SkEye Pro 8.0 : custom catalog objects and pinned objects

[Harshad RJ]

Hi all,

In the last few weeks, I have been working on a major update to SkEye Pro, adding some (long due) features:

Custom Catalog

SkEye now has a custom catalog. The entries for the catalog can be imported from a CSV file specified by the user. Thanks to Durval for the idea!

The CSV file can be either on the phone local storage, or on cloud storage of your choice (Google Drive, for example).

Best of all, this is designed such that it doesn't require any extra permissions in the app!

Changes to the catalog can be simply made by editing the CSV file with your favourite text editor or spreadsheet app, and then the file can be reimported into the app.

Here is a sample file CSV file that you can use as a base to create your custom catalog.

Ability to Pin objects

SkEye has had support for Catalog Filters since a long time. The filters allow you to quickly narrow down the list of selected objects based on their size and surface brightness / magnitude.

However, objects that were not filterable (such as those which have no size or brightness specified in the catalogs) were left out from the selection. Also, if you wanted to temporarily include a particular object which was too small or too dim, you had to change the filter to include all objects that were equally small / dim.

But now, you can "pin" objects, which means they will be selected, irrespective of what the filter setting is. Moreover, you can quickly see the list of objects that are accepted / rejected by the fitler, or the list of unfilterable objects.

Beta Release

I am rolling out a beta release now. In the coming days, I will polish the release some more and update the guide. I will post an update here when that is done.

If you are on the SkEye Pro Beta channel, please try it and send me your feedback.

cheers,

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Harshad RJ

[Beverly Howard]

Thanks for the update.

fwiw (I am sure many others might have posted this to you) the file you linked to is not a CSV file.

The link in your email downloads an html file that does not load.  The gdrive file appears to be an excel file.

In any case, I converted the display to CSV data file (which is a pure text file with the fields separated with "commas", hence the "C" in "CSV")

Please let us know exactly what type of file will work with your new revision.

The converted CSV file is attached,

Thanks again for your great app.

Beverly Howard

(Did I send you a picture of the mount that I made to use your app as a finder for optical devices?)

[Beverly Howard]

My mistake... it looks like gmail elects to save the file link in your email as an html file.

When "downloaded" from gdrive, the file is in true CSV format.

Apologies,

Beverly Howard

[Harshad RJ]

I have pushed SkEye Pro 8.0.2 to the public channel. This version handles more variants of CSV files. For example, it supports quoted text.

Thanks to beta users for the feedback. Beverly, and others, sorry for the confusion. Yes, you need to click the link to open the GDrive page and then download the CSV file.

Aside, I am trying to create a short list of interesting objects which are not in the Messier / NGC / IC catalogs. I am using the SAC database as a starting point to get ideas. Examples of such objects would be the Horsehead nebula, or Abell 2151 (galaxy cluster in Hercules). Other ideas are welcome.

Will share the list as a CSV file once I have a good list going.

best,

Harshad

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Harshad RJ

[Brett Laniosh]

Is it possible to search for an object during the day, pin it so that it is added to a list of targets and then retrieve the list of targets at night?

I am thinking of a Target tab in objects.

[Beverly Howard]

Related to this request;

Since my phone's magnetic north sense is way off (up to 15 degrees,) during the recent convergence, I calibrated using the sun as my correction target during the middle of the day and it worked fine.

However, at sunset on the day before the closest convergent, I needed to re calibrate the correction and found that SkEye would not use the sun because it was at the horizon ...apparently the code assumes that it could not be used because it was not visible.

When that happened, half of the sun was still above the horizon, and even when it was below the horizon, the sun's position could still be accurately assumed.

I mention this because at that time of day, there was no other target visible to make the direction correction.  If possible, it would be helpful to leave targets that are 5-10 degrees below the horizon available to use for direction corrections.

Thanks again for a great app,

Beverly Howard

[Harshad RJ]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 12:04 AM Beverly Howard <B...@bevhoward.com> wrote:

I mention this because at that time of day, there was no other target visible to make the direction correction.  If possible, it would be helpful to leave targets that are 5-10 degrees below the horizon available to use for direction corrections.

Makes sense! It will be also useful for locating bright comets, at sunrise and sunset.

I have made the changes to show objects 1 degree below horizon. Beyond that, it might be confusing, with the current UI.

The changes should be available in the next release.

thanks,

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Harshad RJ

[Beverly Howard]

>> 1 degree below horizon <<

Thanks... with the sun 1 degree below horizon, isn't a significant part of it still visible?

>> Confusing <<

Possibly, but your interface makes it very clear where the horizon is located with respect to the object, and, even with the sun significantly below the horizon I have found that it is easy to approximate the sun's center location.

Thanks again,

Beverly

[Harshad RJ]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 7:47 PM Beverly Howard <B...@bevhoward.com> wrote:

>> 1 degree below horizon <<

Thanks... with the sun 1 degree below horizon, isn't a significant part of it still visible?

Earth's atmosphere does cause about 35 arc-minutes of deviation of apparent altitude from the actual altitude at the horizon. This 35 arc-minutes is the nominal value, but in some extreme cases of atmospheric conditions it might be higher.

Considering the nominal value, when the Sun's center is 1 degree below the horizon, in all likelihood, the Sun's disk, which is about 15' in radius, won't be visible.

But I should revisit this threshold of "1 degree below horizon" in the future. Perhaps when the list of alignment objects is more configurable by altitude, magnitude, etc.

best,

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Harshad RJ

[Harshad RJ]

Update:

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 8:14 PM Harshad RJ <harsh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Custom Catalog

SkEye now has a custom catalog. The entries for the catalog can be imported from a CSV file specified by the user.

Please note, there was a bug in the app when loading negative angles. The arc-minute or arc-second part for negative angles was being incorrectly parsed. For example, the declination angle of "-2 20" was being parsed as -1° 40' instead of -2° 20'

A new release (Pro 9.1.0) is rolling out with the fix. Please let me know if you have any questions and sorry for the inconvenience.

best,

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Harshad RJ

[Ray Andrews]

Thanks!

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