Resources for Astronomy Log Writing & Note Taking

 

Resources for Astronomy Log Writing & Note Taking:

Some resources about visual astronomy and recording logs of your observations

There are lots of reasons to keep a log:
- gives you something to remember your nights by even after years.
- helps you find objects you might not remember how to find, if you found them before.
- if you spot a transient object, you can record and later identify it.
- if you find a new object you've never seen before, you can record its position and appearance and ID it on star charts.
- sketching in particular trains your brain to notice details you otherwise wouldn't.
- it's a way to easily share what you've done with others asynchronously.
- it's a good way to track your long term goals in astronomy
- it's a good long term project with a tangible result.
- it's just really fun, certainly more fun than the expensive, technical field of astrophotography.

The most important thing is that sketching improves your observing skills, even if it's bad art. I think every observer should keep a log, and I think people should take visual observing more seriously.

Sky At Night: How to Keep an Astronomy Log Book
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/how-keep-astronomy-log-book/

Uncle Rod's blog: Doin' it the Old Fashioned Way
http://uncle-rods.blogspot.com/2008/06/doin-it-old-fashioned-way.html
"[Visual sketches] don’t go near so far into the Great Out There, but they have one huge advantage over the latest mega pixel wonder: they don’t show how those ancient photons impacted a chunk of silicon, they show how they impacted my heart."

Roger Ivester: The Importance of Documenting Your Observations
https://rogerivester.com/category/the-importance-of-documenting-your-observations/

Sky & Telescope: Pleasures of Keeping an Astronomy Journal
https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/pleasures-of-keeping-an-astro-journal02182015/  

 

Gallery of some of my own sketches (with processing)

Color was added in processing^



 

Unprocessed photos of the pages in the notebooks:


 


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