SkyandTelescope.com July 2014 41an utter makeover of my own southeastern Virginia
astronomy club created by a concentrated focus on these
observing programs. Once a few prominent members of
the Back Bay Amateur Astronomers started earning these
awards, with a suitable fuss and ceremony accompanying
their presentation, more and more members started to try
their hand at them. They became the hub of our observ-
ing sessions, and attendance at our monthly Skywatch
star parties spiked, as members were eager to work on
their awards. The best part was that new members —
novice observers — were getting out under the stars with
ambitions to fi nd and observe lists of objects and were
being given expert guidance by other members, who a
short time before had been novices themselves.
The motivational impact didn’t stop at just completing
existing programs. Creating a new program became a
stimulating club project. All of the Astronomical League
observing programs start as the brainchild of a League
member or member society. In my own case, it was disap-
pointment over not having a program dedicated to my
favorite type of object, planetary nebulae, that impelled
me to inquire of Bob Gent, then League president, why
there wasn’t a Planetary Nebula Program. His answer —
that it didn’t exist because I hadn’t created it yet — was
both a revelation and a challenge. After that challenge
was relayed to my astronomy club, we were able to moti-vate a considerable portion of our membership toward
building the observing program. Each observing program
in the League’s repertoire, no doubt, has a similar story.
Whereas most of these observing programs require
that you be a member of the Astronomical League to earn
an award, the Herschel 400 Program is an exception. So
if you’re not currently a member of the League, you can
start there. The idea for a Herschel program was inspired
by a letter written to Sky & Telescope by the prolifi c astron-
omy writer James Mullaney. He suggested that the objects
in Sir William Herschel’s original catalog would provide
a challenging and worthy observing project. Members of
the Ancient City Astronomers in St. Augustine, Florida,
agreed. They selected what they considered to be the 400
best objects out of Herschel’s 2,500-object catalog to cre-
ate the program that has become a traditional “next step”
after the Messier list.
I opened this commentary with a question, asking if
you ever experience that bit of trepidation at the start of
your observing sessions — that nagging remorse that a
clear night might not be put to its best use for want of an
exciting observing plan. I think that beginners and
experts alike can fi nd inspiration and a renewed
sense of purpose in these observing programs.
More important, you just might fi nd that they’re a
lot of fun. ✦Contributing editor Ted Forte works on completing
observing programs from his backyard observatory
near Sierra Vista, Arizona. He is the coordinator of the
Astronomical League’s Planetary Nebula Program.Most of the A.L. programs have canned target lists, but
some, such as the Comet Observers and Asteroid programs,
encourage you to select your own targets.The Analemma Program requires you to observe the Sun’s posi-
tion at the same time of day over the course of a year, and use
the information to calculate various orbital data. But you’re not
required to capture each of the Sun’s positions on a single piece
of fi lm, as in this image by S&T senior editor Dennis di Cicco.S&T:SEAN WALKERNGC 4565 is the brightest and best-known of the 200+
galaxies in the challenging Flat Galaxies Program.
KEN CRAWFORD
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