Coming soon: Deep-Sky Planner Mobile Edition

Knightware is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Deep-Sky Planner Mobile Edition. It is planned for release in Q1 2019 for Android and iOS devices. It is currently targeted at 7 inch and larger tablets with support for phone-sized screens also coming.

The app has been under evaluation since 2014 and in development since late 2017. A few features remain to be developed for the initial release. Once all features have been added there will be a small, focused beta test program.

The app is designed to be used with or without Deep-Sky Planner Desktop Edition (for Windows). Mobile Edition users will have access to the Deep-Sky Planner Plan Library and equipment lists on the Knightware website. Users of the Desktop Edition will be able to create their own observing plans, equipment lists and location lists, and transfer them to the Mobile Edition via cloud storage services.

The screenshots below were acquired on a 9.7" iPad with the app running its blue-green Calypso skin and the red and black Nightvision skin.The app will ship with several additional skins.

Main app window - Calypso skin

Main app window - Nightvision skin

The observing plan window below shows deep-sky objects in the Messier list. The window includes catalog data, ephemeral (calculated) data and visibility modeling. Stars, doubles, variables, planets, asteroids and comets are also supported.

Plan window - Calypso skin

Plan window - Nightvision skin

Please stay tuned for more information about Deep-Sky Planner Mobile Edition in the weeks to come.

A Deep-Sky Planer user asked me to create observing plans for objects in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The data came from 5 catalogs revised by Mati Morel of New South Wales, Australia. I contacted Mr. Morel about the project, and he kindly gave permission for me to use his work. He also sent me the latest updates to his data.

Small Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA/CXC/JPL-Caltech/STScI

The data in this series of plans are contained in 5 lists compiled from examining the Hodge & Wright atlas of the SMC (1977). Mr. Morel examined the atlas and consulted various sources for position, magnitude and size information for each object. He also included comments on many objects. I have used the latest published data from SIMBAD for position, magnitude and size. There appears to be little difference between the two sets of data, except that magnitude information is somewhat different. There is photometric data available for most objects in multiple bands. The band used for the magnitude data for each object in the plans is indicated. Magnitude data in the V band is preferred where available. I believe this is more useful to visual observers.

Together, the 5 plans contain 405 objects. Some entries are duplicated among the catalogs, but together these represent a thorough coverage of nebulae and clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The plans in the Deep-Sky Planner Plan Library are named:

• SMC Henize nebulae
• SMC Hodge Wright clusters
• SMC Kron clusters
• SMC Lindsay clusters
• SMC Westerlund Glaspey clusters

Notes:

1. Morel's comments are maintained in the User text column. These are essential to his work.
   
2. Object types in DSP are not as narrowly defined as those in SIMBAD. For example, 'Open Cluster' is assigned in Deep-Sky Planner to object types 'cluster of stars', 'star association and the like in SIMBAD.
   
3. Lindsay's paper is crucial to understanding the clusters in the SMC. You can read it here.
   
4. Lindsay 106 and 109 are mislabeled on the Hodge & Wright (1977) atlas of the SMC
   

Adventures with Sky Commander

I have used a Sky Commander digital setting circle computer with my telescopes since 1991. I can thank Tom Clark from Tectron Telescopes for turning me on to this wonderful gadget. I wouldn't be without it.

My first Sky Commander started out on a 20" Dob and later moved to a 14.5" Dob. I also added encoders to a 8" Dob so that I could use the Sky Commander with it. I have been running my Sky Commander on both the 14.5" and the 8" for years.

I recently got a new Sky Commander XP4 to use on the 14.5" so that I can permanently assign the older one to the 8". The configuration is a little different on the two scopes, so having one Sky Commander for each scope is helpful.

Old and new Sky Commanders

A feature was added to Deep-Sky Planner 6 that allowed users to upload an observing plan to the Sky Commander in its special objects list (entries 0-58). I have used this feature to upload coordinates for comets, asteroids and deep-sky objects that weren't in the Sky Commander database.

While testing Deep-Sky Planner with the new Sky Commander, I found that I still had to upload plans when the Sky Commander was at the Set Date prompt. That requirement never seemed right to me because I didn't see it documented anywhere.

I contacted Sky Engineering about this and we found that a firmware change would cure the problem. After some back and forth and some testing, a new firmware version emerged. I flashed the new firmware into the XP4 and the problem was solved!

