Introduction

The purpose of the Observer's Challenge is to encourage the pursuit of visual observing. It's open to everyone who's interested, and if you're able to contribute notes and/or drawings, we’ll be happy to include them in our monthly summary. Visual astronomy depends on what's seen through the eyepiece. Not only does it satisfy an innate curiosity, but it allows the visual observer to discover the beauty and the wonderment of the night sky. Before photography, all observations depended on what astronomers saw in the eyepiece, and how they recorded their observations. This was done through notes and drawings, and that's the tradition we're stressing in the Observer's Challenge. And for folks with an interest in astrophotography, your digital images and notes are just as welcome. The hope is that you'll read through these reports and become inspired to take more time at the eyepiece, study each object, and look for those subtle details that you might never have noticed before.

Archived reports

In February 2009 Roger Ivester and Fred Rayworth issued the first Las Vegas Astronomical Society Observer's Challenge Report. However, in the recent years the name was changed to just "The Observer's Challenge Report."

The original report primarily promoted visual observing, but now offers amateurs the opportunity to share their observations and work, whether it's through visual observations, astrophotography, or pencil sketching.

In 2019 Fred Rayworth resigned from the report and Sue French, former editor at Sky & Telescope, became part of the administration.

Over the years reports include galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and multiple stars from observers throughout the globe.

June 2024 was the final report produced by Roger and Sue. The following link(s) will take you to the archived reports.

• Observer's Challenge 2024 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2023 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2022 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2021 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2020 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2019 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2018 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2017 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2016 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2015 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2014 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2013 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2012 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2011 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2010 reports
• Observer's Challenge 2009 reports