What's Happening at Knightware

Binocular Observing Poll

2012-01-22T08:50:00.004-05:00

For several months the Observers' Poll on knightware.biz has been about binocular observing. The question and results are:

Do you observe with binoculars?

Never: 14%
Occasionally: 48%
Frequently: 37%

The 14% that never observe with binoculars is a little surprising. My first attempt at observing was done with binoculars. I laid on the lawn in the summer of 1969 and aimed the family binoculars at the moon where Apollo 11 was convincing me that some form of science would be my avocation. That childhood dream led to a career in software development in engineering and scientific disciplines, and of course, amateur astronomy.

For many years binoculars have been my tool of choice for observing bright comets and open clusters. I have also learned some really neat applications.

My friend Tom Lorenzin showed me some beautiful sights many years ago at the Winter Star Party using his 8x50 binos with UHC filters in each eyepiece. I particularly remember viewing the planetary nebula Jones 1 on that occasion.

My friend Tatsuo Saitoh from Japan shared his 10x70 Fujinon binoculars with me to observe Comet Hyakutake. That observation was a game changer, and I saved for a pair of 16x70 Fujinons myself.

Binoculars are sometimes the only portable solution for observing. When there was not room for a telescope on a family vacation, I often packed my 16x70s and my T&T mount. Most of my binocular work has been done on these trips. I learned that observing the summer Milky Way from mountain campsites is a terrific way to observe.

To you 14%, I highly recommend giving binoculars a try. If you image, binocular observing while running exposures gives you something fun to do.

To the rest of you, I point you to the growing list of observing plans specifically for binocular observing in the Deep-Sky Planner Community's Plan Library. Plans for Phil Harrington's monthly 'Binocular Universe' articles are there. I am also working on providing plans that accompany his outstanding book, 'Touring the Universe Through Binoculars'.

Jan 2012 Binocular Universe Observing Plan

Two Great Gift Suggestions for Astronomers

2011-11-29T16:02:00.004-05:00

Great gift #1: Deep-Sky Wonders by Sue French

I recently picked up a copy of Sue French's new book, Deep-Sky Wonders, and it has more than exceeded my expectations for an observing guide.

The book is a beautiful hardback production with high quality paper. All of that is justified as the pages are full of Sue's experienced narrative, sky charts that illustrate the positions of the objects, and color photos by some of the world's most renowned astro-imagers. The variety of objects is rich and the artistry is enticing.

There is more to this suggestion than just the book though. Plan files are being completed now for use with Deep-Sky Planner that go along with the book. These plans contain essential information for hundreds of objects mentioned in the book, along with page reference numbers from the book. Together, the book and the plans equip Deep-Sky Planner users to work through observing and logging many of the finest observing targets in the night sky.

This project would not have been possible without the help of Sue French and Deep-Sky Planner user John Sillasen. Thank you both for your gracious help.

Great Gift # 2: SkySafari 3

I recently got a copy of SkySafari 3 for Mac OS X to test importing of plans produced by Deep-Sky Planner. DSP's plan files can be converted to the observing list format needed by SkySafari.

Testing went well on the Macbook running Mac OS X, but what really got my attention was playing with SkySafari on a smartphone. The import feature isn't ready yet for smartphones, but the application itself is amazing! I don't feel that the small device platform will completely supplant use of planetarium apps on a desktop or laptop, but it is a useful aid for observers on the go.

Southern Stars says they will have SkySafari out for Android ASAP, perhaps by the end of December. You couldn't go wrong giving this app to an astronomer that uses a smartphone or tablet.

Announcing Deep-Sky Planner 5.1

2011-10-24T12:44:00.002-04:00

An important free update is available now for owners of Deep-Sky Planner 5. This update introduces the plan document which brings together several of the planning features already found in Deep-Sky Planner, while adding some new ones. This release is the culmination of two major compiler upgrades and 18 months of development and testing effort.

Ease of use continues to be the guiding factor for the user interface. Plans can be built using the familiar drag and drop paradigm, i.e., from a catalog search report to a plan report. Plan report content and screen layout are entirely configurable, accommodating even a small netbook screen. In fact, this release was beta tested on netbook computers. Accuracy and speed guide the underlying processing of plans, even in real-time at the telescope.

Deep-Sky Planner 5.1 ships with several sample plans. Others are available by download from the deepskyplanner Yahoo group. Only licensed owners of Deep-Sky Planner 5 may join the deepskyplanner Yahoo group. Licensed owners are also encouraged to contribute plans for other users to download.

DSP5.1 Update - Coming Soon!

2011-10-13T06:41:00.004-04:00

Testing has gone very well, and we are now working with a release candidate. Test team members are using the release candidate to create observing lists both for personal use during the fall observing season and for sharing with other DSP users. Look for these observing lists to be distributed through the deepskyplanner Yahoo Group until a web application can be built to manage them.

A separate tool (Plan Converter) has been built that converts a DSP observing list file to an Argo Navis User Catalog file which can be uploaded to the Argo Navis using Argonaut. This tool will be available through the Deep-Sky Planner Community on the Knightware website. Knightware thanks Wildcard Innovations for their kind support while building this tool.

A preview video has been posted on the Knightware YouTube channel that demonstrates plan building and use while observing. It's short but highlights the new plan document features.

Finally, an official release date can be revealed - the final week of October. We are aiming for October 25. This will be a free update (download) for owners of Deep-Sky Planner 5. If you don't already have DSP5, you can get it by digital delivery (or on CD) from the Knightware website.

DSP5.1 Update - Beta 4 is Underway

2011-09-21T10:02:00.003-04:00

Beta #4 is a feature-complete build of this free update to version 5. We are now working through testing and documentation (oh, joy). After a bit more testing we should know more about a release date. October looks like a very busy month for Knightware...

A lot of updates have happened across the astronomy software community since Deep-Sky Planner v5.0.3 was released in May. The latest versions of these partners' products have been verified against Deep-Sky Planner 5.1.0:

ASCOM 6
Cartes du Ciel v3.4.1
Redshift 7 SP1
Starry Night Pro Plus v6.4.3
TheSkyX v10.1.11
OpenAstronomyLog 2.1

Teaser: Testers are enjoying the latest plan-building feature added in beta 4. A user can drag and drop items from any Deep-Sky Planner report onto a plan. A preview video is the best way to demonstrate this, so we'll try to get one published in October.

DSP5.1 Update - Beta 3 still under test

2011-09-06T08:14:00.006-04:00

Beta 3 is going well. With one usability issue being addressed and two final feature additions pending, this week should end with a fairly solid build, Beta #4. Testers are currently using Beta #3 to develop plans that can be shared with other users once version 5.1 is released. More on this soon.

Deep-Sky Planner plans can be used in some interesting new ways (screenshots below):

Plans are being converted (using a temporary tool) into Argo Navis User catalog files and uploaded via Argonaut. Knightware thanks Wildcard Innovations for their kind assistance while developing support for the Argo Navis.
Plans are being exported to HTML and viewed on an Android tablet browser.
Plans are being printed to PDF format and being shared with non-DSP users. They have also been loaded and viewed on a Kindle.

A Plan in Deep-Sky Planner

The same plan converted to PDF (shown in Acrobat Reader) and HTML (shown in Internet Explorer)

DSP5.1 Update - Third beta released for field testing

2011-08-23T09:11:00.004-04:00

The third beta build is in the hands of a small number of testers now. The number of bugs reported so far is at a comfortably low level. The next beta release (#4) should contain the final feature additions for version 5.1. Early results from that release will give good visibility for a release date. Please stay tuned.

Feature creep for version 5.1 will include support for an imminent update to OpenAstronomyLog (version 2.1). I also hope there will be some announcements soon about other developers adopting OAL support for their products. I've heard from two that are working on it presently.

Logging integration in the new plan document

PS: The Aug 23 earthquake was felt at the Knightware office. Monitors and lamps shook, but no damage. It's been a weird summer...

DSP5.1 Update - First beta complete, second beta begins

2011-08-08T08:51:00.003-04:00

Results of the first beta test period of Deep-Sky Planner 5.1 have been very useful, particularly comments on usability. One issue was highlighted for inclusion in this release rather than being deferred to a later one. Accuracy and stability look good so far.

A second beta is out now and is still focused on usability, stability and accuracy. At present, 3 more beta test releases are planned for an expanding number of testers.

DSP5.1 Update - First beta released to field testing

2011-07-29T16:17:00.004-04:00

Comments have begun coming in from the first beta test version of DSP5.1 that was released to field testing by a small number of testers. We are looking at stability across the entire product, and usability & accuracy in the new plan document, especially in real-time plan processing (see below).

Results of the early beta testing process should give more clarity on a release date - please stay posted.

A plan running in real-time (automatically updating every minute)

DSP5.1 Update - Object Designation Improvements

2011-07-19T08:32:00.005-04:00

A catalog designation for a celestial object enumerates a single object, at least within the context of the catalog. The problem that arises is this: what is obviously 'NGC 100' to one person may be NGC100 or n100 to someone else. The IAU has a rule for this, but that doesn't change common use among the astronomy community. What to do?

Introducing the new object designation pattern matching engine. The engine is being added to Deep-Sky Planner to help change user-entered object designations into the format expected by Deep-Sky Planner. The engine is also being used to develop some sample plan documents that will be included in the 5.1 update. The engine is in final testing now.

To give an idea of how the engine will be presented, the screenshot below shows the new plan document editor which is used to add a celestial object to a plan. In the screenshot, the designation 'n100' is entered.

'Blank' Plan Editor

The second screenshot shows the result of a Lookup - what the engine found in the database and transferred to the editor form.

Plan Editor - NGC 100 found & retrieved from the database

Deep-Sky Planner 5.1 Update - Accuracy of Positions

2011-07-11T07:23:00.004-04:00

Existing documents in Deep-Sky Planner provide accurate reference data taken from catalogs, or computed for solar system objects - asteroids, comets, planets, sun & moon. The accuracy of these data are documented in the appendix of the online help file. Last summer I did some remote imaging using an observatory operated by the University of North Carolina in Chile. During this experience, I needed higher precision positional information to accommodate the imaging system, so I have brought this capability into Deep-Sky Planner via the new plan document.

