I have made the following updates to my ongoing page on using manual setting circles - which has expanded to other SAO reference lists to support GOTO star synching in support of GOTO DSO locating. The general intended purpose of these lists is to support GOTO DSO locating at urban and suburban star parties by supporting the GOTO star-sync method of DSO location (described below). The intent is to support fast slew and accurate GOTO location so telescope operators may make a more fluid presentation of a series of multiple targets. I. Bright-Star-to-SAO cross-reference list for the LX200 and N41 observing points Table: Cross-reference Bayer-Flamsteed-to-SAO for 1822 stars brighter than mag 5.5 visible above -40° dec http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/mansetcir/html/LX200SAO... This table (file: LX200SAOXRefTable.pdf) cross-references bright Flamsteed and Bayer stars by constellation to SAO numbers that are: 1) Are brighter than mag 5.5; and, 2) Are north of -38 North. The table is sorted by constellation. Therefore, if a bright Bayer or Flamsteed star in a constellation of interest can be seen, its SAO number can be quickly found, and then the telescope operator can use the SAO number to slew the scope to the bright star. For urban star parties, a smaller set of stars under mag 4.0 and 3.0, also included in the list, is more useful. The purpose of this table is to increase the pointing accuracy the GOTO star synch method. Most computer GOTO telescopes, unless perfectly aligned cannot accurately slew more than 30 degrees. At the light-polluted sites, success in finding faint DSOs is problematic for most irregular users given the small TFOV of many scopes like the f/10 LX200, e.g. about 1/3 degree at 25mm. By the synch method, the telescope is first slewed to a bright naked-eye star within 5 to 10 degrees of the target. Then handbox is synched to that bright star. Then the telescope is slewed to the DSO faint fuzzy target. Since the slew distance is small, usually the slew error is sufficiently small that the faint fuzzy DSO is within the eyepiece apparent field-of-view. Additional versions in csv and Excel 2003 format are available by linking off the main webpage url at http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/mansetcir/ManSettingCir... II. Caldwell-Messier Cross-Reference list to nearby bright synch stars with SAO numbers Table: Messier and Caldwell list slews from bright stars above -38° dec by Messier Caldwell number sorted by constellation http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/mansetcir/html/MessierC... This table is a re-sort of my March 2010 version. The original version was orderd by RA and DEC. This version is sorted by constellation which makes the table more useful on a given observing night by (file: "MessierCaldwellSlewsbyConstellation.pdf") stating cross-references between the DSO to the closet Bayer star and that Bayer's star SAO number. This table can be used with the synch method to resynch align GOTO scopes to a nearby star before slewing to a faint fuzzy DSO. The first table of bright-star-to-SAO cross-references was created using an amateur developed full cross reference table for the LX200 SAO star catalogue consisting of approximately 37,000 rows. (url: http://www.starxref.com/star_xref.htm ). This larger list was narrowed by magnitude and whether they were observable from Utah. Gatter's list is well-known and reputable in the amateur community, but I have spot checked 20 of the entries in my narrowed lists and they appear accurate. That yielded the table of 1822 stars (file: "LX200sAOXRefTable.xls"). Although the 1822 entries cover about 32 pages, a double-sided printed list would be 16 pages and would be a managable hard-copy when using a consumer grade GOTO scope. The second Caldwell-Messier SAO cross-reference list was originally developed by myself in 2007, when I initially based the cross-references on HD star numbers. In 2010, I updated the table to include SAO cross-references. Here, the table is resorted by constellation - a much more useful order for making star party presentations. Please email me with any corrections. Clear Skies - Kurt