A very nice feature I would like to see implemented in SkySafari 5 Pro would be the ability to rotate the field by a specific number of degrees to match what I see in my EP to what I see on my screen. A similar feature is available in other Planetarium software such as Guide. Being able to do this with the software while at the EP would certainly beat the current method I've seen used, which is physically turning my tablet or phone to match what I'm seeing. Thanks!
Date
Votes
8 comments
-
Bill Tschumy Could you elaborate why rotating your device is not a good solution? It seems simple and direct.
The problem with rotation the field is people will forget it is on and get confused why the screen looks wrong. I can guarantee this will probably create more problems than it solves.
-
Chris Sure, I'd be glad to. For one, I use multiple applications on my tablet when I'm at the scope, so rotating my screen back and forth between SS and other apps and getting it to match up again isn't ideal. Also, my tablet sits on my lap much better when it's laying straight across vs. at some strange angle. It's also hard to log my observations within SS itself when I have it turned, so I turn it back straight, log, turn it back...you get the point. Also, I now have to leave my auto rotation turned off for all apps simply because SS forces me to rotate the screen to match what I see in my eyepiece.
Do people currently forget that the screen horizontal and vertical flip is on and get confused why it looks wrong? I see these as somewhat advanced features that don't get used unless someone knows what they are doing and I'm not convinced we should take options away from Pro users because someone might get confused. I would think this could (and probably should) reset when someone exits or opens the application, but I would think people turning it on would, or should, remember. Probably not a feature that I would include in the basic version, but then again I'm not sure if the current flip options are in all versions?
I guess it's possible I'm the only person who uses the app in this way, but it's a pain for sure. -
Bill Tschumy Chris, I do get a moderate number of tickets about why the screen us upside down or the directions are reversed. So yes, people can get confused.
Nevertheless, I am going to put this on my list of possible enhancements for the next version. It might make the cut.
Thank for the suggestion.
-
Chris Thanks Bill!
-
Jose Carvajal You're not the only one Chris, that would be a useful feature, yes. I use to match SS with AAVSO comparison star charts in my iPad and I'm getting crazy. Usually AAVSO charts have S up N down and they rotated as you rotate the device. For SS, most of the times N is in the upper right corner or similar so makes difficult the matching. In summary, this is killing my variable stars observing sessions and cannot continue this way, I loose a lot of time being spent on this matching.
If finally is decided to go for it, could be located in settings as an on/off option: Capability to rotate field of view?... or something like that...
Thanks Chris and thanks Bill for understanding.
-
Bill Tschumy Jose,
The AAVSO charts are probably equatorial charts with N/S flipped. You can do this in SkySafari. Just set the coordinate system to Equatorial and flip the chart N/S
-
Jose Carvajal Bill,
Yes I know but this is not the issue. AAVSO charts are images or PDFs so they rotate in the tablet when you rotate the device pointing N up or down or right or left. The problem is that in SS, N maybe is not perfectly up but a bit rotated to the right or left. So yes, you can rotate the device and rotate it back when you swap to the PDF but is not helpful to stay permanently moving the device.
-
Bill Tschumy If you set SkySafari to equatorial coordinates, North will always be up (unless you have it flipped in the settings). It should match the behavior of the AAVSO charts .
Please sign in to leave a comment.