The plan document still allows users to enter reference data (e.g., positional data referred to epoch J2000.0) and display it. It can also display (topocentric) apparent position data if preferred. Apparent positions are precessed to the epoch of date and include effects of nutation, aberration and parallax (topocentric) as applicable to the type of object. The higher precision calculations should be helpful to users who are using high precision, accurately aligned mounts (particularly those doing remote imaging).

A plan showing apparent positions for the selected date & time

Deep-Sky Planner 5.1 Update - Preview

2011-06-30T08:50:00.003-04:00

The first major update (v5.1.0.0) to Deep-Sky Planner 5 has taken longer to develop than anticipated, but hopefully the changes will be worth the wait. More will appear in this blog over the coming weeks about what to expect in the updated version when it is released. As usual, a 'point release' update like this one will be provided at no charge to owners of the major version being updated (in this case version 5). For the record, the update is not feature complete, but it is in early field testing.

Why so long?

First, the code base has been migrated through two compiler upgrades. The compiler upgrades included support for Unicode which affected all text strings in the program. That one alone took all of last summer. On the positive side, some nice new tools and features came along with the upgrades. For example, a new Regular Expressions library allows greater flexibility in looking up an object designation in the database. A user can enter 'n7000' and get a proper match for NGC 7000. This designation finder isn't a mind-reader, but it allows much more flexibility in user input.

Second, there have been some changes in the office. Thanks to my son, we've built two new computers this spring to serve development and testing needs. Getting these ready for prime time has taken a little time but the productivity improvements have already begun.

What is in the update?

This question will be answered more thoroughly in the coming weeks, but the biggest change will be the new plan document. Generally speaking, the plan document can contain a mixture of objects from any source. Object information in a plan can be entered manually or looked up in the database and transferred automatically. Once a plan is composed, it can be run while observing so that ephemeral data is refreshed automatically. This is an extensive change and will be the subject of future posts.

Summer Double Stars Plan

Astrophotography Poll Results

2011-05-08T10:11:00.005-04:00

A poll has been open for several months on the Knightware website that asks the simple question:

Do you do astronomical imaging?

The results are:

No, never: 21%

Yes, mostly webcam: 7%

Yes, mostly DSLR: 42%

Yes, mostly dedicated CCD: 28%

Yes, film camera: 0%

It is surprising to me that DSLR usage came in first. It is a very accessible imaging device and this must account for its top ranking. Dedicated CCD is the most popular device among my own astro-imaging friends, but obviously not among astro-imagers in general.

The last place finisher is film camera. That is really no surprise. My Nikon FM2 hasn't been used for years on anything, much less astrophotography. I keep it for archival black & white work - just in case.

I expected higher usage of webcams. Most of my imaging friends don't do much webcam work, but I have seen some outstanding results from the few that do. Based on the views we are having of Saturn lately, maybe the webcams need to come out and play!

Cover Shot and Story in Mar/April ATT Magazine

2011-04-11T08:25:00.005-04:00

Last year I ordered a new Dobsonian telescope from Rob Teeter (Teeter's Telescopes) in New Jersey. I met Rob at NEAF 2010 and asked enough questions to be satisfied that he could build what I wanted.

The telescope, a 14.5" f/4.5, was delivered on schedule in October. After testing it for several weeks at my light polluted home (~18.3 mpsas) and at a darker site (19.3 mpsas), I was impressed that most everything I evaluated met or surpassed expectations. Since I documented my findings as I tested, I realized that I could write an article and share my findings. I approached Astronomy Technology Today magazine and they were indeed interested, so I submitted the article with photos and waited to hear about a publication date.

The Publisher of ATT notified me that the article would appear in the March/April issue but I didn't know it would be the cover story. When the digital edition of this issue was released the first week of April, friends notified me of the cover. (I am still waiting to receive a hard copy by mail.) What a pleasant surprise!

I am delighted to share my assessment of the quality and detail that Teeter builds into his products with others who are shopping for a truss Dob. I also look forward to writing an evaluation of the optic provided by Waite Research. I can say now that qualitatively it is a very good mirror, but I have not quantified its figure. The seeing in North Carolina over the winter is not good enough to do critical star testing so I am waiting for a night with excellent seeing. I also plan to bench test the mirror with both a Ronchi grating and a Foucault tester.

To Rob Teeter, thanks for building such a fine instrument. I look forward to pushing it to its limits!

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Update Status

2011-02-13T07:44:00.002-05:00

The first major update to Deep-Sky Planner 5 is well under way. It was scheduled to be released at the end of March 2011 but will slip into Q2. This will be a major (but free) update to Deep-Sky Planner 5 not only because of features that are being added, but because the code base has been migrated through 2 major compiler upgrades. Because of the compiler upgrades this update will undergo more extensive beta testing than might otherwise be necessary.

The primary feature that is implemented and headed for field test is a new plan document/report. This will allow you to use the reference data that you see in Deep-Sky, Star, Asteroid/Comet/Planet Ephemeris reports in a single document. You will also be able to add objects to a plan document that are not in the Deep-Sky Planner database. This new document will bring other new capabilities such as automatic refresh of report data as you observe and DSS image retrieval and local storage. Other capabilities are planned but are not yet implemented. These plan documents are designed for easy online sharing and conversion from other formats.

Please stay tuned for more information as work progresses on this important update.

Astronomical Sketching

2011-01-19T07:06:00.005-05:00

A poll has been running on the Knightware website for several months that poses this question: Do you sketch observations?

The response looks like this:

Never: 42%
Seldom: 23%
Sometimes: 28%
Frequently: 4%

While the low number for frequent sketchers isn't surprising, the large number that sketch at all (55%) is.

Sketching seems like a dying art. Before the advent of photography in the 1830s, sketching was the best way to convey one's impression from the eyepiece to other people. Today's digital imaging may have displaced more sketching than any other factor.

Be that as it may, sketching is still an important skill for the astronomical observer for these reasons:

1. Sketching forces the observer to look for more detail so that it can be included in the sketch. With limited experience, this is my most compelling reason to pick up the pencil from time to time.

2. Sketches endure. Printed photographs fade over time, though archival storage helps. Black and white prints are less susceptible to fading than color prints or slides. Digital photographs may have storage problems too, but there isn't enough historical evidence to know for sure. Historians are concerned about the durability of digital photos stored on magnetic media because they definitely have a shelf life. CD-R storage is possibly the least durable medium, and many of us use them. Another concern is that digital images require software to be decoded and displayed. We all know that software and file formats change over time.

If you'd like to know more about astronomical sketches, why not check out Carol Lakomiak's monthly column in Sky At Night magazine? Each month she chooses an object and describes the materials and techniques required to produce a nice sketch.

Addendum - I received this note from Carol Lakomiak following the original post ...

You don't need to be an artist to make eyepiece sketches, just learn and practice a few simple techniques. I'm self-taught and have never had any art lessons. My techniques were learned through trial-and-error... if i can do this, anyone can.
Eyepiece sketches are your observations, not works of art. There's no need to reproduce them in a photo program to make them pretty.. that's what we call 'astro art'. Just concentrate on recording your observations as accurately as possible, and your skill will increase with time.

Thanks Carol, and good luck to all with sketching!

Deep-Sky Planner 3: The Move to 32-bit Windows

2011-01-09T12:03:00.005-05:00

In the mid to late-90s, a lot of 16-bit applications were available to run on the new 32-bit OSes, Windows 95 and NT 4, but not so many 32-bit ones. Deep-Sky Planner 3 moved to 32 bits, taking advantage of new facilities in Windows and making full use of the wider address space. Moving to 32-bit OS was not very difficult, but following the new Windows Logo requirements proved to be a lot of work. The Logo requirements provided the formula for developing a compliant application, thereby assuring users of a consistent 'user experience'. What that really meant was that a user should know what to expect in terms of an application's user interface and its interaction with Windows. To an application developer, that was supposed to mean fewer support questions and happier customers. This tenet still guides user interface and system design in Deep-Sky Planner today.

Deep-Sky Planner 3 Running on Windows XP

With a larger address space available the database expanded to include variable stars, double stars and quasars. The number of objects in the database grew to 5 times its previous number to 155,582 objects. Several report sorting and filtering options were added to accommodate the new stellar catalogs, and a 'best time to observe' sort option was added that put objects in the best observing order based on one's time and place. This became a nice feature for planning a Messier Marathon or a short observing session for any particular night. Font and color selections in the application made reports customizable in appearance while retaining their memory-efficient nature. The context sensitive help system moved to WinHelp 4 - a significant improvement that required a lot of work.

This release was developed primarily with Borland C++ 5.0 and the Object Windows Library (OWL). A few utilities were developed in the new C++ Builder 1.0. This brief experience with C++ Builder demonstrated a great increase in productivity for this developer. It was obvious that the way forward for Deep-Sky Planner would include a move to C++ Builder.

Deep-Sky Planner 3 CD & Case

The production cycle for Deep-Sky Planner 3 was really quick. The contract was signed in June 1998 and it was released on CD-ROM the following month. Advertisements began in Sky & Telescope in October 1998. Despite a large investment in development tools, the price held steady at $49.95.

Deep-Sky Planner 2: The Move to Windows

2011-01-01T18:09:00.009-05:00

Fortunately Deep-Sky Planner 1 was successful enough to warrant a version 2. In the mid-1990s, DOS was losing market share rapidly to Windows 3.1 and Deep-Sky Planner needed to make the move. I stayed with Borland tools for the move, adopting Borland C++ 4 and the Object Windows Library (OWL) for the user interface. OWL was well designed and was similar to Microsoft's MFC in its role for developers. Other new technologies adopted at the time included WinHelp for the online help system and InstallShield for the setup program. (I have long held the belief that installation programs are almost as difficult to develop and test as many applications. Installshield helped, but not much!)

Borland C++ 4 occupied 22 diskettes!

Learning the Windows 16-bit API was the major learning experience for this release. I was not an early adopter of Windows - in fact, I did most of the development for version 2 on OS/2 running Windows 3.1 in a virtual DOS machine. It seemed more stable to me than developing under Windows 3.1 but it really taxed my PS/2 model 70 computer at the time. By the end of the development cycle, I moved to a Pentium machine running Windows.

Original product case & diskette 1 (of 2).

Memory and disk space were still critical design constraints for 16-bit Windows. Version 2 required an 80286 CPU or above, 8 MB of memory and a whopping 3.3 MB of hard disk space. My, times have changed!

