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I'm looking for a synonym for observee, i.e. something that is observed. The word observee doesn't seem be used much, so I would like to have a more common word if it exists.
I need to use it in a very abstract sense, so my example sentence doesn't get more concrete than this: "The observer watched the observee very closely."
You may be able to reuse some terminology from software world here.
There is a standard software design pattern called Observer and its terminology may help. Quoting wikipedia:
The observer pattern is a software design pattern in which an object, called the subject, maintains a list of its dependents, called observers, and notifies them automatically of any state changes, usually by calling one of their methods.
Also there is a Observable interface which may be implemented by observable objects. Quoting its description:
An observable object can have one or more observers.
[I know subject was a previous answer but I think this was too long as a comment.]
I think the suggestion of subject that was given to you in a comment is probably best, but you could also go with specimen.
Videndum is defined as "the thing which is to be seen" (here).
Observandum is defined as "a thing to be observed" (here).
If you want to stick to the strict Latin and need "the thing observed," or "the object of the observation," you might go with @TimLymington's suggestion in the comments below of observatum.
They are somewhat archaic but would work well in a technical or academic setting.