Going forward, Deep-Sky Planner users with a Sky Commander having firmware prior to version 5.03 SP02 will need to upload plans when Sky Commander is at the Set Date prompt. Users that are able to update the firmware to version 5.03 SP02 or later should be able to upload plans to Sky Commander when it is at the Set Date prompt or in its normal operating mode. This is an added convenience that will make using Sky Commander with Deep-Sky Planner a little smoother.

I'd like to thank Victor McKeighan at Sky Engineering for his kind help in resolving this issue.

More Southern Observing

Another observing plan of special interest to visual observers and astrophotographers with access to southern skies has been posted to the Deep-Sky Planner Plan Library. The plan is called "Sandqvist Lindroos Dark Nebulae".

The plan includes the 42 objects identified by two astronomers working at the Stockholm Observatory in their 1976 paper about dark dust clouds in the southern sky. Sandqvist and Lindroos examined  Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates for dark clouds in previously unexplored declinations (-32° to -46°). They researched the presence of formaldehyde in the nebulae that they identified. As part of their process of identifying these dark clouds, they cataloged the area and opacity of each cloud in the survey - data which appear in the observing plan mentioned above. Objects in the plan also include their corresponding Barnard numbers where appropriate.

Observing these objects will require dark skies and large aperture. Imaging these objects should offer some interesting results since these objects are not imaged frequently.

Observing & Imaging Dark Nebulae

Observing and imaging dark nebula is an interesting deviation for most amateur astronomers as we are trying to detect the absence of light - just the opposite of our normal pursuit. Dark nebulae are clouds of dust that obscure light from objects behind them. We have known about dark nebulae for quite some time, but they still remain somewhat enigmatic.

Both America's Astronomical League (AL) and Canada's Royal Astronomical Society (RASC) have observing programs for Dark Nebulae, and each plan is available in the Deep-Sky Planner Plan Library. Each program has very helpful information available to help with observing. See https://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/DarkNebulaeClub if you are pursuing the AL program, or the RASC Observer's Handbook if you are pursuing the Canadian one.

The objects in these plans typically come from E.E. Barnard's photographic survey of dark nebulae (1927), or from B.T. Lynds' more recent survey (1962) based on the Palomar Observatory Sky Atlas images. These catalogs list size estimates, and the Lynds catalog includes a ranking of darkness - again note that magnitude data are not applicable!

Horsehead Nebula
T.A.Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF) and Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI/AURA/NASA)

This is a particularly favorable time of year to observe dark nebulae as many lie along the northern hemisphere's summer Milky Way. Although many lie in the summer sky, dark nebulae are visible throughout the year. For example, B 33/LDN 1630 - the Horsehead Nebula - is visible in northern hemisphere's winter evenings. To observe dark nebulae successfully, you need a very dark sky and very well dark-adapted eyes. Some objects can be observed with binoculars, but most require a telescope. The Great Rift in Cygnus and Aquila can be observed with the unaided eye.

Observing dark nebulae can be a nice change of pace from observing bright nebulae, galaxies and clusters. Why not give them a try using one of the observing plans available from the Plan Library?

What Was Old Is New Again

November 1965 Sky & Telescope

Recently I had the pleasure of hearing Jim Mullaney speak at the Southern Star Astronomical Convention in North Carolina. Jim is a prolific author and longtime contributor to Sky & Telescope magazine. In one of his talks, Jim mentioned a series of articles that he and Wallace McCall wrote years ago called 'The Finest Deep-Sky Objects'. The articles were published in 3 issues of Sky & Telescope spanning November 1965 through January 1966.

The objects selected for the articles met the simple criteria that they had to be bright enough and the correct size to be impressive when viewed through telescopes of various apertures from the latitude of the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The list encompassed 105 objects that were popular on public observing nights over a 5 year period.

The articles are important even 50 years later because visual impressions of the authors are included - information quite useful to any observer. While the list is a wonderful guide for novice observers, it is also a very useful list for any observer preparing for a public observing session. While over half the objects included are double stars, there are excellent examples of all types of objects in the lists.

The objects listed in the articles are now available as an observing plan file for Deep-Sky Planner. It can be downloaded by licensed users from the Plan Library. The plan contains 119 objects because several of the objects in Mullaney & McCall's lists are multiple star systems; Deep-Sky Planner lists multiple pairs of stars in these cases.

These lists remain a timeless guide for astronomical observers with telescopes of moderate sizes.

