Sorry to join late - I didn't see your comments and Rich's reply until this morning. I figure if I "observe" two or three new objects a session, that's plenty. I always have my favorites and others I may have forgotten about. I "observe" without putting things in writing - recording observations feels too much like work. Howver, even if I did write down everything and keep a written log, I would still limit an observing list to no more than five. (I remember reading this advice from an experienced observer in S&T years ago.) For me the important thing is to enjoy. If you miss one or two things on your observing list, they'll always be there again next time around. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Gibson [mailto:xajax99@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 3:31 PM To: Visit http://www.utahastronomy.com for the photo gallery. Subject: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party. According to my log book, I attended my first private star party on May 30th 2003 at the Gravel Pit. Up to that point (which included all my experience from November through May) I had gone out by myself or with my son. I found out that planning ahead was useful and more productive than not plannig. I went to the Gravel Pit star party with a plan and imagined doing like I had always done. Generally I always like to take the Sky & Telescopes centerfold and I like to be able to identify a few new constellations each time and re-acquaint myself with ones I had learned before. Then I like to use a Telrad to locate objects that I have found before and add a few new ones each time out. I also like to write things down in my log book as a learning aid. When I got to the Gravel Pit I set up and began to follow my plan and by 9:53 I found M3. My log ends there because before I got very far into my plan Don Colton found the some really cool object that I had never seen and wasn't in my plan for the night so I had to run over to his scope and check it out. After observing the object for a minute I noted the Telrad position and then ran back to my scope to find the same object. Then Kim Hyatt found an ooh - aah and I had to go check it out, noting the position as well, then Rich Tenney found NGC 4565 in his beautiful 16" scope, then Mike, Tom and Dave all found neat stuff and round and round I went all night long. My plan and my log went down with the sun and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. But I'm not sure if I learned anything. To plan or not to plan that is the question. How do you plan for a star party when complete lack of discipline possesses your mind such as described above? I think I need to attend lots of them. Jim _____ Do you Yahoo!? The <http://shopping.yahoo.com/?__yltc=s%3A150000443%2Cd%3A22708228%2Cslk%3Atext %2Csec%3Amail> New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search