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Observation chat

While most time I have people observing with me, sometimes i do not. I was curious if a built in skysafari community chat had ever been discussed.  What I envision is a chat function included which would allow you to be using the app, checking out the sky and sharing observations with others using sky safari at the same time.  Some data points shared would be general location, sky pollution, and gear setup.  The chat might include experts., who while observing themselves, give advice on eyepiece choices for a specific objects, ect. ect ect.    one glaring problem that occurs with having an included chat or a stand alone app is that some people lose internet connection while connected to their scopes. 

just a thrown together morning thought!  

thanks for the hard work!

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4 comments

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    Christopher,

    Thanks for the suggestion.  As a matter fact, we have recently discussed adding more "Social" features into the app just like you have suggested.  

    Yes the issue of not having an internet connection is a problem.

  • 0
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    Jeffrey Herrera

    I have internet from where I observe. I think a chat is nice but if not at least the ability to see that others are observing - maybe their general locations as well and see their sky conditions. Also the ability to look up other people's shared observation reports and/or picture or sketches on an object would be great. There's a bird app that I have on my phone that links to flickr for images beyond just the pics in the app itself. Just a thought.

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    Bill Tschumy

    Jeffrey,

    We are thinking exactly along those lines.  We would like to make observational astronomy more of a community activity.  This probably won't fully happen for the first release of SS6, but soon after.

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    Chris

    Sorry to bring up a very old thread, but I want to echo what the guys above have suggested. I have long desired for SS to become MUCH more social, using an opt in model. Chat features, observation sharing to the masses. This should be the next obvious step and should be possible with LiveSky. Cross platform would be great for this too. 

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