Help with astronomy planning SW

Folks,
I am planning a vaction to the deserts of CA next week (no comments
about the heat please )

I plan on draggin my 80mm scope with me. I am getting back into
astronomy after many many years and I am trying to do my preplanning to make
sure I make the most of the dark skys. I was hoping for something that
could help me plan the nights on an hour by hour basis.

Is there a good recommendation for planning SW that I can use to print
skymaps based on my locale ?

Cheers

Get Cartes Du Ciel, its FREE and if you know the location your going to you
can put it into there or just pick a newby city (L.A.) and you can get maps
and print them out for hours of the night.

BTW, I live out here in the High Mojave Desert of S.Cal and I love the heat,
it reached 105 again today and I liked it.

What part of the Desert you going to?


--
The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond

Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Sidewalk Astronomy
www.sidewalkastronomy.info
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net
In Garden Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/ingarden
Blast Off Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/starlords
Astro Blog
http://starlord.bloggerteam.com/




"Sam The Cat" wrote in message
. ..
Folks,
I am planning a vaction to the deserts of CA next week (no comments
about the heat please )

I plan on draggin my 80mm scope with me. I am getting back into
astronomy after many many years and I am trying to do my preplanning to
make sure I make the most of the dark skys. I was hoping for something
that could help me plan the nights on an hour by hour basis.

Is there a good recommendation for planning SW that I can use to print
skymaps based on my locale ?

Cheers

Starlord,
I'll be in Joshua Tree for three days
Cheers


"Starlord" wrote in message
. ..
Get Cartes Du Ciel, its FREE and if you know the location your going to
you can put it into there or just pick a newby city (L.A.) and you can get
maps and print them out for hours of the night.

BTW, I live out here in the High Mojave Desert of S.Cal and I love the
heat, it reached 105 again today and I liked it.

What part of the Desert you going to?


--
The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond

Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Sidewalk Astronomy
www.sidewalkastronomy.info
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net
In Garden Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/ingarden
Blast Off Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/starlords
Astro Blog
http://starlord.bloggerteam.com/




"Sam The Cat" wrote in message
. ..
Folks,
I am planning a vaction to the deserts of CA next week (no comments
about the heat please )

I plan on draggin my 80mm scope with me. I am getting back into
astronomy after many many years and I am trying to do my preplanning to
make sure I make the most of the dark skys. I was hoping for something
that could help me plan the nights on an hour by hour basis.

Is there a good recommendation for planning SW that I can use to print
skymaps based on my locale ?

Cheers

Thanks for the tip ! BTW


"Starlord" wrote in message
. ..
Get Cartes Du Ciel, its FREE and if you know the location your going to
you can put it into there or just pick a newby city (L.A.) and you can get
maps and print them out for hours of the night.

BTW, I live out here in the High Mojave Desert of S.Cal and I love the
heat, it reached 105 again today and I liked it.

What part of the Desert you going to?


--
The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond

Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Sidewalk Astronomy
www.sidewalkastronomy.info
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net
In Garden Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/ingarden
Blast Off Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/starlords
Astro Blog
http://starlord.bloggerteam.com/




"Sam The Cat" wrote in message
. ..
Folks,
I am planning a vaction to the deserts of CA next week (no comments
about the heat please )

I plan on draggin my 80mm scope with me. I am getting back into
astronomy after many many years and I am trying to do my preplanning to
make sure I make the most of the dark skys. I was hoping for something
that could help me plan the nights on an hour by hour basis.

Is there a good recommendation for planning SW that I can use to print
skymaps based on my locale ?

Cheers

Sam The Cat wrote:
Folks,
I am planning a vaction to the deserts of CA next week (no comments
about the heat please )

I plan on draggin my 80mm scope with me. I am getting back into
astronomy after many many years and I am trying to do my preplanning to make
sure I make the most of the dark skys. I was hoping for something that
could help me plan the nights on an hour by hour basis.

Is there a good recommendation for planning SW that I can use to print
skymaps based on my locale ?

Why not just use a planisphere?

No batteries, nothing to go wrong. Handy for lots of
"what if" questions.

Cheap, too.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "That's a totally illegal,
Grid: CN89mg madcap scheme. I like it!"
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - H. Pearce

laura wrote in response to

Sam The Cat's
Folks,
I am planning a vaction to the deserts of CA next week (no comments
about the heat please )

I plan on draggin my 80mm scope with me. I am getting back into
astronomy after many many years and I am trying to do my preplanning to make
sure I make the most of the dark skys. I was hoping for something that
could help me plan the nights on an hour by hour basis.

Is there a good recommendation for planning SW that I can use to print
skymaps based on my locale ?

Why not just use a planisphere?

No batteries, nothing to go wrong. Handy for lots of
"what if" questions.

Cheap, too.


Heretic - How Dare you suggest something not only practical, but also
simple and for the most part infallible. Who knows what someone might
suggest next - Do a bit of preplanning and mark it with x's in the areas he
might want to look for objects of interest! ;-)

Laura - Great suggestion.

Crazy Ed

Sam The Cat wrote:
Folks,
I am planning a vaction to the deserts of CA next week (no comments
about the heat please )

I plan on draggin my 80mm scope with me. I am getting back into
astronomy after many many years and I am trying to do my preplanning to make
sure I make the most of the dark skys. I was hoping for something that
could help me plan the nights on an hour by hour basis.

Is there a good recommendation for planning SW that I can use to print
skymaps based on my locale ?

Cheers



On top of Laura's suggestion...

Get a Telrad.

Messier Telrad Charts are available online in pdf format for printing. I
printed them off at work and put them into a three ring binder. Smartest
thing I ever did for those nights when I want to spend more than an hour
poking around with the non-computerized scopes.

Not sure if there's a planisphere with the Messier objects included
though, so a pocket map with them included might be a good idea.

Stephen Paul wrote:

Not sure if there's a planisphere with the Messier objects included
though, so a pocket map with them included might be a good idea.

I use the Firefly planisphere, which is the biggest I could
find: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1552977862.
It has the brighter Messier objects on it, as well as a few
NGC and IC objects.

It's big. It works. In the field I supplement it with Sky Atlas 2000.

Note to the original poster: do you want to plan, or do you
want to observe? I'd take it easy on the former, and
concentrate on the latter. Especially coming back after
being away for a while. Allow yourself some time to
just wander around the sky. It's a beautiful, scenic place,
an experience to be savoured.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

Laura Halliday wrote:
I use the Firefly planisphere, which is the biggest I could
find: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1552977862.
It has the brighter Messier objects on it, as well as a few
NGC and IC objects.

It's beautiful, a work of art. And it's hefty, too--quite thick and
solid. It won't fold, by any means.

Incidentally, mine has all the Messiers. I have a review of it at

http://astro.isi.edu/notes/firefly.html

--
Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html

Brian Tung wrote:

It's beautiful, a work of art. And it's hefty, too--quite thick and
solid. It won't fold, by any means.

Incidentally, mine has all the Messiers...

I stand corrected: the Firefly planisphere does indeed
have all the Messier objects on it. I have it right in
front of me.

One of the more novel things I've done with mine was
using the analemma and the time of local noon to
determine my longitude.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "That's a totally illegal,
Grid: CN89mg madcap scheme. I like it!"
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - H. Pearce