Hi guys:

I developed an observing list several years ago by going through the Sky Atlas
2000 charts from 90 degrees plus to 40 degrees minus in two hour RA "swaths"
manually recording the NGC, IC, and M objects. I had noticed that the fainter
objects on the charts were just within the limit of my 12.5" Dob, thus there
are gaps in the numbers, but since I can't see them that's OK. The advantages
to this list is the minimum slewing involved and the ease of observing in the
best part of the available sky at any given time--I just set-up, decide on the
best RA section of sky, get out the appropriate chart, and key in one of the
numbers. There's space for notes which I use for a personal rating scale for
future observing sessions, i.e., do I care to look at that object again.

This list has been in the form of 12 MS Word documents that I simply printed
out and put into plastic sleeves for dew protection, and stored them in a
notebook. I've wanted to put them on my web site, but couldn't find the time
until I got a hold of a new application that intercepts the print command from
any program and generates html pages--all cross-linked, generates a table of
contents, matches the typestyles, typesizes, color, layout, etc. Pretty
amazing stuff. It's called Myrmidom (for the Mac) and costs only $69. A demo
that will process 25 docs is available at <http://www.terrymorse.com/>. I
pasted the text into one QuarkXPress doc and 2:35 minutes later I had 20 web
pages cross-linked and formatted! They are available in the Mapug Topical
Archive link below with an unavoidable red animated banner called SkyCharts
2000. Use the link below or please try my new short one:
<http://come.to/AstroDesigns> Once there, you can print-out the charts from
your browser.

Yes, I could have posted it as a download file, but generic text is difficult
for some to reformat. By printing from your browser, it will look good
immediately. And you can always select the text with the cursor if you want to
work that way. Anyway, enjoy, let me know of any problems. BTW, I'm still
working on the March (and soon to be April) update to the Archive.
--
Mapug Topical Archive (Meade Adv. Products Users Group)
<http://www.austin.cc.tx.us/astro-ES/AstroDesigns/>

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