Sat, 10/15/2022 - 14:26
As a AAVSO somewhat newbie I have what may be an obvious question to those with more experience. How do you decide what to observe? Not so much, what category of objects as once you've decided what general category you want to participate in how do you decide where you should spend your time and resources?
That's a tough question! It is very personal in nature.
If you're looking to do visual observation, then once you decide what category of objects interest you figure out which meet your magnitude and location requirements (maybe you're in far north and get down to scorpius, etc).
If you wish to do photometry with digital sensor(s): you need to inventory your present capabilities and figure out what added stuff you need to achieve your goals.
In general, I'd the mount is EVERYTHING. A good stable mount for your OTA/imager is a must. Next comes OTA then sensor. And as part of sensor, if CCD/CMOS sensor, what filters you need/want.
AAVSO has a guide for CCD/CMOS imaging and a guide for DSLR imaging.
If imaging, you will need to consider analysis S/W. AAVSO has VPhot available online for members which does stacking and analysis. But 1st images need to be calibrated, which can be done with off the shelf S/W like DSS.
AAVSO does have "mentors" available to help get you up to speed, and/or you are free to ask questions here. Cloudy Nights also has a "Scientific Amateur Astronomy" forum that may be helpful.
Peter