Observing Lists for Southern Skies

Here are observing lists created for Southern Skies observing of a northern astronomer . These lists are based on my experience with Northern Skies, the main source of objects are "Night Sky Observer's Guide" (mainly volume 3, but also parts of 1 and 2), "Southern Gems", BAM600, and "Southern Splendors" list of Bob Pitt (Sky Safari format). I have also added objects inspired by various online resources and discussion lists.

The objects are all below 0 deg declination and they are grouped by constellation and season. Constellation lists are more exhaustive and contain more objects, some of them dimmer or harder. More spectacular objects are grouped into "Best of" lists, they are divided by season. Since it is a northern astronomer lists set, the seasons are as on the northern part of our planet .  The lists include deep sky objects as well as stars. The statistics of the objects on the lists is below, total number of objects is 1,388 including 251 stars. The objects chosen are "above average" quality, approximately corresponding to 3 stars or better on "Night Sky Observer's Guide" DSO lists for constellation lists, or 4 stars or better for "Best of" lists.

The lists were created and tested on Sky Safari 5 and 6, I use Sky Safari as my main observing tool, so it was natural approach for me. I have written a program to convert Sky Safari lists into a readable format with all necessary data displayed, the program accessed multiple online and local databases and turned out to be much longer project than I expected. Printable formats like MS Word or PDF can be used as a backup in a case the digital versions are inaccessible, I have formatted them to fit on a standard 5x8 index cards. For my own observing with a tablet I usually highlight all objects in a given list and then pick them up from sky display.

I am sure there are inaccuracies and errors in the lists, and I will appreciate any input regarding them, or any other way the lists can be improved.

All lists in compressed (zip) format: Sky Safari, PDF, MS Word, tab-separated text. All formats in one file can be downloaded here.

You can browse all lists in PDF format from this page.

South Best Fall	Sky Safari	PDF	MS Word
South Best Spring	Sky Safari	PDF	MS Word
South Best Summer	Sky Safari	PDF	MS Word
South Best Winter	Sky Safari	PDF	MS Word
South Binoculars	Sky Safari	PDF	MS Word
South Stars	Sky Safari	PDF	MS Word

Here is the detailed object statistic: