Lately I've been really busy with school. One of the fun things we do is organize an Astronomy Club to run the observatory. So far we've been learning about the planets and our solar system during the day, and then having biweekly observatory sessions at night. Our last session on November 25th ended in... rain, so I'm looking forward to next week.

As prep for our observation nights, I prepare a little report that tells us what will be in the sky that night. To do that I use several online tools:

1. Calendar Date And Time To Julian Day And Sidereal Times (calculate where we'll be looking),
2. NASA - 12-Year Ephemeris (gives exact planetary positions),
3. Your Sky (sky map showing planets and stars), and
4. The Messier Objects (a list of interesting interesting celestial objects to target).

And then draw up a Word document with the full report.