How do you log your observations? (very long)

Brian Tung wrote:
I do have my own method, but I'm afraid it won't work very well for
most people. I jot down a list of what I've observed, remember everything
I've seen, and after I go in, I simply write down a narrative of all the
stuff I've memorized. My memory for this is pretty good for a few hours
or days (provided no second session intervenes), so as long as I do it
reasonably soon, it's all there. Sometimes, I have to jot a few notes
down in my Palm, but that's pretty rare.

That's actually pretty close to how I've done it in the past few years.
Better yet--I find that writing my observations up in an observing
report (to be shared with an audience) is a great way to motivate the
actual writing. Then I copy the relevant sections of the observing
report to my logs. The result is a much better narrative: something
more interesting than the original jumble of notes taken at the eyepiece.


--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply remove spleen

Rod Mollise wrote:

Hey Rod -- you can do that in SkyTools 2 too. I don't know where people
got the idea you can't.

HI Greg:

Cool...I hadn't noticed that feature before, and just _assumed_ this wasn't
something ST did. That's what I get for assuming! ;-)

At risk of over staying my welcome, here's another one you may have
missed: Night Logs. You can assign comments to an entire night's worth
of observations, such as who you observed with, what the temperature was
like, animal attacks :-) , etc.

I'm not sure how many people actually use this feature though. For me
it's essential. I like to read the night log and then open each
individual log entry from the associated list of objects observed that
night. Now that's cool, if I do say so myself!

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply remove spleen

Rod Mollise wrote:

Hey Rod -- you can do that in SkyTools 2 too. I don't know where people
got the idea you can't.

HI Greg:

Cool...I hadn't noticed that feature before, and just _assumed_ this wasn't
something ST did. That's what I get for assuming! ;-)

At risk of over staying my welcome, here's another one you may have
missed: Night Logs. You can assign comments to an entire night's worth
of observations, such as who you observed with, what the temperature was
like, animal attacks :-) , etc.

I'm not sure how many people actually use this feature though. For me
it's essential. I like to read the night log and then open each
individual log entry from the associated list of objects observed that
night. Now that's cool, if I do say so myself!

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply remove spleen

At risk of over staying my welcome, here's another one you may have
missed: Night Logs. You can assign comments to an entire night's worth
of observations, such as who you observed with, what the temperature was
like, animal attacks :-) , etc.

Hi:

You mean like from the rampaging possums? ;-)

This is one feature I do know about and it is very much appreciated.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

At risk of over staying my welcome, here's another one you may have
missed: Night Logs. You can assign comments to an entire night's worth
of observations, such as who you observed with, what the temperature was
like, animal attacks :-) , etc.

Hi:

You mean like from the rampaging possums? ;-)

This is one feature I do know about and it is very much appreciated.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

I record my observations into a digital voice recorder. This makes each
recording (observation) it's own file, which I then store on my home
computer. I make a directory for each observing run and dump the recordings
into it.

After recording, I transcribe the notes into Skytools, which is an excellent
way to keep track of logs. Once the logs are in Skytools, you can search by
night, location, observer (there could be more than one person's logs in a
given database), object type, constellation, or any combination of those and
other criteria. It's wonderful!

-Astrosetz
www.astrosetz.com

I record my observations into a digital voice recorder. This makes each
recording (observation) it's own file, which I then store on my home
computer. I make a directory for each observing run and dump the recordings
into it.

After recording, I transcribe the notes into Skytools, which is an excellent
way to keep track of logs. Once the logs are in Skytools, you can search by
night, location, observer (there could be more than one person's logs in a
given database), object type, constellation, or any combination of those and
other criteria. It's wonderful!

-Astrosetz
www.astrosetz.com

Rod Mollise wrote:

At risk of over staying my welcome, here's another one you may have
missed: Night Logs. You can assign comments to an entire night's worth
of observations, such as who you observed with, what the temperature was
like, animal attacks :-) , etc.


Hi:

You mean like from the rampaging possums? ;-)

Heh. Lately it's the neighbor's cat who insists on soiling my rocker
box every time I go inside... Grrrr.... that growl you hear comes from
me!

Fortunately the bears are so quiet I seldom know there are there. ;-)


--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply remove spleen

Rod Mollise wrote:

At risk of over staying my welcome, here's another one you may have
missed: Night Logs. You can assign comments to an entire night's worth
of observations, such as who you observed with, what the temperature was
like, animal attacks :-) , etc.


Hi:

You mean like from the rampaging possums? ;-)

Heh. Lately it's the neighbor's cat who insists on soiling my rocker
box every time I go inside... Grrrr.... that growl you hear comes from
me!

Fortunately the bears are so quiet I seldom know there are there. ;-)


--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply remove spleen

It may not be the most "scientific"
approach, but it sure brings back the
memories. I've tried an more
professional approach, organized by
every classification you can dream
of............. and I never keep it up
because it's more of a chore than
enjoyment and fun. AND yes, I observe
for enjoyment and fun.

Good day,

Francis Marion

Same here. My log is kept in a plain old spiral bound notebook. Some
notes are directly written in with a fountain pen, some are stuff I
posted in newsgroups, printed, cut out, and glued in, and some are
sloppy pencil notes written while I was at the eyepiece and again, glued
in. If I make a drawing, it's usually on a small post it, and I glue
those in too. My log reads more like a journal kept by an inarticulate,
astronomically interested victorian naturalist than by a modern
astronomer. Very personal.
Marty