Version 2 gained planet ephemeris and events calculations that users had requested. It contained the same 31,418 deep-sky objects as version 1 and nearly the same sorting and filtering options, just presented in Windows. The program took on the usual Windows behaviors: context sensitive help via F1, the familiar main application menu structure (File, Options, Window, Help), multiple report window management (cascade, tile, etc), and customizable toolbars. By making a search query and the resulting report take on the role of a 'document', it was reasonable to make functions like File|Save and File|Print do what a user might expect with a report. This interface design took some time to evolve. It occurred to me while taking my daughter for a morning walk in the stroller - she's in college now.

Version 2 went much more smoothly on the production side. I began a long working relationship with Rick Fienberg at Sky Publishing in 1995, and he was a true pleasure to work with. The first evaluation diskettes went to Sky in July of 1995. The contract was signed in November 1996 and the copyrights registered in December. The first advertisement appeared in the January 1997 issue of Sky & Telescope. Other venerable software titles appeared in ads of that issue, including TheSky v4, Redshift v2, Voyager v2 and Guide v5. Deep-Sky Planner 2.0 shipped on 2 diskettes and went for $49.95.

Deep-Sky Planner 2 running on Windows XP

By March of 1997, I created web content for the product. I wanted to be able to distribute product updates through the web, and Sky accommodated that by providing space on the skypub.com site - another first for the author of a product published by Sky.

There were eventually 2 'bug fix' updates to version 2, so the web page idea worked out well. Version 1 never needed any bug fixes, but Windows was a different beast.

Next time I'll move on to version 3 and the promise of 32-bit Windows, more catalog data and more new features.

Software Archaeology: Deep-Sky Planner 1

2010-12-26T09:55:00.018-05:00

2011 marks twenty years of development on Deep-Sky Planner. Digging through my files has brought back some memories and some amusing facts ...

The story begins in 1987 when I got a copy of Borland's Turbo C for DOS to do some contract work. I also had the RNGC catalog so I massaged the catalog data with Turbo C for my own needs. This was hobby computing aimed at finding new things to observe with my Celestron-8.

Original Turbo C 1.0 and NGC2000.0 diskettes

In 1989, Sky Publishing released NGC 2000.0 on diskette. That quickly displaced RNGC for my growing needs - feeding a new 20 inch telescope. At the same time, I began working on a menuing system in DOS with Turbo C. It was a really simple system but it was much better than the command line programs that were the interface du jour.

In early 1991, I got Turbo C++ to learn the C++ language. I had evaluated Zortech C++ but found Turbo C++ to be easier, cheaper and sufficient for my needs. In the summer of 1991, I began working on the code that has become Deep-Sky Planner. I redesigned the menuing system that had originated in DOS and I began to design a data access system in C++ that was small and fast. By December I got a copy of Jean Meeus' Astronomical Algorithms and the C language library that came with it. These acquisitions allowed me to start adapting the Astronomical Algorithms library to C++ with speed of execution being the primary goal.

Borland C++ was released in 1992 with TurboVision, a DOS based library that provided a solid graphical user interface. My experience with developing commercial end-user applications highlighted the necessity of providing a user interface that users could understand. When I adapted my code to use TurboVision, I knew that my project might be commercially viable so I sent a written proposal to Sky Publishing. By August of that year, Sky had responded with interest so I sent the first evaluation version of Deep-Sky Planner to them on 2 diskettes.

By January of 1993, I received a publishing contract which was signed, sealed and delivered by February. There were many months of delays during acceptance testing and copy editing (of the manual) before the product was ready. There were some personnel changes at Sky during this time, and it was the first shrink-wrapped software product published by them.

Original product case & diskette 1 (of 2).

I had an interesting note from Sky's Books & Products Manager in January 1994 telling me to change the title to include a hyphen. That's why it's Deep-Sky Planner not Deep Sky Planner. Other corrections made during the copy editing process were helpful, but the hyphen one has always set this title apart from others. I still don't think 'deep sky' is wrong, but I'm not a professional copy editor either.

As part of the publishing process, Sky sent a marketing survey to me to help them understand how to market the product. One question asked about any competing products in the marketplace. I responded "I know of no other product that offers only textual output. Most are planetarium programs that also provide limited databases and limited reporting capabilities." I went on to mention TheSky for DOS (Software Bisque) $129, MegaStar (Emil Bonnano) $139, Deep Space 3-D for DOS (David Chandler Co.) $79 + $65 database upgrade. As far as I know, Deep-Sky Planner was the first commercially available observation planning product, debuting at $34.95.

Deep-Sky Planner 1 running on Windows XP

Deep-Sky Planner 1 was officially released on April 1, 1994 and the first advertisement appeared in the March 1994 issue of Sky & Telescope. It was speedy and compact, and it contained a lot of deep-sky objects (31,418) for the day. It didn't include any planet ephemeris computations which became the most-requested feature from users. Amazingly, it still runs under Windows XP.

Next time I'll look at version 2, an adventure into 16-bit Windows.

Version 5 update well underway

2010-11-04T15:52:00.005-04:00

I had an opportunity to participate in a panel discussion about planning visual and imaging observing sessions at an astronomy club meeting last spring. Interestingly, half of the panelists plan carefully for both long term (months or years) and short term (tonight). Personally, I fall into the former group. The other half of the panelists relied on last minute preparation or lists created by others.

The panel and the audience agreed that most observers prowl magazines, books and the Internet for visual and imaging targets. Creating and sharing observing lists is possible with Deep-Sky Planner, but there has been a more elegant solution on the drawing board for quite some time. In fact, the prototyping of the solution was done 3 years ago - summer of 2007. Requirements have been gathered and refined in the interim through various means.

I read a lot of astronomy related material from books, magazines, professional journals and online articles. I also get a lot of ideas from users. (Did you notice I was taking notes while we talked at NEAF/PATS/star parties?) I am primarily a deep-sky observer, but I experimented with remote imaging over the summer. That experience moved some planning requirements from 'maybe' to 'must have'.

These new planning features (requirements) are beginning to take shape now in the form of coding. Two compiler upgrades this year have slowed coding, but it is progressing now at full speed. From an engineering perspective, the new features will benefit from new instrumentation capabilities in the newest compiler. That should translate into better quality and performance once the features reach users. From a user standpoint, the new features will come as a free update to version 5.

Please stay tuned for more information as work progresses. More details will become available as version 5.1 enters beta testing in Q1 2011.

PS - If you use Cartes du Ciel 3.2, there is a minor bug in the interface that Deep-Sky Planner 5 uses. The bug is already fixed in the development version of Cartes du Ciel, but a hotfix is available for Deep-Sky Planner 5 in case you prefer to stick with the officially released CdC v3.2. Deep-Sky Planner users can log in to the Community page and download the hotfix.

Fall observing returns!

2010-10-06T06:57:00.004-04:00

The fall brings decent observing conditions back to North Carolina. Gone are the hazy, humid skies of summer.

Jupiter has been bright and stunning in the evening sky. Early morning has featured Orion in the south - a sure sign that transparent Winter observing will return soon.

The moon never fails to impress. This photo of the moon was taken on 6 October about 32 hours before new moon - a very old moon indeed. The bright earth shine in the morning twilight have a way of kick-starting the day. So much for the diversion. Now it's back to work!

Deep-Sky Planner Featured by Embarcadero

2010-09-02T12:15:00.003-04:00

Deep-Sky Planner has always been developed in C++, most recently in C++ Builder from Embarcadero. C++ Builder is an excellent rapid application development solution for creating rich GUI Windows applications. C++ Builder is one of the development languages included in Embarcadero's RAD Studio, along with C, Delphi and PHP.

Each year, the new version of the development system is introduced worldwide at "Launch Events", where Embarcadero promotes the newest features in RAD Studio. This year's Launch Events highlight Deep-Sky Planner as a success story produced with C++ Builder. It's an honor to be recognized in this way among software professionals worldwide. If you are a developer of Rich GUI applications for Windows, you might want to have a look at RAD Studio XE.

The Great Unicode Migration

2010-08-02T09:04:00.004-04:00

The last 2 months have been spent migrating program code for a compiler upgrade. It has been tedious work, affecting over 900 source files in Deep-Sky Planner alone. The bulk of the migration changes has been related to supporting Unicode. Unicode accommodates characters in most any language. System testing of the changes is in progress.

While the migration has seemed like non-productive work, it will permit Deep-Sky Planner and SQM Reader Pro to take advantage of new technologies that are supported in the new compiler. These technologies will be used to develop some exciting new features and to satisfy some user-requested ones - more on this later. These features will appear in a free update (v 5.1) to Deep-Sky Planner 5 that is scheduled for release in Q1 2011.

In the meantime, some minor issues surfaced in Deep-Sky Planner v 5.0.1 during the migration. Code reviews have a way of doing that. These issues will be fixed in a minor update (v 5.0.2) to be released soon - in Q3 or early Q4 2010.

Darkness Poll Closed - Results Are In!

2010-07-02T07:15:00.003-04:00

The final results are in on the question How do you rate sky darkness?

19% don't rate darkness at all.
12% use the Bortle scale (read about this scale here).
48% estimate the naked-eye limiting magnitude (NELM).
19% use equipment that detects darkness in magnitude per square arcsec.

Sky darkness is a key component in planning visual and imaging observations. It is also an important statistic to include in logging observations. The 19% that don't bother to rate darkness could benefit from using one of the other scales.

Rating sky conditions could (should) be a matter of habit when setting up for a night's observing (or when imaging remotely). Including this metric in visual or imaging logs can help to identify conditions that work for you. If you aren't rating darkness, give it a try!

How do you rate darkness?

2010-06-10T06:59:00.003-04:00

A poll has been running on the Deep-Sky Planner web page for several weeks that asks the simple question 'What scale do you use to rate sky darkness?'

The results as of now are a bit illuminating (pardon the pun).

20% don't bother with rating darkness at all. Observers really should rate darkness somehow.
12% use the Bortle scale. It is a very coarse scale but it is easy to use.
45% use NELM - the naked eye limiting stellar magnitude at the zenith. This is an easy test to conduct during observing but is subject to one's visual acuity and experience. It is a finer measure than Bortle, but subjective.
20% use magnitude per square arcsecond. This is very likely to be measured by equipment such as a Sky Quality Meter. It is easy to acquire this value during observing but only if you have the equipment. It is also a very objective measurement so it is the most precise measure of darkness, but it does require an investment.
0% just make up a number on their own scale. This is a surprise because observers often say something like 'darkness was 8 out of 10'. Maybe the poll is missing respondents on this question.

