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[Bug] SkySafari 6 Pro | Looping / Bounce in Time Flow Mode

Dan Carlock

March 09, 2018 06:40

Answered

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Using SkySafari Pro ver 6.0.4.30 on my iPhone X (iOS 11.2.6) when Time Flow mode is engaged while viewing the Sky Chart as seen from the earth's surface, the displayed animation "bounces" i.e., loops in time over a span of roughly 20 seconds, causing the celestial rotation to endlessly repeat itself.  This fluctuation is readily seen in the minutes digits of the time, though oddly the seconds digits continue to increment nominally.  Similar erratic behavior is also seen for the other time units such as Seconds, Hours, Days, etc.).  

Please see video screenshot.  

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6 comments

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  Bill Tschumy March 09, 2018 15:03

  Yeah, that's pretty strange.  We do have a "hidden" feature that allows you to make a looping animation, but I'm not sure how that would get enabled.  The fact that the seconds increment also indicates that something else is going on.

  I also notice that the horizon is tilted.  Is that a custom horizon you made?

  I will need to see your [CurrentSettings].skyset file to diagnose this.  The safest way for me to be sure I get the exact file you are using is for you to use iTunes File Sharing to look in the Documents directory of SkySafari 6 and copy that file to your desktop then email it to me.  Please send to "bill at simcur dot com".

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  Dan Carlock March 09, 2018 20:41

  I've sent you the .skyset file via email as per your request.

  Not a custom horizon; under Settings | Horizon & Sky: as Panoramic Image - checked, Horizon Panoramas - Hanalei Beach.  Under Settings | Date & Time: Use Current Time - off, Automatic Daylight Saving Time - on.  Under Settings | Grid & Reference, Show Grid - on, with Equatorial Coordinates - checked, Zenith & Nadir - on.  The horizon tilting effect appears to be a consequence of the angle between the longitudinal axis of the iPhone and the gravity vector: "clocking" the phone CW or CCW causes the horizon to commensurately tilt such that the displayed and actual horizon edges are colinear.  It must have been so when I captured the video (after enabling the iPhone's Settings | Control Center | Screen Recording control).

  The other observation I can offer is that this bug does not always manifest itself.  I wonder whether the tilt of my iPhone wrt vertical is coupling into the program's determination of where the user is pointing the LOS (i.e., the vector pointing out the back of the phone, opposite the screen).

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  Bill Lee October 05, 2018 07:04

  I have the same problem. I’m using Sky Safari Pro 6.2.0.8 on an iPad Pro 9.5” 2017 running iOS 12.0.

  When I change the time period by tapping the “Time” icon, then the period window, select seconds, press del until the period window reads “0 Seconds”, doing the same for minutes, hours, days, and months. Entering 500 for years and pressing the fast forward results in the sky jumping around and the time jumping through different months days, hours, minutes, and seconds. 

  This seems like a bug

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  Bill Tschumy October 05, 2018 13:33

  Bill,

  I think your issue is different.  When we advance time by 1 year we literally advance by 365 days.  Because of the vagaries of the calendar, this will jump the date around.

  You do not need to to clear out other time units when setting how much to advance time.  Just tap "years" and enter the multiplier you want.  The other units are effectively zero.

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  Bill Lee October 05, 2018 19:25

  Okay. Just makes it a little hard to follow the proper motion of the stars, but that makes sense 

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  Bill Tschumy October 05, 2018 19:39

  Ah, what you want to do is set the time step unit to be "Sidereal Day".  After one sidereal day, the stars will be in exactly the same position in the sky as before.  Now set the multiplier to something like 1000 and you will see proper motion.  Make sure Proper Motion is turned on in the Precession settings.