When I first started thinking about how an observing team would work, I originally envisioned two people being necessary, with three being ideal. The thought was that one person would use the sight to locate the star as it crossed the meridian, a second would read the observation off the scale aloud, and a third would record it in a log book. If necessary the second person could do the writing.
This division of duties well matches an engraving Tycho had of his mural quadrant:
If we ignore the giant Tycho in the background as this is a heavily stylized image, we see the observer at far right sighting the star, one reading off the time, and a third recording the observation.
However, the past few days I’ve been working on a list of stars to observe and think it may be necessary for my purposes to have even more. Continue reading “Thoughts on an Observing Team”