If you'd like to participate in this non-scientific poll, visit http://knightware.biz/dsp/ and look in the left column for the Observer's Poll. Please vote only once.

Importing Planet Events into Google Calendar

2010-05-17T09:35:00.005-04:00

Deep-Sky Planner 5 can produce reports in various file formats. HTML is popular for users that have a website for their planning information or observing log. Text and CSV are popular for moving data into spreadsheets, but another use popped up recently that I'd like to share.

I wanted to plan some summer camping trips around new moon dates. Since I use Google Calendar, I looked into the possibility of importing moon phase information generated in Deep-Sky Planner's Planet Events report into my Google Calendar. Since Google publishes the import file format, it was easy to convert the CSV format file produced by Deep-Sky Planner into the CSV file format required by Google Calendar. The script could also be used to produce a file with the dates of eclipses, the dates of opposition, greatest elongations, etc.

I wrote a simple script that performs the conversion. I use Python for most scripting tasks like this, so I have made the script available on the Files section of the Deep-Sky Planner Yahoo group. The script is written for Python 2.6 and can be run from a command prompt. If you use Python, that would be something like:

python EventToGoogleCalendar.py

The script prompts you for input and output files. Once you've converted the file, you need to log into your Google Calendar and import the file.

If you prefer a different script language, you can use the Python script as an example in writing your own script. Of course, the idea of sharing planet event information with a personal calendar is applicable to other calendar services. The key is having a calendar service that has import capability and publishes import file format.

Use Deep-Sky Planner 5 with TheSkyX Pro

2010-05-02T08:02:00.004-04:00

Deep-Sky Planner 5 has been updated to support TheSkyX Professional edition. Deep-Sky Planner 5 now provides smart interoperation through its Show Chart feature with these planetarium software products:

TheSkyX Professional edition
TheSky6 Professional and Serious Astronomer editions
Starry Night 6 Enthusiast, Pro and Pro Plus editions
Redshift 7 Premium, Advanced and Compact editions
Redshift 6 Premium edition
Cartes du Ciel 3

Users of TheSkyX Pro must have version 10.1.6 or later to use this feature. Users of Starry Night must have version 6.3.8 or later to use this feature.

Northeast Astronomy Forum 2010 Redux

2010-04-20T13:02:00.006-04:00

NEAF was quite busy this year. Attendance seemed larger, and there was a healthy interest in astronomical software. It was great seeing previous customers again while meeting some new ones. It may take the voice and feet a while to recover!

Answering questions for an interested customer

NEAF was more than a trade show this year. Knightware also hosted a technical meeting about OpenAstronomyLog for interested astronomy software developers on Friday during vendor setup. The purpose of the meeting was to help developers add support for OpenAstronomyLog (OAL) to their products. We discussed the technical and business merits of the OAL project, talked about support resources that are available, and explored some ideas that may make supporting OAL easier. Several other developers expressed interest in the project but were unable to attend the show.

Developers of Redshift and TheSkyX participated in the OAL meeting.

Knightware greatly enjoyed taking part in this year's NEAF and we look forward to it again next year.

TheSkyX Revealed

2010-04-17T06:56:00.002-04:00

Software Bisque has confirmed that TheSkyX Pro will be released today at NEAF. This release contains the interface that Deep-Sky Planner needs to support its Show Chart interoperation feature with TheSkyX.

Knightware is currently testing support for TheSkyX in Deep-Sky Planner 5. Support for TheSkyX is planned for the first minor update to Deep-Sky Planner 5 (v5.0.1) which will be released in a few weeks.

If you'd like to see Deep-Sky Planner 5 working with TheSkyX, please drop by our booth for a demonstration - we're right beside the Software Bisque booth.

Heading to NEAF (April 17-18)

2010-04-11T07:31:00.003-04:00

Knightware will be packing up and heading for the Northeast Astronomy Forum and Telescope Show (NEAF) later this week in New York. NEAF is an exciting time for attendees and vendors - there's so much happening. If you are going to attend NEAF, please stop by the Knightware booth (#343) and say hello. It is always fun to meet users who are otherwise known only via e-mail.

We'll answer your questions about our software products, Deep-Sky Planner 5 and SQM Reader Pro. Both products will be available for you to try on our demo computer, and both will be available for purchase at a special price at the show.

Please tune in to this blog for updates as the weekend unfolds. We plan to provide some photos and commentary about the goings-on.

Starry Night 6.3.8 update affects Deep-Sky Planner 5

2010-04-02T17:56:00.002-04:00

Good news! Simulation Curriculum has released an update to Starry Night 6 that fixes a problem with changing field of view from the Show Charts feature in Deep-Sky Planner 5.

The update from v 6.3.3 to 6.3.8 is available using the Starry Night update service. You should follow their procedure for applying updates.

You may also need to update your Deep-Sky Planner 5 plug-in for Starry Night if you haven't done so since version 5 was releasd. Click Help | Community Page(online) inside Deep-Sky Planner 5. This should open your web browser and log you into the DSP community page. Next, click the hyperlink 'download the updated plug-in' towards the bottom of the web page to start the download. Once you have downloaded the plug-in and saved the file to your hard disk, copy it to your Starry Night installation. On most systems, you would be replacing the file at C:\Program Files\Starry Night Pro Plus 6\Sky Data\Plug-ins\DsSN50.plug

Also, if you are using Deep-Sky Planner 5 with Starry Night on Windows 7 or Vista, you will probably need to run both programs 'As Administrator'.

The updated plug-in will be released in the first bug-fixing update, v 5.0.1. Hopefully that will be released by late April.

Windows 7 64-bit Checks Out Ok

2010-03-02T07:34:00.006-05:00

More in-depth testing of Deep-Sky Planner 5 has now been completed with a 64-bit version of Windows 7 (Home Premium edition). Testing was conducted with UAC enabled, and no problems were detected with Deep-Sky Planner 5. Since more and more customers are upgrading to Windows 7 or buying new computers with Windows 7, the test results for the features that seem most prone to compatibility problems are described below.

Windows 7 Upgrade advisor states that a computer should have 2 GB of RAM or more to run the 64 bit version of Windows 7. These tests were completed with 1.5 GB of RAM.

Telescope Control

ASCOM v5.0a was installed. The installation process reported errors registering the Simulator.RotatorSimulator object. Since Deep-Sky Planner 5 does not use this object, the error was ignored. All slewing and syncing operations worked correctly with the Simulator driver. That indicates that Deep-Sky Planner is compatibile with ASCOM. Any particular driver may have its own problems.

Star Chart Interoperation

TheSky6 Serious Astronomer edition - worked with no problems.
Redshift 7 Premium edition - worked with no problems.
Cartes du Ciel 3 - worked with no problems.
Starry Night 6 Enthusiast edition.

The plug-in for Deep-Sky Planner 5 requires an update. This can be downloaded from the Deep-Sky Planner Community page (Licensed users only).

Starry Night requires an update to support changing the Field of View when you do Show Chart in Deep-Sky Planner. If the Field of View is not changed, Show Chart works correctly. Simulation Curriculum advises that this update is forthcoming and will be v 6.3.8.

Both Starry Night and Deep-Sky Planner must be 'Run as Administrator'.

Version 6.0.0.0 worked but the OpenGL service could not start. Video was low-resolution.

Version 6.3.3 worked but the driver for the test computer's NVidia GEForce 6800 graphics card had to be updated. Starry Night loaded and displayed part of its main window and then stopped with an AppCrash message before the driver update. Note that Windows 7 was installed on this computer within the last week and the graphics card driver still needed to be updated. Java 6 update 18 (for 32-bit browser) and QuickTime v 7.6.5 were installed.

Important: Simulation Curriculum frequently advises users to update graphics card drivers. Take heed - this advice can save time and trouble.

Version 6.3.6 - have not tried.

XML processing

Many of Deep-Sky Planner's data files are stored in XML format. No problems were detected with the XML parser or XML transform processor under Windows 7.

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Is Shipping

2010-01-28T07:52:00.002-05:00

I was talking recently to the CEO of a company that sells critical power systems. He asked 'why is software never on time? Why do engineers always want to add another feature?' I responded that feature creep isn't instigated exclusively in engineering. We went way down the rabbit hole from there...

After two and a half years of development which was preceded by quite a bit of requirements gathering, DSP5 is shipping - in January 2010 as advertised. I like punctual, but I realize releases don't always go as planned. I've been involved with software projects that were late and some that never shipped. Those were unpleasant episodes.

Hard to do
I've corresponded with some other developers of astronomical software on various issues, and it's pretty clear that releasing software on schedule is pretty hard to do. Part of the reason is feature creep, but there are other reasons beyond developers' control: changes in operating environments (e.g. Windows), advances in hardware and the complexity of the application itself all conspire against the calendar. Fortunately Microsoft did a much better job with compatibility in Windows 7 than in Vista. Testing with different hardware is getting formidable - there are 32 and 64 bit computers in different configurations. Heck, the office is overflowing with computers and astronomy gear. As for the complexity of the application, all programmers use that excuse, right? Maybe so, but I'm always assessing different methodologies to help manage the complexity. Parts of Agile Development look promising. The idea is to develop and release smaller increments of functionality. The desired end is to release feature updates to version 5 on a 6 to 9 month cycle. Bug fixes remain highest priority, with these updates released ASAP. We'll see how it goes.

So version 5 is ready. As I review the features that have been requested, I'm pleased with the number that are implemented now. Others need to be implemented after other pieces are in place, but they are on the development plan. I guess I'm guilty of the engineering mentality that my CEO friend talked about: there are lots of features and enhancements on the drawing board.

Windows 7 and UAC - Can Do

2010-01-17T06:29:00.005-05:00

Windows Vista has been quite the adventure for Windows users and software developers. Years of experience with previous versions of Windows taught us a set of rules that changed with Vista, attributable to improved security. This author's experience indicates that Windows 7 has retained the new rules introduced with Vista while improving the 'user experience'. Stated plainly, I like Windows 7 a lot better than Vista.

