When I was 8 and my mother pointed to the three stars making the Belt of Orion I was hooked. I still am, with my telescopes and gear and also with the software I make.
astro now shows the deep sky. All 110 Messier objects and all 109 Caldwell objects, at their true size and tilt. The colour shows the type: galaxy, cluster, nebula.
/ goes to any of them. M31, NGC 7000, ring nebula.
My eyepieces on the sky
In Gear mode, pick a telescope and an eyepiece and press f. In the sky chart, v draws each pair as a circle the size of what it shows.
Four circles on M31. None of the combinations shows the whole galaxy. The 50mm in the Esprit comes closest.
The night
a adds the object under the crosshair to tonight’s plan. p shows when each target stands highest, and which pair frames it best.
At the eyepiece, o marks it seen, with a note. The night lands in a HyperList file.
Summary
Built with Claude. Positions and sizes from NASA and SIMBAD. Public Domain, like everything I make.
Link to this post: https://isene.org/2026/09/Deep-Sky.html