SkyTools Guided Tour

Observing Lists Tool

Above is the legendary SkyTools observation planner.  It is organized with the planning tools separated into tabs.  The Observing Lists tab is where the action is when planning an observing session.  The data columns displayed in the observing list are customizable and can be configured to show much more than in the example above (such as size, surface brightness, alternate ID's, rise/set times, etc.).

The little log icon next to M 31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) is clickable and takes you to the log entries for the object.

The NightBar (shaded area near the top) displays the darkness of the sky vs. time on the night selected.  This night is near new moon and is dark from dusk to dawn.  (Note: some of the shading has been lost in the conversion of the graphic to GIF for quicker download).

The selected object is M 74 (highlighted in blue).  The altitude of M 74 is drawn on the NightBar as a red dashed line.  The green horizontal line represents the two airmass altitude, above which observations should be made, if possible.  From looking at the NightBar we can see that M 74 is best observed from about 9:30 PM to the start of twilight, and is highest prior to 2:00 AM.  This is also indicated in the observing list in the optimum observing window columns (Begin, Optimum, End).

Next Stop: Object Information