Pain Free UAC
Deep-Sky Planner 5 is designed to 'play nicely' with the new security scheme that appeared in Vista and continues with 7: it can run from either an administrative or standard user account with User Account Control turned on. Three features require administrative privileges to run:
choosing the ASCOM driver for your telescope, setting system time using a time service or a telescope mount, and using Starry Night with Deep-Sky Planner. I can understand why the Starry Night plug-in or setting system time should be limited to administrators, and the ASCOM driver chooser is not actually a part of Deep-Sky Planner. Other than these situations, UAC stays happy.

Multiple Install Modes
Deep-Sky Planner 5 supports 2 installation modes: one for all users and one for individual user(s). In all users mode, one copy of the program and data files is shared by each user of the computer. In individual user mode, a copy of the program and data files is accessible to each user account for which it is installed. This means that account(s) do not share code or data - a private copy belongs to each installation.

Individual mode is good for most users. It is essential if you need separate files for multiple users. Separate files includes the database where observations, equipment definitions and locations are stored. This option can be maintained (patched) by the individual user without the need for an administrator to apply the patch.

All Users mode is ok for most users too. The program can be run from any account on the computer, but the files are shared. Any maintenance (patching) must be done by an administrator.

The bottom line is pretty simple
Microsoft is taking steps to diminish security problems in Windows, and software developers need to follow the recommendations to make the end user's product work within the new guidelines. Deep-Sky Planner 5 is ready for these changes and it gives you several options for using the product securely with the latest version of Windows.

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Preview: Star Charting

2009-12-27T09:39:00.002-05:00

The star charting feature has been enhanced to include new features and inter-operation with a new planetarium program: Cartes du Ciel 3. Support for Redshift 6/7, Starry Night 5+, TheSky6 and Cartes du Ciel 2.76 has been continued. When Software Bisque releases TheSkyX Pro for Windows, adding support for TheSkyX in Deep-Sky Planner 5 will become a very high priority.

The Show Chart command that is accessed by right-clicking on any celestial object in any report allows you to send a 'Center On' request to any supported planetarium program. With Deep-Sky Planner 5, this request can include a change in the field of view displayed by the planeterium program when it centers on an object. Most of the planetarium programs supported by Deep-Sky Planner 5 also support this feature.

There are several options that determine how the field of view is changed. First, you might select a fixed field of view. This is convenient for matching a finderscope field of view or just personal preference. If you are used to a printed atlas that presents the sky in a certain size, this option can accomplish this.

Another option allows you to adjust the field of view based on the size of the object you have selected. Most planetarium programs adjust the amount of detail shown as the field of view changes. If you select a small object in Deep-Sky Planner 5, the planetarium program may need to show a very small field of view to display the object at all. You might also like to see the surrounding context of an object, so you could choose a scaling factor that changes the field of view to a multiple of the object size.

The final option permits you to adjust the field of view based on the equipment that you are using for viewing or imaging. You can choose a multiplier that is applied to the field of view for the optical system you have selected in the Equipment Bar. Visual observers might use this to starhop to a target or help identify an object in a crowded field. An imaging observer might use this to frame the context of an image.

Another enhancement allows you to minimize Deep-Sky Planner 5 when you select Show Chart if you wish. If your planetarium program is the next program window on the Windows desktop, it is exposed when Deep-Sky Planner is minimized. This option effectively allows you to switch to the planetarium view instantly.

These two enhancements used together can make your favorite planetarium program display a celestial object centered in an intelligently sized field of view with just one click or key press.

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Preview: Have It Your Way

2009-12-15T06:57:00.005-05:00

Some of the most obvious changes in Deep- Sky Planner 5 (DSP5) are enhancements to the user interface. New display capabilities give you more control over what data appears in your reports and how it is displayed. This is a big deal to a lot of users, so DSP5 gives more flexibility than ever before, and the enhancements are compliant with Windows guidelines so that learning to use the product doesn't involve a steep learning curve.

Deep-Sky Planner has long given users the ability to format quantities like date and time to your liking. This capability is still present. DSP5 adds the ability to control which columns of data are displayed and in what order. Data in any column (or columns) can also be sorted in either ascending or descending order. Each of these report configuration options is saved so that once you have a type of report configured just right, it stays that way. The screenshot below shows the column customization dialog used to hide, show and re-order columns.

Even the appearance of reports has gotten a boost. The new stylesheet technology in DSP5 allows you to choose a color and font scheme for reports that suits your needs. Stylesheets are included in backup and restore operations so your stylesheets can be synchronized among computers.

The Observation Browser, as well as all of the equipment and observer browsers, now have the ability to generate reports in a format specified by XML stylesheets (XSLT.) These reports can be viewed and printed. The product ships with default XML stylesheets, but you can create and use your own. The example below shows a report of Cameras using the default XML stylesheet. With knowledge of XSLT, you can eliminate data or change the formatting to suit your needs.

Since these XML stylesheets are simply files, they can be exchanged by users. More on this capability later.

Please stay tuned for the next article in this series. It will discuss enhancements to the sky charting feature.

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Preview: Backup and Restore

2009-12-06T08:44:00.004-05:00

Deep-Sky Planner 5 includes a backup and restore feature to help users with synchronizing installations and with archiving data. A backup occupies one file so it is easy to transfer an entire archive via local network, USB flash drive or similar.

The Problem
Deep-Sky Planner 5 adds many more program customization options to the large number present in previous versions. Synchronizing these options between computers has become more than a trivial task. In addition, version 5 adds many more details to the observing log as discussed in last week's blog post. Entering equipment details consistently on multiple computers is difficult for users with a variety of gear. Finally, archiving and synchronizing your valuable observations is critical. All of these concerns have been addressed by a comprehensive new backup and restore facility.

The Solution
The new backup feature can make a safe offline copy of various program settings, equipment details and observations in a single file. As usual, this feature is customizable by the user - you can backup selected portions of the data, or all of it, to a single archive file as shown below.

The Restore feature can read a backup file and allows you to select any portion of the archived data to restore to another Deep-Sky Planner 5 installation. The screenshot below shows the results of restoring the backup file created above

Keeping your observing log safe and portable has never been easier.

Next week's blog will discuss enhancements to the user interface.

New Support for Sky Quality Meter with USB

2009-12-03T17:17:00.003-05:00

Unihedron released this week a new Sky Quality Meter with a USB port - the SQM-LU. The new connectivity option provides a convenient way for visual and imaging observers to collect darkness readings automatically.

Knightware also released updates for both SQM Reader (free) and SQM Reader Pro (commercial). The updates allow owners of the new USB model the same functionality that has been available to owners of the older Ethernet model - the SQM-LE.

The new version of SQM Reader is available now from the Knightware website. SQM Reader Pro is also available on the website and the update is free to licensed owners.

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Preview: Logging Features

2009-11-30T08:48:00.012-05:00

The new observer's log has occupied a large portion of research and development time for Deep-Sky Planner 5 (DSP5.) It has been updated to contain many more data items and expanded reporting features. New items have been identified through user requests and through months of research into observation data. Although many items can be recorded with an observation, all are not required so the user can determine which items to log. Some fairly advanced uses of these data will appear in DSP5. Convenience and flexibility in reporting have also been a focal point for the log.

For example, imagers have the ability to view equipment and exposure data taken directly from their image files and record them in the log. Another new capability allows users to access online resources directly from the log. Perhaps the most advanced new feature is the ability to record sky and weather conditions in extreme detail with observations. Users can access web resources and local ones to access these conditions.

The following screen shots show some of the new features in the Observation Browser.

DSP5 introduces support for all models of the Sky Quality Meter. Readings can be entered into an observation manually or automatically if the user has any of the models that support communications. This includes models with Ethernet, USB or 9-pin serial connections.

The expanse of data that can be recorded in an observation makes this portion of the observer's log a revolutionary improvement in astronomical logging software.

Handling log data is much more flexible and convenient. Users have complete control over report content and format through the new style sheet technology in DSP5. Furthermore, observations may be imported and exported in both a native Deep-Sky Planner format and the new OpenAstronomyLog format. OpenAstronomyLog is an international initiative by astronomical software developers to make observing logs portable between software applications. Knightware has embraced the standard and has contributed to its development.

The screen shot below shows an observation file exported in native DSP5 format and displayed using a style sheet that ships with DSP5. You can create your own style sheets and use them to display observations from DSP5.

The screen shot below shows the same observations exported in OpenAstronomyLog 2.0 format and displayed by Internet Explorer.

In addition to the reporting capability shown above, users can still search the log and produce reports in 2 predefined styles. These reports have styling capabilities, and they can be exported in multiple formats - HTML, formatted text or MS Excel.

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Preview: New & Updated Catalogs

2009-11-22T15:28:00.007-05:00

Deep-Sky Planner 5 features an updated and expanded database of deep-sky and stellar objects. Altogether, the database now contains over one million objects. There is also a wealth of cross reference information. There are over 62,000 cross reference names and over 175,000 other names. A cross reference name is a designation for an object in a catalog contained within the database. For example Messier 1 is also known as NGC 1952, Ced 53, LBN 833, Crab Nebula and Taurus A. The NGC, Ced and LBN catalogs are contained within the database so these designations are considered cross references. 'Crab nebula' and 'Taurus A' are considered common names because they are not designations from a catalog within the database.

Multi-Catalog Searching

Catalog data reporting has been enhanced to permit the searching of multiple catalogs or single catalogs. Single catalog searching still reports data in a catalog-specific way so that the most pertinent details from the catalog are at your disposal. Multiple catalog searching allows you to produce a single report of objects from multiple catalogs, but the report contains data items common to each selected catalog.

Deep-Sky Catalogs

The database contains data for a wide variety of objects, including quasars, supernova remnants, bright and dark nebulae, star clusters and galaxy clusters. It also contains a comprehensive collection of planetary nebulae and galaxies to magnitude 18. The majority of galaxy data is taken from the HyperLeda collection, and therefore contains the latest data available. Catalogs have been updated where possible and the Lynds Bright and Dark Nebulae catalogs have been added by request. There are currently over 820,000 deep-sky objects in the database.

Stellar Catalogs

Extensive updates and additions have been made among stellar object data. Catalogs have been updated where possible and the CCDM and G2V stars from the Hipparcos catalog have been added by request. There are now over 284,000 stellar objects in the database.

