Planning
Observations with SkyTools 3
The
Nightly Planner is where you plan a night's observations.
Choose an observing list then filter the list so that only those
targets best observed on that night with your telescope under your
observing conditions are displayed. The planner has
different modes of operation designed to fit the type of
observing you are planning to do (including imaging for the Pro
Edition).
Watch
a demonstration by the author
Up
to 40 customizable columns of data can displayed for the
observing list. Each list can be assigned a custom column
scheme tailored to fit. For instance, special double star
columns showing separation, visual splittability, etc., may be
enabled only for lists of double stars.
Uniquely
useful columns for visual observing include the optimum time to
observe, the estimated visual difficulty in the eyepiece, the
visual difficulty under best conditions (for comparison), and
the optimum eyepiece to use. Other columns indicate your
observing priority, whether or not the object has been observed
and a five-star rating. The little log icon next to M34
indicates a log entry; clicking it and takes you to the log
entries for the object.
Over
200 ready-made observing lists are available from our web
site. Browse and download them from directly from within
SkyTools. Observing lists can be shared with the SkyTools
community with optional notes, images, web links, logs, and
user-created objects attached. Or create your own lists
via the Nightly Observing List Generator, Database
Power Search, or Designation Search tools.
The
NightBar tells you at a glance most everything you need
to know. It displays the darkness of the sky vs. time on
the night selected. On this night the moon rises after 1
AM.
The
selected object is The Great Nebula in Orion, or M42 (highlighted
in the list blue). The altitude of M42 is drawn on the
NightBar as a red dashed line. The green horizontal line
represents the two airmass altitude, above which observations
should be made, if possible. From looking at the NightBar
we can see that M42 is on the rise after the end of evening
twilight and is best
observed around 20:30 (or 8:30 PM, the time format is
selectable). Moonlight ends the session at approximately
23:00 (11 PM). This is also indicated in
the observing list in the optimum observing window columns
(Begin, Optimum, End).
| The
Right-click menu takes you to many functions for
the selected object. From here you can quickly see
all the information related to the object, open a view in
the atlas, target a connected telescope, print a star
hopping chart, create a log entry, download a DSS image,
etc.
The magic of SkyTools is
that each of these tasks assumes as much as possible from
the context of the object on the planner. For
example, charts are automatically made for the selected
observing location, telescope, and optimum time, thus
eliminating the need to set each of these parameters when
you open a chart. This is why SkyTools opens with
the planner rather than with a chart (as with traditional
star charting software).
Keyboard shortcuts are
provided for each of the common tasks. |
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