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Jumbo request list

I recently had a few evenings' intensive use to get intimately acquainted with SS6 Pro on iPad, together with a C-11 on a Losmandy Gemini-1 G-11. After getting familiar, the overall experience was delightful. I’ve owned every version of SSP and with all the improvements it is very, very good.  Kudos to the developers! 

 
That said, there is still a little room for improvement. Here is a list of thoughts I compiled during my sessions, in no particular order:
 
- I spent one evening spontaneously hopping around items from the “Tonight’s Best” list. It would be helpful if lists could be sorted by angular distance from the selected object, to cut down on long slews.
 
- The help is comprehensive but sometimes I have trouble finding the right page.  A way to search the help would be great.
 
- I was using an iPad Pro attached to the mount, which is very convenient for finding objects and directing go-tos. But, it doesn’t help with fine positioning: the tablet is fixed, so tilt-to-slew isn’t usable, and it’s too far from the eyepiece to reach the scope controls. So, I had to use the Gemini hand controller, which is less than ideal.
An idea: make it possible to use two devices to control the scope: that way I could use a phone at the eyepiece and a tablet in between observations. I imagine you could use BT or Wifi to slave one SkySafari to another; please consider this for a future feature. Or perhaps this is already possible using SkyFi? 
 
- I’m often not interested in planning ahead and don’t follow an observing list, but it would be nice to have a record of what I saw. I could add each item to an observing record — but it occurs to me that you could also keep a history of go-tos in the app, which would give a way of achieving more-or-less the same, but with no effort at the telescope. 
 
- Occasionally I want to see the orbit or path of the selected object — it would be nice if this was available under “Selected object”.  I know it can be toggled for all objects from the settings; this would just be a shortcut.
 
- I’d like a way to import an equipment list from a spreadsheet. 
 
Thanks for reading.
 
Mario

 

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3 comments

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    Mario,

    Thanks for the suggestions.  I have included some comments:

    1. So the list would automatically resort itself as you selected different objects?  That seems a little strange to me but worth thinking about.  If you sort the list by constellation, you will get very close to what you want (minimizing distance between objects).

    2. Searching help is worth considering.  Note that for many screens there is a ? icon that will take you to the Help for that screen

    3. Using two devices as master/slave is not currently possible.  I can add this to the list but given you are the first to request it, it probably won't have a high priority.  Sorry.

    4. The History is a history of selected objects, not ones you have gone to.  In SS6 it is really very easy to record that you've observed something.  Just use "Selection > Make Observation". You don't have to record anything about the observation, but the fact that you observed it will be recorded and automatically put into a "Session" for that night.

    5. The problem with adding "Show Selected Object Path" to the Selection menu is that everyone has their favorite operation that they want to add.  Pretty soon the menu will have 20 items in it.  The only solution is to make the menu fully customizable, but that is a reasonably big task.  But I agree, I find myself toggling that operation frequently myself.  I'll give it some thought.

    Thanks again for the comments.

  • 0
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    Mario Wolczko

    Bill,

    Thanks for the quick response.

    I could live with sort-by-constellation. Thanks for the suggestion, and the others too.

    re: two devices. Do you know what will happen if I try to connect two devices via SkyFi? If not, I will try it next time...

    -Mario

  • 0
    Avatar
    Bill Tschumy

    I suspect you will get some inconsistent errors.  But give it a try and report back.

     

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