Double Stars

Double star observers will appreciate the addition of the CCDM catalog and an updated version of WDS (2009 version.) Together these catalogs place over 154,040 double star systems at your disposal. In addition to the official nomenclature, these stars are also identified by Discoverer names, Bayer/Flamsteed numbers and proper names as applicable - a total of over 165,000 names. The screen shot above shows a search of both double star catalogs by Bayer designation.

Variable Stars (and suspects)

Variable star observers will enjoy the updated GCVS and NSV data, both taken from the March 2009 version of this dataset. Over 66,000 variable stars are now at your disposal.

G2V

Imagers will appreciate the convenience of having a searchable set of G2V stars taken from the Hipparcos catalog to help with color-balancing images. The G2V dataset can be searched like any other, including for stars near an equatorial position in the sky determined by current telescope pointing position or by looking up another object's position in the database.

Announcing Deep-Sky Planner 5 Preview

2009-11-18T12:53:00.003-05:00

The time has finally arrived to announce the coming release of Deep-Sky Planner 5. The product is in late beta testing and should be ready to ship in January, 2010.

Deep-Sky Planner 5 has been under development for several years. It is the result of many discussions with visual and imaging observers, extensive research into what observers should record in a log, and it incorporates a number of new technologies. There is much more catalog data (both updated and new), many new features and some nice conveniences. Some features are likely the first of their kind in planning and logging software.

While there are new features and data, you can be assured that the product is still governed by some basic principles - software should be:

easy to use
accurate
in this case, compliant with Windows guidelines

The latter is important not only from a usability standpoint, but also as regards security - a topic that is becoming increasingly important for products that provide online services, and those that operate properly with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Articles outlining the new product will appear in this blog over the coming weeks while Deep-Sky Planner 5 undergoes final testing. These articles should help you get a better understanding of what's coming and when. Be sure to visit the preview page at knightware.biz for more information, and to get a glimpse of the product in action.

Galaxy Salad

2009-10-14T17:28:00.002-04:00

I have been working recently with galaxy data available from HyperLeda. Things have really changed since I got my first set of professional deep-sky catalog data on CD about 17 years ago. Back then, I ordered a set of CDs from the ADC and had to get a friend to let me use his CD drive to extract data - I didn't have a CD drive yet! Now days, oodles of data is available online and is updated constantly. Using the data wisely, of course, is the key.

I have been intrigued with the huge variation in magnitude and size data reported in some of the astronomical software I use. It's just not clear sometimes what data is reported by a given product. In the case of PGC data, most objects have size and B magnitude info, and some have B-V info that can be used to compute a V magnitude. I have one product that shows V magnitude if possible and B otherwise. It takes detective work to discern which is used for
magnitude filtering. The situation with size information is even more adventuresome. We have sizes in arcseconds, arminutes to tenths, arcminutes to hundredths; it's all over the place. The metric used for size in the catalog is a logarithm based on where the object fades out to 25th (B) magnitude. I have to wonder how meaningful size reported to arcseconds is when the surface brightness of many of these objects is above 23 mags/square arcsecond, but at least it's a consistent metric.

Maybe the most entertaining find of the day is that NGC 7009 is listed in HyperLeda as a galaxy. I've observed this object many times, mostly with 8 and 20 inch aperture telescopes, and found the usual classification of planetary nebula to be pretty plausible. Blinking an OIII filter does what you might expect with a planetary. It will take more research to understand why HyperLeda lists the Saturn Nebula as a galaxy...

2009-10-04T09:19:00.003-04:00

A new version of OpenAstronomyLog, also known as OAL, was released on 1 October 2009. This release is the first for the project under its new moniker, OpenAstronomyLog. OpenAstronomyLog is an effort to define astronomical observations in an open and platform-independent manner so that observing logs can be exchanged among observers. It is released under the Apache License Version 2.0.

The project began several years ago and was released with the name COMAST. That effort was developed by team members from Germany and Belgium, preceding participation by Knightware.

This version has taken many months of effort to develop, with cooperation being the key. Several applications will support observation import and export using OAL 2.0 soon. These include:

a free web application (DeepSkyLog.org) that currently houses thousands of observations in several languages
a free cross-platform application (Observation Manager) written in Java
commercial applications Eye&Telescope and Deep-Sky Planner
other application developers have indicated interest but release plans are not yet available

Knightware's role has been to develop support for importing and exporting data using OAL while enhancing the logging capabilities in Deep-Sky Planner. Months of research into many facets of observation logging have culminated in extensive enhancements to Deep-Sky Planner's logging capability, but have also benefited the OAL project.

While several technical debates arose during the process, the team worked with the guiding principle of cooperation to deliver the result. Some concerns were recognized and addressed, others accepted as compromise.

In the end, it has been a very rewarding experience and a pleasure to work with an international team dedicated to solving the longstanding problem of observation preservation and exchange.

Learn more about the project at:
http://groups.google.com/group/openastronomylog

Logging Update and New Videos

2009-09-13T12:51:00.004-04:00

Knightware has published yet another video series, this time concerning deep-sky observation planning. In particular, features found in Deep-Sky Planner's Advanced Deep-Sky document and report are described in a six-part series. Please visit the video library to watch the series or any individual video.

As mentioned in this blog in January, Knightware has participated in an international effort to develop and publish an observation data file format that is freely available, ostensibly to astronomy application developers. The effort is called OpenAstronomyLog, or OAL for short. Its home on the web is located at http://groups.google.com/group/openastronomylog. Support for the OAL standard in Deep-Sky Planner has been under development for some months and is nearly complete. The OAL group needs to agree that a new version (2.0) of the standard is ready for release, and Deep-Sky Planner will support it thereafter. Please watch for further news on this topic.

Sleepy Summertime

2009-07-26T07:18:00.006-04:00

Despite the usual summertime distractions (kids & vacation), work at Knightware rolls on...

A new video series has been published describing logging work flows in Deep-Sky Planner 4. Visit the video library to watch these videos.

A nice review of SQM Reader Pro appeared in the July/August issue of Astronomy Technology Today magazine. Author Jack Huerkamp put Unihedron's SQM-LE through its paces using SQM Reader and SQM Reader Pro.

I hope you had the opportunity to observe the impact site on Jupiter this week. The impact site is at 210 degrees longitude (system 2). You can use Deep-Sky Planner's Detailed Planet Ephemeris report to display the system 2 longitude on the central meridian of the planet at any time (see below).

Deep-Sky Planner Videos

2009-06-18T07:41:00.003-04:00

The first series of video tutorials for Deep-Sky Planner have been posted in the video library at the Knightware website and on the Knightware channel at YouTube. The videos are short (~5 minutes each) and can be watched online from either location. Enjoy!

The first series demonstrates using Deep-Sky Planner's Show Chart function with planetarium programs TheSky6, Redshift 7 and Starry Night 6. The latter is posted below as an example. Please stay tuned as more videos will be added to the library over the summer.

Thanks for watching!

Now Playing on YouTube

2009-05-11T05:26:00.002-04:00

Customers have requested tutorial videos for our software products, so we have created a channel on YouTube for these videos. You can access the channel at http://www.youtube.com/knightwareontube.

The first series of videos covers the new SQM Reader Pro product. You can watch these either on the Knightware website (http://knightware.biz/sqm/readerpro_video.htm) or on Knightware's YouTube channel. For those new to YouTube, you don't need an account to watch, just visit either web page and click play on the video player.

Your comments on the videos are welcome. You can send them via e-mail, post a comment at YouTube, or post to the product's Yahoo Group.

More videos will be published soon so please stay tuned. Thanks for watching!

SQM Reader Pro Introductory Price Expires Soon

2009-05-07T10:00:00.003-04:00

SQM Reader Pro has been on the market now for a few months. The introductory price for digital download and CD versions will increase on June 15, but the prices will remain extremely reasonable. SQM Reader will remain available by digital delivery at no charge.

Why the increase in a soft economy? As you might expect, there are many reasons. First, there were investments in several software products used to develop and support the new product. Those expenses need to be recovered to make way for further product development at Knightware. Furthermore, and very fortunately, demand has exceeded expectations. The product is already in use on every continent except Africa and Antarctica. Users' feedback on functionality and ease of use has been very positive.

Many of the new technologies used in SQM Reader Pro are finding their way into Deep-Sky Planner. This includes more than just reading the meter. Look for more on this in future posts. In the meantime, if you're thinking about getting a copy of SQM Reader Pro, you may want to grab one before the increase takes effect.

A Record Month for Software Releases

2009-03-19T08:35:00.003-04:00

It has been a busy 4 weeks for releases at Knightware. A new product, SQM Reader Pro, was released in mid-February followed by the release of updates to SQM Reader and Deep-Sky Planner. SQM Reader Pro introduces a new capability for Knightware - digital delivery of purchased software. It will be interesting to see how digital delivery compares to delivery of physical media (CD.)

The early March update to Deep-Sky Planner addressed a problem with using TheSky6 to control a telescope while using the 'Slew To' feature in a Deep-Sky Planner report. This problem was critical for users of Software Bisque's Paramount ME because it can only be controlled by TheSky. With this update, users of TheSky6 should be squared away.

That brings us to mid-March and the second update to Deep-Sky Planner in 4 weeks time - a record for the product. The need for a second update came out of the blue, but was nonetheless worthwhile.

A new version of Redshift was released recently (Redshift 7 Premium) and Deep-Sky Planner needed a minor change to support interoperation with it. Deep-Sky Planner 4 has supported Redshift 6 Premium since Oct 2007.

Redshift 7 Premium is already available (starting in December in Europe and in January in the US market where version 6 was never officially sold), and it is an 'IYA2009 Official Product' - see http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/products/redshift/ Furthermore, Redshift 7 Premium and Deep-Sky Planner 4 will be demonstrated working together at a star party hosted by United Soft Media (publishers of Redshift) and Baader Planetarium in Munich in early April. Catch that if you can - the event is a part of the worldwide "100 Hours of Astronomy".

And finally, an apology for update madness...
As a customer of many software products, I might find updating my product twice in one month to be excessive, but this has been an unusual situation that I believe merited quick attention. It's too bad that release timing wasn't a little different: testing updates is very time consuming and ranks high in tedium. Hopefully this will be it for a while!

