'Observation Manager'

While surfing various astronomy sites I came across 'Observation Manager', a German-made observing notes software. I've downloaded it as it looks interesting.
It is a nice, easy-to-use clean interface and you can enter information easily. The lack of a 'Help' menu is irritating, but the program is so easy to use that it doesn't really matter -anyway it was free so I can't really complain about anything I suppose!
To enter an observation, select 'Create Observation' and then fill in the necessary details of location, scope, etc. To add notes, click on 'Deepsky Finding Details'.
Another slight irritation is that the utterly pointless and waste-of-time 'Caldwell Catalogue' is in there and is the default option, rather than the RNGC (the RNGC is in there of course, but the list follows alphabetical order so Caldwell pops up first).
If you neglect to enter an observer or any other piece of data then the program will not let you proceed further, so you have to - annoyingly - scrap the observation, enter the required data in 'Create New...' and start again.

It's not a bad little bit of freeware though, but I'll stick with - mostly - my Deepsky program I bought at TSP a couple of weeks (a couple of weeks??!!) ago.

Some observations from TSP

Here are some observations from TSP. Of course, I did sketches too, but these aren't scanned in yet. The observations here were put together using the Deepsky software I bought at TSP. The software is good, once you have sussed out how to use it, and I like the Logbook feature (used to make the observation notes below).
You can upload your observations to a blog but this is the downside - you have to have an account with Astronomy Blogs. That's no problem because it's free and it doesn't take long to sign up but I use Blogspot (Blogger) and want to continue to use Blogspot for my blog. So, a choice would be nice. Besides Astronomy Blogs has problems - missing pages, 'funny' dates (my uploaded observations came out dated 12/31/1969 which is a month before I was born - WTF??!) and doesn't seem to be very active and I don't see it lasting. Still, I can cut and paste my observations from there to here or my main site if I want to.

Object: NGC 6572 - Emerald Nebula, PK 34+11.1
Deepsky Catalog: NGC 2000
Date Observed: 13/06/2008 19:45:28
Object RA: 18h 12.10533m
Object Declination: 6d 51.2155'
Object Type: PlnNeb
Constellation: Oph
Magnitude: 9
Size: 0.1
Locate Method: Star Hopping
Observing Location: Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, TX, USA
Primary Equipment Used: 36" Dobsonian
Power/Magnification Used: 232x
Transparency/Seeing: Deepsky Extremely Clear / Deepsky Mostly Stable
Detailed Observing Notes: Bright blue PN with a dense bright centre (central star?), surrounded by fainter halo. Beautiful object.

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Object: NGC 4216

Deepsky Catalog: NGC 2000

Date Observed: 13/06/2008 19:39:47

Object RA: 12h 15.90433m

Object Declination: 13d 8.985'

Object Type: Gx

Constellation: Vir

Magnitude: 10

Size: 8.3

Locate Method: Star Hopping

Observing Location: Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, TX, USA

Primary Equipment Used: 36" Dobsonian

Power/Magnification Used: 232x

Transparency/Seeing: Deepsky Extremely Clear / Deepsky Mostly Stable

Detailed Observing Notes: A superb view with the 36". 4216 is very large, very bright and elongated, with a bright compact core.

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Object: NGC 4206

Deepsky Catalog: NGC 2000

Date Observed: 13/06/2008 19:20:47

Time Observed: 23:00Local

Object RA: 12h 15.27917m Object Declination: 13d 1.438333'

Object Type: Gx

Constellation: Vir

Magnitude: 12.1

Size: 5.2

Locate Method: Star Hopping

Observing Location: Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, TX, USA

Primary Equipment Used: 36inch Dobsonian

Transparency/Seeing: Deepsky Extremely Clear / Deepsky Mostly Stable

Detailed Observing Notes: NGC 4206 is an elongated edge-on galaxy. It is in the same f.o.v. as NGC 4216 through the 36" at 232x, but is smaller, fainter and lacks a bright core.

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Object: NGC 3190 group/Hickson 44

Deepsky Catalog: Hickson Catalog of Compact Groups of Galaxies

Date Observed: 03/06/2008 20:13:47

Locate Method: Star Hopping

Observing Location: Prude Ranch, Fort Davis, TX, USA

Primary Equipment Used: 36" Dobsonian

Power/Magnification Used: 232x

Transparency/Seeing: Deepsky Extremely Clear/Deepsky Mostly Stable

Detailed Observing Notes: A nice group of galaxies. NGC 3190 is the brightest member with a prominent dust lane and its elongated.

NGC 3187 is faint, round and evenly bright

NGC 3185 has a slight brightening towards the centre.

NGC 3193 is round with a dense core and a fuzzy halo.