Introducing The Herschel Sprint

Mark Bratton, author of The Complete Guide to the Herschel Objects, wrote a fascinating piece in the April issue of Sky & Telescope that describes a very productive night of observing by William and Caroline Herschel in April 1785. Entitled "William Herschel's Extraordinary Night of Discovery", the article describes how the Herschels conducted observations of 74 objects in a single night. The article includes comments about each object, making it a highly recommended read. Once you've read the article, it feels like you've observed with William and Caroline - a very neat thought.

This season of the year has it's Messier Marathon, but if you've mastered that, the 'Herschel Sprint' offers a similar but greater challenge. The Sprint is a very inviting and historically interesting project for modern observers with 15 inch or larger telescopes. (The Herschels accomplished their feat with an 18 inch speculum metal reflector.) You can read more about the Herschel Sprint from Sky & Telescope editor Susan Johnson-Roehr. Licensed users of Deep-Sky Planner can download the Herschel Sprint observing plan from the online Plan Library now. The plan contains all 74 objects from the article along with modern object data.

The Herschel Sprint Observing Plan

Pursuing the Herschel Sprint with Deep-Sky Planner gives the modern observer many advantages - GoTo telescope slewing, managed object images, inter-operation with planetarium software and automated logging. One can only imagine what William and Caroline might have done with GoTo and automated logging!

Knightware thanks Sky & Telescope magazine for granting permission to use data from this special article to create an observing plan for Deep-Sky Planner users.

Arakelian Galaxies

An observing plan containing the Arakelian Galaxies has been posted recently to the Deep-Sky Planner Observing Plan Library (licensed users only.) This plan should be of particular interest to galaxy hunters, so more background is included here.

Russian astrophysicist Marat Arakelian published a paper in 1975 in which he studied the correlation between high surface brightness (HSB) galaxies and active galactic nuclei. Arakelian defined HSB as 22 magnitudes per square arc second (mpsas) or brighter.

Deep-Sky Planner shows surface brightness (SB) for galaxies when possible. The value comes either from catalogs when it is available, or it is calculated using a formula that is a little different from that used by Arakalian. Because of these differences, the plan has some SB values that are dimmer than 22. Most of the galaxies in the plan are smaller than 1 arc minute in size, thus contributing to high surface brightness. With this in mind, the observing plan contains about 500 of 591 galaxies with SB values of 22 or brighter. These galaxies (with SB <= 22) should be bright enough to be seen in large amateur telescopes in a dark sky location - those with skies perhaps 20.5 mpsas or darker.

Arakelian studied galaxies no further south than -3 degrees declination, so they are visible to northern hemisphere observers, and most are visible to observers at moderately southern latitudes.

The study found that there were more elliptical and lenticular galaxies in the study sample than one might find in a random sample, thus proving that there was a correlation between high surface brightness and active galactic nuclei. Arakelian's study was an important basis for further research. Arakelian himself had only a few years to explore the matter further since he died in 1983 at the young age of 52.

Integrated Flux Nebulae

I recently read about integrated flux nebulae (IFN), whose name was coined by amateur astronomer Steve Mandel. Steve photographed and cataloged a number of objects at high galactic latitudes that were wispy, dusty nebulae, though uncatalogued by professional astronomers.

A quick visit to Steve's web site reveals his personal pursuit of identifying these objects, and what his research has uncovered about them. Steve's work on these objects has been recognized by the American Astronomical Society (2008 Chambliss Award for Amateur Achievement) and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (2008 Amateur Achievement Award). Professional astronomers have begun investigating these objects based on Steve's work.

In a recent email from Steve, he explains that the catalog will be renamed "Mandel Catalogue of Unexplored High-Latitude Galactic Dust Nebula". He continues his work on this project.

An observing plan containing the current list of integrated flux nebulae has been uploaded to the Plan Library which is available to licensed users of Deep-Sky Planner. It contains the list of objects and Steve's comments about each. Steve has kindly granted permission to use this information in Deep-Sky Planner.

Deep-Sky Planner Q&A Webinar - July 2014

July Webinar - Double Star Designations

The latest Deep-Sky Planner webinar was held Saturday, July 19. It addressed a question submitted by a user about searching for double stars in Deep-Sky Planner. Double star designations take a wide variety of forms so searching for them can be tricky. The goal of the webinar was to answer this question and share some tips on searching for double stars effectively in Deep-Sky Planner.