SQM Reader Pro 1.0 is released

2009-02-17T06:52:00.007-05:00

SQM Reader Pro has been released, giving owners of the Sky Quality Meter with Lens and Ethernet a new tool to read their meter. If you own an SQM-LE and use Windows, this software really can do a lot for you. You can check it out at http://knightware.biz/sqm/readerpro.htm

This project has been one of the most efficient in my 27 years of software engineering. The beta test went extremely well thanks to responsive, thorough team members. Even the resource and memory leak testing went without a hitch.

This has been a special project as it has brought together 18 years of experience in reading and managing data from meters, and the opportunity to empower people to argue the light pollution point with hard facts. It's also intriguing to be able to know how dark the sky is at any location in real-time - a boon for astrophotographers working remotely.

SQM Reader Pro entering beta test

2009-02-02T16:31:00.004-05:00

Over the past few months I have received a number of requests for enhancements to SQM-LE Reader (released Sep 2008.) As a result, I have added these enhancements to a new product that will be called SQM Reader Pro. SQM-LE Reader will continue to be available for free, although the title will be changed to SQM Reader.

SQM Reader Pro will most likely be available in March. Details of the product's features will be announced on knightware.biz after the beta test is complete, but generally you can look for a Windows program that reads an SQM-LE device, displays the latest reading, a graph of recent readings and some elementary statistics (min, max, mean and standard deviation.) The product will include the ability to send an image of the latest reading or the latest graph as a JPEG file to a web site using FTP, or to a processing program, script or batch file.

This project has married together my years of experience in developing software for the electrical power metering industry and my interest in quantifying the darkness of our night sky.

Logging Standard Update

2009-01-30T13:14:00.003-05:00

In my last few posts, I've talked about logging standards and a promising project under development that may bring a common observation exchange format to the astronomical community. This project has moved forward and has undergone some changes recently. The project described on this blog and formerly known as COMAST has been renamed to OpenAstronomyLog - or <OAL> for short - and it has a new home on the Web at http://groups.google.com/group/openastronomylog . Although the website is under construction now, it is a repository for developer information and discussion among users and developers.

There are a number of participants in the project that are working toward an upcoming release of the standard that will encompass several enhancements to the previous release (COMAST v1.7) and will, of course, sport the new project name <OAL>. Deep-Sky Planner does not yet support <OAL> but will do so in a future release. Considerable R&D time has been spent over the past months preparing to support the standard and making minor contributions to it. In-house tools have been developed for converting existing DSP4 observations to and from the standard format, so the concept is proven.

Hopefully the issues that arose for this developer can be addressed in material on the OpenAstronomyLog website so that other developers can adopt the standard easily. I invite you to visit the website and consider how saving your observations in an open exchange format might benefit you and the astronomical community at large.

The Case for a Logging Standard, Part 2

2008-12-02T11:30:00.004-05:00

In my previous post, I stated several arguments for a standard file format for holding astronomical observations. The arguments fell into 3 categories: data preservation, flexible access to and presentation of the data. This time, I'll describe a candidate that solves many of these requirements that is available now. Better yet, it is open source and free.

A year or so ago I stumbled upon something that really solved the aforementioned requirements well - an open source XML based standard for recording observations called COMAST. The advantages of recording observations in an XML format are that the content of an observation can be defined clearly for any interested party (program) to produce or consume. XML also lends itself well to reformatting into different file structures or visual presentation. All of this presents in a platform independent context. If you are keeping tally, that's open source, free of charge, platform independent, flexible access and flexible presentation. Hmmm, cool.

The COMAST effort is led by a small number of developers from Germany and Belgium. Fortunately for me, there is English documentation (my German is pathetic.) If you would like to read about the COMAST XML Schema, you can visit the web site at http://observation.sourceforge.net/en/index.html Beware if you aren't an XML techie.

After studying COMAST for some time, I decided that it described observations well enough and generally enough to be a very good candidate solution to my perceived requirements. I decided to put it to the acid test - try to import and export observations from Deep-Sky Planner using the COMAST format. After some discussion with the founding designers of COMAST, I have succeeded in transferring COMAST formatted data into and out of Deep-Sky Planner. There are idiosyncracies, but it works. Double cool.

COMAST does a thorough job of describing your observing site, equipment, time of observation and visual results. It can currently accommodate imaging equipment and results, but not as thoroughly as I would like. Deep-Sky Planner continues to provide storage and reporting of imaging observations. I suspect that the COMAST standard will catch up and I hope to take part in that effort.

COMAST does include some data that is more relevant to German observers, like one's Deep-Sky Liste (DSL) ID number and a DSL object rating code. I'm sure that observers elsewhere have familiar rating systems, association IDs and the like. These items reveal the roots of the COMAST project but they aren't required. They probably should migrate into an extension for German observers from the basic standard, but for now they can be ignored if desired. The nice thing about the COMAST design is that it makes extensions possible with predictable results. For example, should there be an extension developed that describes imaging observations, older software could accept and produce legal files with no changes - it would simply not support imaging extensions.

So what can COMAST do for you? At present, it can provide you with a observation data migration path between a couple of software products. Should that number increase, we may just have ourselves a viable world standard for sharing and preserving observations. Very cool indeed.

The Case for a Logging Standard

2008-11-22T19:46:00.002-05:00

Logging astronomical observations is a very personal thing, and not all observers keep a log. Perhaps visual observers are the least likely to record observations but many do. Most imagers at least keep records of their exposures, and the end product - an image - serves as excellent documentation. Sketchers probably keep the best records of all since their work is, by definition, recording detail manually. With observers' logging habits so varied, why do we want or need a standard?

From an observer's viewpoint, it may be less than apparent. Many of us record observations so that we can refer back to them and determine whether we've seen something before, or how it looked in the past, or when and where we saw it. Others collect observations and present them for an award. Still others want to publish particular observations on a website or blog. This really defines 3 different usages: searching, managing and reporting. There are, of course, many ways to meet these use cases: using pen and paper, a word processor, a spreadsheet or a database are the usual suspects. Any of these work well as long as we want to stay within the same process - a closed system in the algebraic sense.

So what if we want to venture forth from our tried and true logging practice? Perhaps we want to contribute an observation to a scientific collection (e.g., AAVSO), or publish them onto the web, or enter them into a program that offers a new, desirable capability? These cases require re-entry of the logged data to some extent, a tedious process at best. Worse yet, what if your log becomes inaccessible? Think of a hard drive crash, lost installation disc and a program that is no longer supported. Yuck.

Enter a standard file format for observing logs. The first three cases mentioned above are likely to be solved by having a standard because the more common the use case, the more likely that someone can, or will, solve the problem at least once. As a developer, I would be happy to support one exchange format, but supporting one for every file format requested by users is hard to justify.

The disaster scenario described above is perhaps the best reason for users to demand a standard log file format. I like to think of it as a warranty for the observation data I have spent years accumulating. If a program I have used to record observations either stops being updated or becomes less appealing, at least my data can move forward with me via a standard format file.

Developers will only support a standard if it is a marketable feature. That means that users will have to demand it as a must-have feature for a standard to gain the traction that makes one ubiquitous.

I wonder how many more observers would record their observations if they could enter them once and be assured that they wouldn't have to re-enter them time and time again. I also wonder how many scientifically valuable observations are lost because they can't get out into the astronomy community.

Until there is a standard available for users to demand and for developers to support, the arguments above are just conversation material. Fortunately there is a candidate under development. More on that next time.

Updated SQM-LE Reader

2008-10-07T14:21:00.006-04:00

In my last post, I mentioned the imminent release of a new model of Sky Quality Meter. Unihedron released the new product on time and it is shipping now.

Since that post I've had some time to use the meter with SQM-LE Reader software. One of the first questions a friend asked was 'what does the reading really mean?' He was looking for a way to relate the reading in magnitudes per square arcsecond to something more familiar - like visual limiting magnitude. Fortunately, the Unihedron website has a link to such a computation.

It became apparent quickly that SQM-LE Reader should include this computation along with other reading data. Furthermore, the ability to write readings to a comma separated value file was needed; whence, SQM-LE Reader v1.1. The CSV file format is easily imported into a spreadsheet for further analysis, or browsed with a text file utility such as notepad. These capabilities will appear in a future release of Deep-Sky Planner, but in the meantime they are available for free in SQM-LE Reader.

With these tools in hand, I hope to quantify the darkness of observing sites over the span of an evening, and over the span of seasons. I'd also like to determine whether the visual limiting magnitude computation is accurate (at least for my eyes.) I look forward to collecting and analyzing data over the coming months.

Finally, I've compared readings from the new model with those taken simultaneously with an SQM-L model device. The readings are consistently within .01 of each other, well within the stated accuracy of the device. How about that - delivered on time and functioning to specification!

Pacific Astronomy & Telescope Show

2008-09-18T16:22:00.011-04:00

The First Annual Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show (PATS) was held in Pasadena, CA on Sep 13-14. There were a few new wares to be seen which was exciting and fun. The long trip from North Carolina to California, coupled with intermittent Internet service at our hotel, has resulted in a delay in posting this report. Having returned to the office now, here are some highlights of the show.

Saturday was the busier day by far and included the big announcement from Tele Vue of yet more Ethos eyepiece models. Knightware joined the new product fray by announcing SQM-LE Reader, a free program that can be used to read and display data from Unihedron's new Sky Quality Meter LE. The new device is scheduled to begin shipping at the end of this month but the software is available now (http://knightware.biz/sqmreader.htm). To get an idea of how the meter looks, note in the photo below the small black box in front of yours truly, attached to the yellow cable. That's an engineering sample but the shipped version will look the same.

We had the pleasure of talking to many, many interested attendees and met some long-time users of Deep-Sky Planner. It's wonderful to put faces to names. In addition to attendees, we spoke with several product engineers, software developers and store owners. It's always good to get a read on the astronomy product marketplace from the perspective of suppliers. Further, we had some detailed discussions of ideas for new features for Deep-Sky Planner. Explaining the software's capabilities now, and exploring new ideas for it in the future are helpful ways of defining the product.

This show has all the promise of becoming an annual destination for amateur astronomers on the west coast. The organizers obviously did a huge amount of work bringing this show together.

All photos by Mark Lang

Command & Control

2008-08-25T17:51:00.004-04:00

Knightware has been working recently on providing support for a new partner's upcoming product. While the official announcement will have to wait a bit longer, I can divulge that this bit of work has allowed me to return to my roots - back into the realm of data acquisition and control work.

