>> Would kinda takes the fun out of observing the list, doncha ya think?
The sweeping method wouldn't prohibit you from going through them
some more at liesurely pace. Part of the point of Tom's post was to
suggest more folks might do them. If the list seems daunting, this is
one way to get through them quickly, and to hone your star-hopping skills
while you're at it. I found doing the MM a couple years ago quite
enjoyable, since it allowed me to compare them all in a short enough time
to think about the very best ones and other mental comparisons.
>> I'd think the 300+, or whatever for the highest number, would almost
>> require the telescope have a GoTo or digital setting circles.
I was tempted at the 2001 MM to just keep recording objects once
the first big batch of Messiers was done an hour or two after dusk. One
approach would be to just sweep along the Milky Way at lower from
northwest to south, then sweep through from the Big Dipper south to the
horizon probably using something like Sky Atlas 2000 just to pick out
the big/bright things. The density of objects is high enough that I don't
think you'd need to have any GoTo stuff, although you would have to keep
track of where you were on the sky. It would probably be pretty tiring
in any case.
>> Looking back at my list, the bulk were observed in October (110)
>> and April (195)...
OK, but how much was this influenced by nice weather and how much by
evening availability (compared to dusk-to-dawn accessibility)?
One other thing, I think getting the H400 certificate means supplying
some at least rough descriptive notes (unlike the MM), so that would slow
you down a bit if you were trying to sweep them up very fast compared to
simply identifying them and nothing more.
\Brian
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