On Fri, 09 Apr 2004 15:12:49 -0400, Larry Stedman wrote:

I've been round and round on this over the years. One issue that vexes
me is whether to organize my notes by date of observation or by object
being viewed. (or by constellation? or by type of object?)...


Larry,

I use a cross-referencing system that's pretty simple. On a spreadsheet, I
put together an observing list of objects in a constellation or by theme
such as Local Group galaxies, Abell galaxy clusters, etc. I print out a
sheet that has the name of each object with a corresponding box in which
the date (or dates) of my observation is entered. This sheet goes in a
manila folder with the rest of the information of interest.

The observations are recorded in a notebook that takes on a sort of diary
format, with the date at the top of each page. When the notebook is
filled, I put the date range on the cover. It's easy to then go from my
folder to the page in the chronologically arranged notebook.

I don't know the exact number, but I would guess I have recorded notes on a
couple thousand unique objects. Ideally, you'd think that I would have
entered all of these notes into a computer, but that just hasn't happened
yet.

I do not have his software, but I understand that Greg Crinklaw's Sky Tools
is excellent for managing observing notes, among many other things. I'm
sure he will pitch in to this thread eventually.

Tom