Maybe it's a summertime thing...
The last data acquisition and control work that came through the office was about 15 months ago when support for DSC and telescope control was added to Deep-Sky Planner. Testing different ASCOM driver implementations was a reminder of how differently device manufacturers design their products' communication and control capabilities. Synchronous telescope control? Yuck.

For most of the first 20 years of my career, I worked on data acquisition and control with various devices ranging from the US Navy's NavStar satellite navigation system (a predecessor to today's GPS), to F-14 air combat simulators, to electronic power meters. Fortunately, the 'control' part of my experience applied only to power meters. Power usage and substation relays are not as exciting (grin) as F-14 weapons systems and navigation satellites.

Although working with telescope control was fun, testing this upcoming product has been a joy. Communications are very clean and stable. Torture testing has been a real disappointment - no big hang ups even with Vista. A little more testing and we'll call this a wrap.

More to come!
Please tune in to this blog Sep 13-14 or visit the Knightware booth at the Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show. We'll be talking about Deep-Sky Planner and putting it through its paces, and we plan to announce support for the mystery product too.

Apollo's Legacy

2008-07-20T08:45:00.006-04:00

When Apollo 11 landed successfully on the moon 39 years ago today, my life changed. I was allowed to stay up past bedtime that night to watch the murky pictures of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface and uttering those now famous words. He chose them well as it was truly 'a giant leap for mankind.' Watching the events unfold reaffirmed my fascination with science and space exploration. At that point in my life, I was sure that I would be the first person to set foot on Mars. I took another road more traveled, and NASA lost focus on that very difficult goal, but the impact of that successful moon landing has never left me. Even now when I see that video from the moon I get goosebumps and a tear, emanating from several things: relief that the astronauts came back safely, a deep appreciation for the science and engineering that was required and pride in America.

I wonder how many of today's scientists were pushed into their fields by the success of Apollo, and what the value of their contributions to mankind might be. Maybe the Apollo missions were a bargain in terms of money. If you think of the role that technology plays in society now, it's hard to imagine where we would be if technology had not developed quite to the point that it has.

A couple of nights ago, I watched a particularly favorable pass of the ISS with my son and husband. As husband took photos, my son asked whether the ISS would be a resupply station for missions to the moon. While I didn't say it, I was thinking that my teenage son's generation just might be affected by a return to the moon as mine was nearly 40 years ago. I hope that it works out that way, and that society can benefit from another burst in technological innovation. Maybe ISS will resupply more than just materiel.

Photo courtesy of NASA

What to Call Them?

2008-06-02T19:07:00.004-04:00

As far as Deep-Sky Planner is concerned, minor planets shall henceforth be called asteroids ...

While implementing support for minor planets in late 2006 for Deep-Sky Planner, I had a real dilemma as to whether these objects should be called 'minor planets' or 'asteroids'. The IAU meeting in Prague the previous summer had just brought the term 'dwarf planet' onto the world stage, and demoted Pluto to some mysterious status that still befuddles me. The term 'minor planet' seemed a little like damaged goods.

On the other hand, the Minor Planet Center was the purveyor of orbital elements for these beasts, so the term 'minor planet' must have been the best moniker. So 'minor planet' stuck.

In the November 2006 issue of Sky & Telescope, Editor In Chief Rick Fienberg wrote about the IAU shenanigans in his Spectrum piece. I read it and agreed with his argument against redefining Pluto and the confusing term 'dwarf planet'. At that time I thought about asking Rick about the term 'asteroid' as opposed to 'minor planet', but I pressed on with development, and so it was.

Fast forward to 2008, and a bit of serendipity. I ran into Dr. Fienberg at NEAF in April. I asked him about my dilemma and whether he still felt as he did when he wrote that Spectrum piece in 2006. His feelings hadn't changed, and he liked 'asteroid'. That clinched my decision to make the change to 'asteroid'.

As for Pluto, it never got demoted in Deep-Sky Planner. I hope the IAU reinstates its planet-hood when they next meet in 2009. That seems befitting for the International Year of Astronomy.

Unit Tests & XP

2008-05-23T07:01:00.003-04:00

Back from the fun at NEAF, I'm back to the usual routine. Lately I've been making some fundamental low-level changes so I'm writing unit tests to keep things under control. Following the eXtreme Programming paradigm entirely really doesn't make sense to me, but using it in select areas does.

Case in point: I have a class for an equatorial coordinate position, including computing star atlas chart cross-references. Writing tests that make sure the correct chart reference is computed is pretty straightforward and allows testing along chart boundaries. On the other hand, the class has a couple dozen methods so writing tests for the really mundane methods (e.g., copy constructors) is a little torturous. Further, some of these methods have been around for north of a dozen years, so I have a good comfort level with them.

While at NEAF, I mentioned unit testing to Steve Bisque. He said he doesn't use them. I told him they can take as much time to write as the code under test. I think that sealed the deal for him - no time for all that. Ultimately we as programmers need to be aware of unit testing and what it can do for our products, but the extent of their use really depends on schedules and other testing procedures in place for the product. I suspect that Software Bisque has a pretty solid system test procedure, so I guess they cover QA that way.

For me, using unit testing judiciously is the way to go. It gives some assurance for the low level stuff while system testing addresses the higher level. System tests are presently done with a combination of manual testing, Python scripts, and a test team (in that order.)

PS, in the true story category:
I once interviewed a young man for a programming position with my employer. The interview process placed the interviewee at a conference table with 3 staff programmers for what we called "the inquisition". The guy told us that he had never written code with a bug in it. There was a pause as we shot glances of astonishment around the table, and we politely continued the interview for about 20 more minutes. The guy had absolutely no chance of getting the job after that. If you've ever written a program, I bet you're laughing - loudly...

NEAF 2008 - Post Mortem

2008-04-29T11:37:00.003-04:00

The show was really a lot of fun. I've returned to the office with a pile of business cards and a sheet full of notes taken while discussing additional features for the product. My head is full of ideas - it's a good thing I wrote them down!

I will continue the blog - it has been received well and it gives me a chance to communicate a little more informally.

A Special Note to Friends and Customers in Southeastern Virginia
We drove on I-95 through the Richmond-Petersburg corridor yesterday and wondered why there were SO many accidents, including a HAZMAT team addressing an overturned truck. Now we know that tornadoes ravaged the area. Please know that you are in my thoughts as you recover from the damage.

NEAF 2008 - Day 2

2008-04-27T20:03:00.006-04:00

Day 2 at NEAF brought a lighter crowd, more speakers and more new and existing customers.

Today I had the good fortune of speaking to many media people - Charlie from Amateur Astronomy, both Parkersons from Astronomy Technology Today and Tom Trusock from CloudyNights. I enjoyed discussing the show and their particular corner of the astronomy world. All of these gentlemen bring something special to astronomy. If you haven't checked out their part of the world, do so!

A real highlight of the day came when I met Roger Sinnott of Sky & Telescope. I tried to catch him several times at the S&T booth, but always missed him. The word got out and by mid afternoon he came and found me. Roger helped with Deep-Sky Planner questions as far back as 1993. I've always enjoyed our correspondence but had never had the opportunity to meet him in person. We share an interest in the mathematical side of astronomy and of course his stellar cartography skills are well known. He is a gentleman indeed.

Other editors from Sky & Telescope visited as well, including Rick Fienberg. My business dealings with Rick go back to about 1995 - longer than it seems possible. As with Roger, Rick is a gentleman who has played a vital role in astronomy. It was a pleasure talking with him.

The show was a huge success - both from a business standpoint and from a consumer standpoint. I have befriended vendors in neighboring booths, learned about a bunch of wonderful new products (I have my eye on the new SolaREDi telescope from Daystar), and discussed potential uses for Deep-Sky Planner that sound very useful. This has been a long weekend but a very rewarding one. Now to get back into the office and work on these good ideas...

Bill Burgess of Burgess Optical was in the neighboring booth. He might have been the most animated vendor in the building! He and Tammy were lovely folks from Tennessee so surely our paths will cross again soon.

Photos by Mark Lang

NEAF 2008 - Day 1

2008-04-26T20:33:00.010-04:00

Day 1 started with some excitement at the Tele Vue booth. If you haven't heard yet, the 8 mm Ethos has been announced. The photo above shows the announcement being made just before the show opening.

The Knightware booth was busy as we met some existing customers and many new ones. Friends and business associates stopped by making for a fun day, and seeing people that I haven't seen in years was particularly gratifying. Our putting faces to names continues to be a highlight of the show. We have fielded lots of questions and some interesting uses for the software. Creative ideas really seem to flow at events like this one.

All photos by Mark Lang.

Setup day at NEAF 2008

2008-04-25T19:35:00.007-04:00

Vendors were setting up all afternoon here at NEAF. The weather was sunny and warm.

After setting up the Knightware booth, I wandered around to check out vendors and all the wonderful wares. It seems that refractors and observatories are very well represented. A roll-off roof display was being setup that had an operational roof. I could really go for one of those. Maybe after the kids finish college.

I had a great discussion with Normand Fullum of Quebec about mirror making and Dobsonian telescope building. Too bad the 16 inch blank he had was not for sale. With a cool down time of 20 minutes, it's just what I've been looking for in my next scope building project. This is definitely on my to-do list.

I spoke with lots of other interesting people - some known to me only by e-mail or telephone and some not known at all. I had a great talk with Mike Bieler of Astronomics, mostly about Telecaster guitars. He's got one, and I want one. A kindred spirit I think.

It's a wonderful atmosphere here - just like being a kid in a candy store! I'm delighted to be here.

All photos by Mark Lang.

Preparing for NEAF

2008-04-17T10:42:00.005-04:00

Getting things ready for NEAF next week has been a lot of work - setting up computers, making handouts, producing discs, etc. I noticed that CloudyNights will be broadcasting interviews with attendees, and it occurred to me that my doing a blog for the event might be fun. Hopefully customers and friends will enjoy attending vicariously. If wireless networking is available in the building, we'll try to upload some reports and photos during the day. If not, we'll post in the evening.

Husband and I aren't looking forward to the long drive, but driving seems more reliable right now than flying. My recent flight to Florida went without a hitch, but then there's all the gear we plan to bring. I'd hate for computers and monitors to end up somewhere other than New York...

If you're at NEAF, please come by the Knightware booth and say hello. I really enjoy putting faces to names known to me only from the ether.