I find that it can often disturb to have a blinking object on the display if you are not actually interested in selecting it, but there is no way to deselect an object you do not want selected, apart from selecting another object. How about toggling the selection instead?
Date
Votes
30 comments
-
Bill Tschumy Steen,
There is alway a selected object. Right now the selection indicator pulses on iOS, but not on Android. The only solution I can think of is to have an option not to pulse the selection indicator. We can consider this.
-
Steenkh Hello Bill,
You are right, I just found out that the Sun is selected at start. I had never noticed before.
Toggling the flashing indicator when the selected object is selected again would do nicely!
-
Graham Herbert Not being able to have no objects selected is very annoying deselecting an object needs to be an option without having to select another object.
-
Bill Tschumy Why is this any different than in a text editor where there is always a selection or an insertion point? You can't not have one.
Sorry, but this assumption that there is always a selected object permeates SkySafari. It would be a significant effort to change that. Given that we might get one or two comments a year on this, there are just other higher priority items to work on.
-
Robert Czerwinski I'm sorry, but many of us just haven't complained about the inability to turn off an object selection, and I had no idea the Sun was the default element. Guess it just goes to show how often I use SkySafari to look for the Sun. <big grin> I find no correlation between an object selection and a text editor. The fact that I've just accepted the flashing indicator is the norm for all of us; we've no choice. That said, I had no idea this would take a significant effort to change, so thanks for noting this.
-
Bryn Owen Can I suggest you add a "deselect" feature, but make it select the sun again as it does on startup? Seems like this would make everyone happy - no real change to how your software needs something selected, and for the user an easy way to seemingly deselect objects. Win win.
Thanks!
Bryn -
Don DeNatale Here it is, May of 2021, and I, a relatively new user of Sky Safari Pro on the iOS, am complaining about the inability to deselect objects. I would say to Bill Tschumy, if he is still around, that this is not a minor issue and it should be fixed. Thanks.
-
Keiron Smith Don,
Please explain why this is a big issue. Describe the use case where the deselection of an object is required and not being able to hinders continued workflow. Please help us better understand.
Thanks!
-
Don DeNatale Keiron,
It’s not a big issue, it is just an issue. I’d like to be able to de-select. Luminos does de-selection just fine. If you are unwilling to make these changes for iOS just say so. It does not “hinder workflow,” it’s just annoying.
Speaking of annoying, I would also like to be able to easily display solar system distances in miles. This would be very handy for star parties.
Please note, despite these tiny grievances, Sky Safari is one of my favorite astronomy apps. You are replacing Luminos on my mobile devices. Thank you.
-
Steenkh I agree with Don. It is a nuisance, but not a show stopper. The selected object attracts attention which is not always wanted.
for instance, if you are looking for an asteroid in a star field, the blinking cursor is useful, but once you know where the asteroid is, the blinking makes it almost impossible to compare with what you see in the telescope, particularly if the asteroid is one of the dimmer objects in the frame. It would be nice to switch the blinking off. I usually select an object outside of view to overcome the problem.
-
Keiron Smith Don,
The metric system is used because that is the official system of measurement used by Nasa.
Metric Moon | Science Mission Directorate (nasa.gov)
There is no "unwilingnesss" on our part. There is however the prioritization of a long list of issues, features, UI/UX that developers are working on for SS7. Not everything can be included in the new version. So, everything is a trade off; i.e. want X, give up Y?
As I know the app has been designed to always have an object selected, it may not be so easy to make deselection an option. All the underlying logic must comply with a new state. So, maybe easy to think, make it so, but not so easy in practice.
This is also why I ask how important it is, why it is such a PIA, to assess the value of reviewing this request and where it would sit in the very long list of things to do.
Per Steen's description of the issue, diming the crosshairs may be an easier solution, as the logic need not change.
Thank you for the feedback. Please keep it coming.
-
Don DeNatale Keiron,
I understand concerning the difficulty with coding deselection and agree that dimming the flashing cursor may be a good compromise. Thanks for that.
Concerning distance in miles, you should either add it or remove "miles" from Help>Selection Help>Object Info Help>Object Data>Distance. The reason I want miles given is that the public at star parties are always wanting to know the distance in miles to a solar system object. I can certainly approximate it by multiplying km distance by 0.6 (0.62 is a little tougher and not worth the effort), but I would think adding that info to the Distance section of solar system objects.
Thank you for your prompt, detailed answers. I really appreciate it!
-
Bryn Owen Would you consider my comment from Aug. 2018: treat deselection as selecting the Sun again. It solves everyone's problem! a) it should be easy to select, b) most people didn't know the sun was selected, so it looks like deselection, c) no fundamental change to the way your code works: something is always selected.
PS: I will echo what others have said, that it seems a little thing, but when you have object trails/dates turned on the screen is very busy. So when I select something I want to see all that, but then I would like to just click to deselect and have the clutter go away.
Thank you.
-
Keiron Smith If this is the proposed solution then why don't you just select the Sun when you want to deselect the current object?
No coding, same result.