Search tools and methods were discussed, including searching by Bayer number, WDS and CCDM numbers, and using wildcards in designations. A few advanced methods were also discussed. The webinar lasted 16 minutes.

The webinar is available now for replay viewing at:

• deepskyplanner Google+ page
• deepskyplanner YouTube channel
• Deep-Sky Planner video page

Viewers that are logged into their Google+ accounts can leave comments about the webinar on the deepskyplanner Google+ page or on the deepskyplanner YouTube channel.

Thanks for watching!

More Improvements to the Knightware Website

More improvements have been published on the Knightware website. Most noticeable are the changes to the menus throughout the site. The old menus were not friendly to mobile browsers - the drop-down capability that exposed subtopic pages didn't work on mobile browsers. The new menus are mobile-friendly so that the entire site can be navigated efficiently on a phone or tablet. The site has been reviewed with 7 & 10 inch tablets, and all appears well. In fact, you can still view an abbreviated version of any observing plan in the Plan Library with your mobile device browser - just log into the User's Community and browse.

New mobile-friendly menus

SQM Reader Pro Community Updates

Plans are underway to provide new tools for users of SQM Reader Pro 2 that contribute data to the SQM Readings Map page. Users have already contributed over 66,000 readings, and the new tools will help users understand their data in new ways. Tools should begin to appear in the SQM Reader Pro 2 user's community soon - please stay tuned.

Getting More Social

You may notice that social bookmarking buttons have been added to the bottom of most web pages. These buttons will help users to bookmark the pages that are most beneficial to them while sharing links to these pages with friends. We have also added a 'Link To Us' page that we hope will encourage users to share information about Deep-Sky Planner and SQM Reader Pro with others. We thank you in advance for sharing links to the website!

Link To Us page

Introducing: deepskyplanner on Google+

Finally, there is a new deepskyplanner page on Google+. We expect to use this page initially like our page on Facebook - to share announcements about new observing plans, new product features, etc. We will monitor the popularity of the Google+ page and consider using the vast array of features that Google+ offers in the future. Please add the deepskyplanner page to your circles!

Mobile Astronomy

I continue to be amused at the capabilities emerging for mobile astronomy. While there are several mobile applications available to astronomers with smartphones and tablets, the combination I have at the moment is Deep-Sky Planner on Windows 7 plus either Sky Commander (digital setting circles) or SkySafari Plus (planetarium software) on an Android phone.

I have found that I can use the extensive planning features in Deep-Sky Planner to create observing lists that I can load into Sky Commander or my phone for use with SkySafari. I am working with a push-to telescope (no GoTo).

The Sky Commander option works well for finding asteroids and other objects that aren't in the Sky Commander database. This is actually my favorite option as I have worked in push-to mode for many years with the Sky Commander and printed charts. The greatest drawback with this method is that Sky Commander identifies custom objects with only a sequential ID number. I have to keep track of ID # 1 = asteroid Toutatis, for example. Users of Argo Navis get the text name which is most helpful. Deep-Sky Planner can format custom files for upload into Argo Navis; I just don't have one.

In my use, the SkySafari option is more or less a digital notepad that also shows the sky context in which the object may be found. It works quite well even though I am operating with a few limitations:

• I am using the intermediate version of SkySafari - not the pro version. The database is not as complete as I sometimes need. Should this become too great a limitation, I can upgrade to Pro.
• I am using SkySafari on a smartphone. The screen is small, although it is larger than many models (it's a Motorola phone with a 4.3" screen). I don't find that the size of the planetarium view on my phone is sufficient for every target. This may not be a problem at all for others.
• I do not use telescope control, so I rely on the coordinates given by SkySafari to use with my Sky Commander digital setting circles. I use the same technique when running Deep-Sky Planner on a laptop at the telescope.

Even with these limitations, I am able to take observing lists anywhere, anytime. It doesn't fit my needs for every observing session, but it's so darned handy! I can also log into the Deep-Sky Planner Plan Library and browse hundreds of plans with the browser on my phone. This is a terrific help when the plan prepared for the evening goes awry and a new one would serve better.

If you want to learn more about using a full-featured observing/imaging planner with SkySafari, please see this knowledgebase article on the Knightware website. It walks you through a complete example of using Deep-Sky Planner with SkySafari on an Android phone.

Search menu on SkySafari (Android) shows Custom Observing Lists

Custom list 'RASC Finest NGC Objects' uploaded from Deep-Sky Planner displayed in SkySafari (Android)