F/7 Dobsonian scope, but you can easily adapt these instructions for other scopes.

For daytime use, we build an off-axis filter smaller than the scope's full aperture. For convenience sake, an off-axis mask on a large Newtonian is easy to make, takes less material and the off-axis size is often more than enough given the daytime seeing.

Submitted by: Ed (ookiimamoru )

View All Instructions from SidewalkAstronomer.org