-
Steenkh That was a joke, right? If you are looking at a blinking cursor marking a faint asteroid, you can’t just zoom out to select the Sun, and then find the asteroid again without causing it to be reselected. :)
-
Bryn Owen It is more effort to scroll around in the view hunting for the sun to select it, and lose your location in the window. Have you tried this?
-
Keiron Smith If I tap to select an object, center the object, zoom in, zoom out, tap to select another object, zoom back in again, I am still centered on the first object.
What is wrong with this workflow?
-
Chris Just click Tonight on the toolbar and select any object, solved. No zooming required.
-
Keiron Smith Right, Chris - that works too.
-
Steenkh You entirely correct, and that is also the workaround that I described earlier. The fun part was in suggesting that it would be practical to select the Sun. The more obvious method is to select a star just outside the field you are interested in.
As it has been said a number of times, this is not a big deal, but it certainly would be nice to have a _simple_ method to deselect, or hiding the selection cursor. Several people have mentioned it, so it cannot be an entirely strange wish.
-
Keiron Smith As was mentioned before, the request is not a problem. If there is an easy workaround, it is preferable to asking the developers to start digging into that code.
-
Don DeNatale Keiron,
Would you at least consider asking the developers to give the users the ability to dim the blinking selection cursor?
-
Bryn Owen Unfortunately, using "Tonight" then selecting any object pans the view - I would like to preserve my view (as others have mentioned), but change from having an object selected, to have nothing selected. To be clear, I do not care as much about the flashing selection cross as I do about the object path and dates showing up, which are useful when I select the object, but I do not want them there all the time. So, a "deselect" would be a benefit (not to mention a little more intuitive than poking around menus and toolbars).
Note: programs like your window manager, Word, and so on all implement this ability by allow you to click the mouse elsewhere, which from a UX point of view is what users have come to expect. I'm hopeful that if this request is eventually presented to your developers they will respond with "oh sure, of course, no problem!" Fingers crossed, and thanks in advance.
-
Chris That must be a differencebetween ios and Android then, as Android brings up the selected object's info page when selected from tonight. A quick back button press then gives you this de-selected state. Same for clicking on an object in the search history.
I'm curious how this would work for those that want this option. With objects all over the chart, stars everywhere, would you have to go into de-select mode every time while moving between objects? For example, if you're on a star and want to go to another star, does the first click off the selected star go into de-select mode, then another click is required to select the intended star? This seems like it would introduce a MUCH larger problem, unless I'm missing something. It's hard enough as it is to select the right object on the chart.
-
Bryn Owen In my case I am using SkySafari 6 Pro on MacOS. I am hoping for an intuitive deselect action like other programs: if I have something selected and I would like to deselect it, I just click somewhere else where there is nothing. In some cases it is a toggle, like selecting the same thing a second time would deselect it. I do not think people expect a "deselect" button or menu entry - it should be more natural than that.
I am not sure about any of this for iOS or Android!
-
Roman Bakay I'm not sure if it makes sense to deselect. It might be worth changing the selection logic. Think so. Blinking selection should continue for 5 seconds, after which the object does not blink (the crosshairs are simply lit). It won't be annoying.
-
Keiron Smith I'll ask developers to review this query again for SS7.
-
Keiron Smith DevOps reference: https://starrynight.unfuddle.com/a#/projects/7965/tickets/by_number/1668
-
J.P. Poveda I’m new to Sky Safari Pro, and I signed up for the premium services.
I too immediately found the inability to deselect my target object annoying. Workarounds are available, but it is a UX issue if a portion of your users identify this as a problem. That doesn’t mean it should be a P1 priority.
Bill asked above how this behavior is any different than the cursor in a word processor. Word processors don’t hang a label over my cursor. That would be an insanely bad UX, so they hide the context popup when you are ready to continue typing.
What is the use case for being able to deselect an object? Simple: if I’m observing nearby stars, especially of very high magnitudes, having a label cover them up is annoying.
Why not do the workaround? It’s friction. Sure I could do it, but it’s not enjoyable.
Here’s an alternative suggestion. Rather than auto selecting the sun, why not give us the option to hide the label of the selected object. Let me double tap (or long press) and add an x as an option to hide the object label. Leave the cross hair, but dim it, and increase its transparency (or hide it all together). If I tap the object again bring it all back. That your implementation needs something selected for whatever reason should have nothing to do with having to display that it’s selected. How your internal state is displayed is a UX issue not a fundamental architecture issue. If it is a fundamental architecture issue, then you guys definitely took a wrong turn and should evaluate hiring some talent that can help you out of that blackhole.Anyways, what I find more surprising isn’t that this is a low priority. It’s a bit concerning how defiant and resistant the team appears to be to what is an obvious felt need from paying customers. I’m not ready to cancel my subscription before my trial expires, but I’m hoping this tone isn’t the norm from the development team as I read around the forums some more. That would be disappointing.
Hoping for the best! Thanks.
-
Keiron Smith Thanks for your feedback, J.P. Your suggestions have been forwarded to the development team.
Please sign in to leave a comment.