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In this section you will find some entries from my deepsky log. It will be updated regularly. To view a particular log just go to the logs list.
Most of the data in the logs will be clear to other observers. There are however three registered data that require some explanation; the seeing, transparency and the sky darkness. I got these scales from Auke Slotegraaf from South Africa. Auke told me that he did not compose these scales himself. As far as he can recall an amateur astronomer by the name of Thompson made them. They were once published in an astronomy magazine. If anyone can help with this puzzle, please do!
Anyway, I find these Thompson scales very useful. Of course you can use other scales, like the Pickering scale for seeing conditions and the Bortle scale for sky darkness
|
Common Id |
Constellation |
Other Id's |
Object Type |
|
Monoceros |
Multiple Star |
||
|
Virgo |
Harrington's Star 21 |
Asterism |
|
|
Gemini |
NGC 2168 |
Open Cluster |
|
|
Cancer |
NGC 2632, Praesepe, beehive |
Open Cluster |
|
| M45 |
Taurus |
Pleiaedes, Seven Sisters |
Open Cluster |
|
Puppis |
NGC 2422 |
Open Cluster |
|
|
Orion |
Collinder 38 |
Open Cluster |
|
|
Monoceros |
|
Open Cluster |
|
|
Andromeda |
The blue snowball |
Planetary Nebula |
|
| Pakan's 3 |
Monoceros |
Harrington's Star 18 |
Asterism |
|
Corvus |
Harrington's Star 20, delta winged starship |
Asterism |
|
01 |
The atmosphere is so steady that even stars close to the horizon appear to twinkle only occasionally. Excellent high-magnification views may be obtained of the planets and close double stars |
|
02 |
The atmosphere is very steady with occasional disturbance of high-magnification images |
|
03 |
03 The steadiness is good, but with regular air turbulence noticeable |
|
04 |
There is a general loss of fine detail at high magnification |
|
05 |
Twinkling stars are quite apparent, but the twinkling is not rapid. Images are blurred at medium powers |
|
06 |
Fine detail is lost at medium power |
|
07 |
Star images show rapid twinkling. They appear disk-like |
|
08 |
Fuzzy images are detected at low power |
|
09 |
Stars appear blurry and appear to change brightness very quickly |
|
10 |
Atmosphere is boiling. There is a complete loss of detail |
|
01 |
Use 01 for the clearest possible sky. The atmosphere is perfectly transparent, only a slight amount of haze on the horizon |
|
02 |
The sky is very clear but not perfectly transparent |
|
03 |
Haze is noticeable towards the horizon, but the overhead sky is perfectly transparent |
|
04 |
Very slight haze is noticeable overhead near bright objects |
|
05 |
Haze appears overhead, but faint stars are visible |
|
06 |
Obvious haze or thin clouds lie overhead |
|
07 |
The faintest stars typically visible from the site are not visible |
|
08 |
Smoke, haze or fog limits visibility significantly and creates glare around objects |
|
09 |
At the zenith, absorption limits visibility by one magnitude |
|
10 |
At the zenith, absorption limits visibility by two magnitudes or more |
|
01 |
There is a total absence of moonlight and artificial lighting in the sky with good seeing and transparency |
|
02 |
Very slight brightening of the sky, like that caused by zodiacal light |
|
03 |
Three-day old moon or slight light pollution, but 6th magnitude stars are visible overhead |
|
04 |
Faintest portions of milky-way barely visible |
|
05 |
Overhead appears fairly dark but sky is fairly bright around horizon |
|
06 |
Only the brightest portions of the milky-way are visible |
|
07 |
General illumination of the entire sky, equal to seven-day old moon. Faintest stars visible are magnitude 5.5 |
|
08 |
Sky is bright, similar to three quart moon |
|
Sky is very bright, faintest stars visible are magnitude 4.5 |
|
|
10 |
Illumination is equivalent to, or greater than, the full moon |