[APBeta] AP searches catalogs when an observation is added?

[Paul Rodman]

On Sep 8, 2010, at 7:52 PM, Sander Pool wrote:

> I just added an observation to an object that didn't have any yet. As soon as I dismiss the time dialog a window appears that says something like 'searching catalogs'. I've seen this before but this time it stayed up for at least 30 seconds. That seems long. Why does AP search catalogs when I add an observation? I have a fair number of catalogs but this is a pretty fast machine (i7-920) so I was surprised to see it busy for so long. Nothing seems broken but I'm letting you know in case this is bad.

What happens is that (since AstroPlanner manages a collection of independent catalogues) a search is done for any synonyms of the object you're observing. If the ID of the object is already in the synonym database, then all is OK. If it isn't then the catalogues are searched for that ID to find synonyms, those synonyms are then searched, etc. until a complete set is constructed. For an obscure or unique ID, this is pretty fast, but for a more common one the search might be quite extensive. e.g. M31. A search turns up a few synonyms, NGC, PGC, etc. In turn those are looked up, and it can take a little while.

I have a plan for the future that will do away with all this silliness and effectively build the synonym system into the catalogues themselves. However, it requires a whole new catalogue format and management system, which didn't make it into V2.

Paul R.