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Author SHA1 Message Date
6993f35cfc Southern targets guide: objects invisible from the UK
Adds TARGETS.md, a target guide for the southern iTelescope sites (Siding
Spring Q62, Deep Sky Chile X07) built around UK visibility: from lat 51.5°N
anything below dec -38° never rises and dec -25° to -38° culminates under
~15° altitude. Targets are tiered accordingly (never visible vs hopeless),
grouped by region (Magellanic Clouds, Carina/Crux, Centaurus, Ara/Scorpius
tail, far-southern galaxies, SNR/planetaries), and each is matched to the
best scope from TELESCOPES.md with the field-of-view reasoning in the notes.

Includes a seasonal booking calendar (evening sky by quarter from the
southern sites, with the Q62 30-35° minimum-elevation caveat), a suggested
first campaign for July-August (free T33 globulars, T71 narrowband on Ara/
Scorpius, T73 on NGC 6744, then T8 on the Magellanic Clouds in Oct-Nov),
and cost-shape notes (fast scopes for nebulae, dark-of-moon for LRGB).

README links the new guide; state/TODO.md records the addition.
2026-07-18 20:58:45 +01:00
6555e774d9 Telescope review: all 23 active iTelescope systems
Adds TELESCOPES.md, a per-observatory review of every telescope on the
iTelescope.net network with a spec block and an assessment for each, a
'choosing a telescope' use-case table, and general observations (CCD to CMOS
migration, Bin2 software limits, elevation limits, network-side calibration).

Data sourcing:
- data/itelescope-telescopes.csv is a verbatim CSV export of iTelescope's
  maintained specs Google Sheet (24 rows: 23 active scopes + T74 placeholder).
- The support article (Freshdesk 247371) supplied observatory groupings and
  minimum elevation limits; it still lists T9/T19/T31/T69 which the sheet has
  dropped - the review follows the sheet and records the discrepancy.
- go.itelescope.net is an authenticated app shell; nothing was scraped from it.

Also fills in the remaining state/ files: TODO (pending: T74 specs, retired
scope reconciliation, periodic sheet refresh), DECISIONS (source-of-truth
choice, single-document structure, no launchpad scraping), NOTES (refresh
command, CSV quirks), ARCHITECTURE (repo layout), and README.
2026-07-17 14:20:49 +01:00