A slight change from a normal observing list format.

The following list is large. It contains 113 objects that belong to a strip of sky that contains the Virgo galaxy cluster, Coma Berenices galaxies down to Canes Venatici. The task of having to generate a list for this area of the sky has been difficult. All of the objects on the list will be within the observing limits of an 8 inch telescope. The sheer abundance of galaxies in this list is the challenge, not the difficulty factor. For those of you with larger scopes, the objects in this list present a challenge also. Many of the galaxies have good detail when a large aperture telescope is employed. Just see what subtle detail you can see in objects such as M61, M64 & NGC4565.

The list is in order of the most northern objects at the top and the most southern of the list at the bottom. The objects at the top spend not much time above the northern horizon, so I suggest that you attempt to observe these first.

The easier of the objects are in yellow, so that the binocular and small telescope users can sift the objects to go for the cream of the crop. These objects are from the Messier and Caldwell catalogs.

You'll do well to get through these objects in one month, but if good clear skies join us in May, you should be able to make good progress. Many of these objects, especially the members of the Virgo cluster will be up for months to come.

No southern hemisphere objects in this months list, the Southern hemisphere objects will return next month.

Good luck.

If you do not have charts, here is some links to public domain star charts produced by the The Mag-7 Star Atlas Project. The charts will be useful for most of the Easy List and some of the Medium List. More detailed charts like Uranometria will be required for the Hard List.

The Mag-7 Star Atlas -- capable of being printed at reasonable resolutions on the average home printer. The Mag-7 Star Atlas plots stars down to Magnitude 7.25, with double / multiple stars indicated by a thin horizontal bar. Plotted Deep Sky Objects include all objects on the Messier list, the RASC's finest NGC list, and the Herschell 400 list --- more than 550 DSO's in total.

Charts courtsey of Andrew L. Johnson and Cloudy Nights
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1052