[APBeta] Observation Sessions

Wed Jun 24 14:40:19 PDT 2009

Let just drop for this for now while I play some more.  Other than the
right-click Make Observation always being greyed out, you certainly have
enough on your plate.

I may of had some Operator Induced errors.  I swear the clock/calendar was
resetting to the current date/time each time I tried to add another
observations, but that doesn¹t appear to be the case today.  This makes it
much easier to just advance the minutes/hours and select OK.

I¹m wanting to add info from sessions over the last few years, and indeed
for some I have no time information.

If Paul Kemp can figure it out then certainly I can, even though I¹m not in
the Southern Hemisphere ;-)

Steve

On 6/24/09 3:18 PM, "Paul Rodman" <paul at ilanga.com> wrote:

> 
> On Jun 24, 2009, at 1:30 PM, Steve Barkes wrote:
> 
>>  Ok I¹ve played with this some more.  The Show Observation Database
>> functionality gives me what I would expect when looking at previous sessions.
>>  
>>  But adding an observation after the fact is still too cumbersome.  The
>> Calendar/Clock interface doesn¹t work well for entering items from several
>> weeks or months ago.
> 
> I guess I'll try this and see what my experience is. The problem with
> one-man-vs-one million-lines-of-code is that one never has any time/energy
> left for practising the art.
> 
>> Here are some ways it might could work:
>>  
>>  How about, from the Observation tab, if you right-click on an object in the
>> Object list you get a menu item like Add Observation to Session...  Clicking
>> this brings up a list of sessions which you can select form and populates the
>> time and general session info.
> 
> ...and would default to the last chosen session.
> 
> Are you suggesting here that all your observations for a given session have
> the same date/time? This is fine (until you want to recreate the conditions
> when the observation was made (e.g. altitude) that is).
> 
> I could represent the date/time with a graphic similar to the short-term
> visibility indicator. An option for selecting the time would be to click in
> that graphic.
> 
>> Or, allow a Fix Date to a Session Time..., so all new observations default to
>> the time of the desired session.
>>  
>>  Or... Add a + to the observations list in the Observation Database Window
>> that would close the Observation Database Window, update the general
>> observing session data, and allow you to click on an object from the Object
>> list to create a new observations.
> 
> These sound contrived.
> 
> I suspect what you're saying is you have a bunch of observations that were all
> made "on the night of dd mmm yyyy", without any time info.
> 
> Paul R.
> 
>> 
>>  On 6/22/09 7:52 AM, "Paul Rodman" <paul at ilanga.com> wrote:
>>  
>>  
>>> 
>>>  On Jun 17, 2009, at 9:14 AM, Steve Barkes wrote:
>>>  
>>>  
>>>>   Ok, I guess I¹m confused.  I¹m struggling to try and enter multiple
>>>> observations for a session that I had back in December of last year.
>>>>   
>>>>    If I right-click on an object from the observation tab, the Make
>>>> Observation option is always greyed out.  It works from the Objects tab.
>>>>  
>>> 
>>>  Sounds like a bug.
>>>  
>>>  
>>>> If I create an observation from the Observation menu, or by clicking + in
>>>> Observations list, I have no way to select what session to put the
>>>> observation in.  I can only select the ³Currently Open Session² which makes
>>>> no sense in that It always has the current date/time.  If the session is
>>>> currently open, I should be able to close it, or change to an existing
>>>> session.  The other options are  create a ³New Session² which I don¹t want
>>>> to do, and the ³Recent Sessions² is always blank and greyed out.  What
>>>> about a All Sessions in addition to Recent Sessions?
>>>>  
>>> 
>>>  Check the Observation preferences. At the top-left is the "New Observation
>>> Date/Time Source" option. I assume you have that set to "Computer". This
>>> setting assumes you are logging at the telescope and defaults the date/time
>>> to the current date/time. You probably want the "Ask user" setting, which
>>> will always ask for a date/time before deciding what session to add the
>>> observation to.
>>>  
>>>  
>>>> It appears the only way to move an observation into a particular session is
>>>> to edit the date and time of the observation.  Then I get an option to add
>>>> it to an older session.  But this is way too cumbersome, especially if I¹m
>>>> adding a dozen observations.
>>>>   
>>>>   Shouldn¹t there be a way to Set the current session, possibly to a
>>>> session date/time in the past, and then have all new observations go into
>>>> that session until I change it, or create a new one?
>>>>  
>>> 
>>>  See below - all you need to do is change the date/time and the session
>>> management is automatic.
>>>  
>>>  
>>>> Shouldn¹t I be able to see a list of all my sessions? And shouldn¹t it be
>>>> clear looking at the interface that the correct session has been selected?
>>>> How do I see a list of all objects associated with a particular session?
>>>>  
>>> 
>>>  There is no connection between an observation and a session. A session is
>>> defined as a start and end date/time, and an observation has a date/time. If
>>> the observation date time falls in the session date/time range it is assumed
>>> to be part of that session. It is done that way to make session management
>>> largely automatic.
>>>  
>>>  However, there are some problems in the current implementation, e.g you
>>> can't have overlapping sessions (e.g. multiple observers using the same
>>> installation of AP, or a single observer at multiple sites (e.g. multiple
>>> remote telescopes being used simultaneously). I'll be looking at fixing
>>> these problems.
>>>  
>>>  Paul R.
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> 
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>>>  
>>  
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