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Reduce Difficulty Adding Observation To Observing List

OSX SFP6, MacBookPro, High Sierra.

I created an observation of several double stars that showed noticeable changes in position angle from the positions reported in SkySafari and its DSS images.

These observations were therefore part of an observing session, but not assigned to an observing list.

I then created an new observing list called "Stars in Motion". I went back into the observations and into the session and the entry for the star observed. When I clicked on the "Observing List" button (which of course showed "None"), it brought up what should have been a list of observing lists. Instead, it only listed the first observation list in my list of observation lists (This object was not in the only list show, BTW). I then exited and went back to "Observing Lists" and moved "Stars in Motion" to the top of the list. When I went back to the observations and again tried to change the an observing list assigned to the observed star from "None", I again was presented only a list of one observing list, and it was now the "Stars in Motion" observing list. This work around allowed me to do what I intended, but of course it shouldn't work this way.

My presumption is that the functionality intended is that it should show all observing list, and you can select an observing list and it will add it to that observing list. Or maybe it should show the observing lists its already listed within at the top (highlighted to indicate this somehow) so you can just select one of those or you can add the observed object to a list that it isn't yet present in.

BTW, the iOS version of SFP 6 is broken even more. It does not show any observation lists at all, so there is no way of adding an link an observed object in an observation to an observing list, probably unless its already there. This is a real problem if I want to accumulate some observations unassigned to an observing list to an observing list it isn't present in. E.g. new interesting object, lets look at this again sometime. I can't even center it, get info, etc, so in iOS you are really stuck in this situation.

 

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6 comments

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    In reality, I suspect the iOS version is working correctly.  You can only attach an observation to an observing list if that object is already in the list.  So if you didn't have that double star in an observing list, you cannot attach that observation to the list.  I suppose we could add a separate command to both add the object to the list and attach the observation.

    So the question is what is going on with the Mac version.  I will have to look at it and see if I can reproduce this.  Stay tuned.

  • 0
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    Lowenthalm

    The Mac OS X version of SkySafari Pro 6 did correctly add it to the observing list (the one available to select!). I really think this should be the correct functionality. Just ask if its ok to add to the list, since it isn't there already.

    Being able to move impromptu observations to observing lists for future observation should absolutely be approach here. Why else would you not have an observed object in any observing list?

    The iOS version is much worse, in that there is no way to view an object in any way when you are looking at an observation that is not linked to an observing list. If it is in an observing list, you can click on go into the observing list entry and then eventually with a few more taps view it from there. Not very user friendly. Should just be allowed to center or get info on the object directly from the observation view.

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    OK, I found the bug in the Mac version.  We will push out a fix before too long.

    Sorry, but for now the iOS functionality is how it is going to work.  You can only attach an observation to a list that already has the object in it.  It is pretty easy to add an object to a list.

    I'm confused by this comment: "The iOS version is much worse, in that there is no way to view an object in any way when you are looking at an observation that is not linked to an observing list.".

     I'm curious why you need to do this?  Are you trying to see the object in the chart?  Are you trying to see the object info?  This is just not something that has come up for me as a need.  If I really wanted to I could just search for it by name.

  • 0
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    Lowenthalm

    Think about this workflow:

    1. Given: existing observing list containing objects of interest.
    2. Begin an observing session by creating a new observing session in the app.
    3. Use observing lists to cycle through a few objects, creating a new observation for each that goes into the current observing session. Nice.
    4. Note a few interesting objects nearby an object in your observing list. Observe it and create an observation of it unassociated with an observing list, since its impromptu. Some of these impromptu(ly?) observed objects might be nice double stars with a ridiculously long GAIA designation.
    5. End the observing session
    6. Open your observing session the next day toby going to Observe->Observations->Tap on last nights observing session. Cool, I can look through what I observed last night.
    7. Now, I can look at all my notes on the observation by tapping on an object on a list. In the  the Mac OS X implementation, at this point in the interface, it highlights the object in the observing session, which then permits me to get info on it, add it to an observing list through the "selection" menu, etc, In the iOS implementation I have access to none of this. All I can do is exit out of the observing list completely and type in the object name in the search field to get access to all the interface goodies that operate on the current selection. Not fun, especially if its a 35 digit GAIA star.

    In the iOS Observations view, it needs something like what you have in the iOS Observing List view where a menu pops up with options when you tap on an object in the list. The Observing List view menu shows: Show object info, Edit/Create Observation, Center Object. For the Observations List view, the menu to implement would be almost identical: Show object info, Edit Observation, Center Object.

    Hope that clarifies my hastily written initial post!

  • 0
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    Lowenthalm

    I really think the "Observations" database can be thought of as the central database. The Sessions and the Observing List can be thought of as observing-centric and planning-centric views of that database. The Observing List database can of course not have associated observations, since its for planning!

    Continuing on with this semi-symmetry between observing lists and sessions, I also noticed that there doesn't seem to be anyway to search to see which observing lists, if any contain a given object. You can search for observations and get an observing date and work your way back to the session you observed it in, but there is no way to determine if you have already added an object to one of your observing lists, but haven't observed it yet. I frequently have a couple of observing lists I am building for different parts of the evening and find that I sometimes lose track of where I added an object, but then I can't search for it to see which observing list I put it in accidentally.

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    Thanks for spelling out in detail what you are doing.  I agree that in iOS it is harder than it should be to select the object from an observation.  I will come up with a solution for this.

    I will also think about how to more easily find out what objects are in an observing list.

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