When I became reinterested in astronomy,  I realized that my Palm PDA would be very handy in identifying, organizing and listing the objects I observed.  The Palm OS program Star Pilot and the Pocket PC program PocketStars are great in locating and identifying objects, but I couldn't find anything for the Palm that would let me keep a record of what I had seen and help me organize my observations like a birding list does for birding enthusiasts.

I'm a lister, and already use Handyshopper on the Palm for many of my listing tasks, so I decided to create a Life List database for common astronomical objects.  I created a list from several life lists that I have seen in print, and tried to modify it to fit the format of Handyshopper.

The categories are broken down into asteroids, comets, constellations, M objects, meteor showers, misc., moon, notes, nova, planets, stars, and sun.
The "stores" are broken down into the four seasons, and the objects appear in the season that they are normally attributed to.

The format generally shows an object, a modifier (usually the constellation) , and a date that defaults to the date the object is checked off the list as complete.

The display has two sorts.  When in "ALL" the category displayed is sorted alphabetically.  When in "NEED" (which is best for checking off the objects) the category is sorted by the second field, usually the constellation.

As you check the objects off, it will strike through them and add the date completed.  There are many additional possibilities (such as adding notes to each item) that are functions of  Handyshopper.

If you haven't used Handyshopper, this may sound like a bunch of gobbledygook. But trust me, if you like listing, you going to love Handyshopper.

Handyshopper is FREEWARE and the home site is http://chrisant.home.comcast.net/  the YAHOO group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handyshopper/

Grab my Astronomy Life List database from  http://chuck.kichline.com/astrolifelist/HS2_Astronomy_life_list.PDB to use with Handyshopper

Let me know what you find and how it can be improved. 
I tested the database with Handyshopper for the Pocket PC, and it seems to be working fine (6/7/2005)
HandyShopper for the pocket PC  http://chrisant.home.comcast.net/hs3/hs3ppc.htm

Chuck Kichline