So I just wanted to let people know that I've found a novel use for the UCAC5 extension database (the add-on star database that adds an additional 75 million stars to SS6).
I'm one of these weird amateur astronomers that enjoys observing dark nebulae ... and while SkySafari has the locations for a lot of them, it didn't have nice boundary lines that would allow me to orient the field of view or know which dark nebulae was which. I asked if they could add the outlines, and Bill said he would if he could find a good place to be the digital data for the outlines. Oddly, I don't think it exists.
Well, if you get the UCAC5 extension database, and turn the limiting magnitude down (or is it up?) such that you can see the most stars, the absence of the stars forms the outlines of the dark nebulae (at least for the couple I was observing the other night). Pretty cool!
And the additional stars don't degrade the performance of SS6 too badly, even on my older iPad. Definitely a good addition!
Robert
