[APBeta] # of Observations

[Paul Rodman]

On Sep 23, 2011, at 8:13 PM, Michael Rudy wrote:

> When I create a plan, I need to know if I have made an observation that night, and how many obs total made for that object. I need this because I always need to move to a particular part of the sky, then make obs of objects in that area.
> 
> Without knowing that I have made an obs that night, right there in front of me, now requires time consuming work flipping between the windows. V1 did the job for me.

A solution might be to make the entry in the Obs column bold and red (or somehow different) if an observation was made within the past n hours or days. This would require an update to the application.

Another solution would be to use a user-defined field that runs a small script that shows (say) the date/time of the most recent observation (or the text "OBSERVED!") if that observation is within the past n hours/days. This can be done now. I can assist.

> I have seen another software package that contains a column of best viewing time of an object on the list.

This is a very subjective (and somewhat non-trivial) thing to do, and depends on many factors (twilight, moon phase and position, height above the horizon). In the past I have challenged users to provide me with a recipe for doing this. I know other apps (I imagine you are referring to SkyTools) have this ability built in, but I also know that not everyone agrees with the "best observing time" produced by that app.

Again, a user-defined field script could be devised to do this, but it would be non-trivial. Using the Transit time is a good first step, but that ignores sky darkness and moon position.

Paul R.