[APBeta] Observation attempted but not found
Paul Rodman
paul at ilanga.com
Sun Jul 5 21:02:54 PDT 2009
On Jul 5, 2009, at 6:38 PM, Dan Kuchta wrote:
> As I'm using the observing sessions, I'm finding what seems to be a
> missing feature - the ability to mark something as "Not Found".
>
> Currently, if I look for an object but don't find it, I just don't
> enter an observation. But then there is no record that the
> observation was attempted and when I look at previous sessions and
> objects, it just appears to be an object that I never even tried to
> find - even if I actually did try several times. Spending time
> attempting to locate an object IS part of an observing session, but
> there is no way to record that for an object.
>
> I tried to create my own setting for this by making the lowest
> "Rating" popup setting be "Not Found". The problem then is that it
> shows up as being observed when it actually has not. In the object
> listing it may show several observations when none were actually made.
>
> I'd especially like to be able to look back at my observation
> history for an object and see which nights I found it which nights I
> didn't and compare that to the conditions for the different nights.
> That gives me the ability to understand the minimum conditions
> needed for that object to be observed from a particular location.
>
> You might consider putting a permanent (non editable) addition to
> the Rating popup with the label "Not Found" or perhaps a separate
> checkbox somewhere. The more difficult question is how to represent
> the not-found observations in the rest of the UI. They certainly
> should not show up as highlighted items when the user has selected
> highlight observed. Neither should they contribute to the
> observation count.
>
> But, in the Observations list in the lower left corner of the
> Observations pane, I think it would make sense for them to show up,
> but with some indication that they were not found - perhaps red text
> or an asterisk or maybe "NF" after the date/time. They should show
> up similarly in the Observation database.
>
> I haven't thought this completely through as to its UI implications,
> but I just wanted to toss it out there to see what you and others
> thought.
I will add a feature request for this, but I doubt it will make V2.0,
since it requires many tricky changes. In fact, I think there's
already a feature request for something like this. I'll check... Yup:
<http://www.astroplanner.net/reports/details/1700/1731.shtml>
However, you make some other good points, so I will file a separate
request.
What about a boolean observation user-defined field called "Not
found"? That will give you a checkbox. Unfortunately, it will be
logged as an observation, and won't be flagged in the list of
observations.
Paul R.
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