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Observing Lists for Northern Skies Here are observing lists created for Northern Skies observing, i.e. my standard observing lists. These lists have been created based on "Night Sky Observer's Guide" (volumes 1 and 2) and numerous other sources like magazine articles, discussion lists and websites. The objects are all above approximately -35 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. 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 1,930 including 455 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 accesses multiple online and local databases, verifies consistency of the lists and exports them in other formats. 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. Binocular lists in compressed (zip) format: Sky Safari, PDF, MS Word, tab-separated text. You can browse all lists in PDF format from this page.
Here is the detailed object statistic:
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