BAM600 - John Bambury's Southern Skies Observing List

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Hi all,

I have finally been able to get around to getting all of the corrections and revisions made to the list. I must apologise for the time it has taken but unfortunately my health needs to come first. I have been pretty ill the past 6 weeks, culminating in a rush trip to hospital last Tuesday at 4am. Hopefully the medics can isolate the problem, fix me and I can move forward from here.

I will be submitting a copy of the list to the Astronomical League for their consideration, for inclusion as one of their observing club lists. If they were to adopt it, the list could be used on a more formal basis by observers visiting the Southern Hemisphere and seeking a serious observing challenge.

The list is currently attached as an excel spreadsheet with targets sorted in Right Ascension (RA) order. You can re sort the list to suit your own observing goals.

Within the next couple of days I will modify and edit the list to produce an ascii file suitable for uploading as a user defined catalogue for Argo Navis.

I have removed the old file from the thread as it has a lot of superceeded data in it. If you have a copy of the old file you should probably delete it and start again with the new one. I would also like to thank Glen Cozens for helping me with one of the formulas in the spreadsheet.

Cheers,
John B

{EDIT BY ICEMAN}
This list and associated files have now been incorporate into the following article:
BAM600 - John Bambury's Southern Skies Observing List

Please use the article to download the files, as you can be sure it'll always be the latest version.

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by ausastronomer

Hi all,

I have removed the old file from the thread as it has a lot of superceeded data in it. If you have a copy of the old file you should probably delete it and start again with the new one.

Cheers,
John B

Unfortunately, I can't edit the old post and remove the old file because it is too old. Could a moderator please remove the old file and attach the new file to my first post in this thread.

Cheers,
John B

[erick (Eric)]

Many thanks John, for your efforts under difficulties. Eric

[Robh (Rob)]

Thanks John,

A real treasure trove of southern delights!
And a nice even 600 of them.

Wishing you good health, Rob.

[DavidTrap (David)]

Thanks John,

I hope the arrival of the modified list is a sign that you are improving.

Regards
David T

[coldspace]

Thanks for the list John,

This is very handy and I will try and track down all these objects over the next 12 months and will start in a few weeks once my observatory is complete and running. I have the right equipment to hunt down all these objects so this will be fun.

Same as doing a Messier marathon and ticking them off once done but now it will be known as the John marathon. Only difference its not a 400mtr race but a 42mile slog.
Well done on all the time involved in setting this up this is going to keep me busy for some time.
Your services to the astro community are top shelf.

Regards Matt.

[koputai (Jason)]

Love your work John!

Just a question if I may. In the 'Type' column I can see what most of them are, but there's a few abreviations I can't work out due to my lack of knowledge. Here's what I have:

Gal = Galaxy
Gal CL = Galaxy Cluster
GC = Globular Cluster
MS = Multiple Star
PN = Planetary Nebula
OC = Open Cluster
VS = Variable Star
SR = Supernova Remnant
Star = Star

DN = Diffuse Nebula ?
EG GC = Extra-Galactic Globular Cluster ?
BN = ?
CS = ?
EN = ?

Also, there are three constellation abreviations, AQL, AQR, and AQU which appear to be used across two constellations, Aquila and Aquarius.

Once again, thanks for your work, this is an excellent idea.

Regards,
Jason.

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by koputai

DN = Diffuse Nebula ?
EG GC = Extra-Galactic Globular Cluster ?
BN = ?
CS = ?
EN = ?

Hi Jason,

DN = Dark Nebula
EG GC = Extra Galactic Globular Cluster
BN = Bright Nebula
CS = Carbon Star
EN = Emission Nebula

Some of the references I sourced use the term bright nebula to cover both emission and reflection nebula. Where that was the case I stuck with the terms used in the reference material. In many cases the term Bright nebula has been attached to nebula complexes which contain both emission and reflection components. I thought about breaking this down an extra level but ultimately I decided it was a fair bit of extra work for zero gain.

Originally Posted by koputai

Also, there are three constellation abreviations, AQL, AQR, and AQU which appear to be used across two constellations, Aquila and Aquarius.

Once again, thanks for your work, this is an excellent idea.

Regards,
Jason.

There was actually one target in Aquila and one target in Aquarius that were given the wrong constellation abbreviation of AQU. That came about as a result of slipping fingers, a brain fart or tiredness; or a combination of all 3. In any case I have corrected both of those errors and Mike Salway will upload the revised file for me within the next few hours. Thanks for pointing that error out. If anyone else sees any other "glitches" could they please let me know.

Cheers,
John B

PS: Book posted today.

[astroron (Ron)]

Great Work John any news on the Argo Navis loadable file?
Cheers

[mdgodf (Mark)]

This is a great list John. Hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of creating an observing list for skytools for it. The attached file (Bambos.stx in the zip file) can be imported into skytools through the data manager. I've included an acknowlodgment to you in the obs list description.

I've also attached in the zip file the csv file I created to import the designation list into skytools in case it's helpfull to anyone else.

Though one issue I can't figure out is that 600 objects were imported but only 597 show For some reason even though there are 600 in the csv file and it imports completly only 597 display in skytools. Perhaps somone more familiar with skytools can figure that one out

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by mdgodf

Though one issue I can't figure out is that 600 objects were imported but only 597 show For some reason even though there are 600 in the csv file and it imports completly only 597 display in skytools. Perhaps somone more familiar with skytools can figure that one out

Hi Mark,

This happens when one or more of the data fields contains extraneous or missing characters. It drops them off the list. I am currently resolving this issue to create the Argo Navis User upload file. I will have it sorted in a day or two. When I have done this you need to use the revised list which will have all fields correct and your list will have all 600 targets in it.

Cheers,
John B

[mdgodf (Mark)]

Thanks John

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Hi all,

After significant difficulty we finally have the Argo Navis user defined catalogue available for download.

A big thanks to Gary Kopff from Wildcard for his programming work to get this observing list into Argo Navis format and ready for download.

Cheers,
John B

[erick (Eric)]

Fantastic! Downloading now!

Thanks John and Gary.

Just in time for new Moon weekend!

[astroron (Ron)]

Thanks John and Gary, mighty effort
Downloaded to file for future installation into ARGO data base

[pgc hunter]

Originally Posted by erick

Fantastic! Downloading now!

Thanks John and Gary.

Just in time for new Moon weekend!

That new moon weekend is looking like a massive load of crap!! As per usual here in Melbourne, Australia's own answer to the Shetlands, the Orkney's, to the Svalbards, to the bloody Bering Sea.

Only chance for clear skies in this icy cold cloudy abnomination of a climate is tuesday night.

I'm going to pull a sunset-sunrise session on Tuesday night, as I'm sure it'll be cloudy for the next several weeks in this pathetic climate.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by erick

Fantastic! Downloading now!

And uploaded into the Argo........ Huh?

........OK, purge everything from the User catalog and.....

.......upload into the Argo!

That's better. Got too enthusiastic there. A mixed Bambo's and my extract from the Messier list was a bit confusing

[mozzie (Peter)]

printed and placed the list in a folder went through the list for whats visable at the moment with my trees to the north i get to around +35deg so ill miss only a few from where my pod is set up opened the dome to cool everything down and off corse in comes the weather was very excited about starting the list well theres always tomorrow or the day after ill keep on posting with any progress
mozzie

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Looking forward to using this in the argo.
Thanks John.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

Yes, much appreciated