0

How To Add Location Info To An Observation (Answer: Locations Are Tied To Sessions)

Jim Michnowicz

December 17, 2018 02:16

Answered

Follow

Hello, 

I've searched for answers on this, but am coming up empty. I think I'm having trouble wrapping my head around changes that need to happen in my workflow coming from Sky Safari 5 Pro. 

First, I'm can't figure out how to add location info to an observation - unless I setup a new session first. I can add location info to a session that I assume will populate down to observations tied to that session. But in the Create New Observation dialog, it lists "Time, Location and List" below comments - but don't see a place to add location. Are locations tied to sessions? If I want to include location in an observation, do I have to start a new session first?

Related to this - when I export my observations from LiveSky (.csv), all of my imported observations from Sky Safari 5, or any observations not tied to a session, are missing location info. So the location box from the Sky Safari 5 observation dialog doesn't appear to be read by Sky Safari 6. Is there a way to recover this info without having to go in a retype it all, or creating fake sessions in Sky Safari 6 so that the observation is tagged with location info?

Like I said, I think I might just need to get used to Sky Safari 6 - the observation dialog doesn't seem as intuitive to me as Sky Safari 5 - and I'm just having trouble finding the groove of how to accomplish the same things (inputing location info and then exporting it) in the new software.

Any pointers or guidance appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

2 comments

• 0
  
  Bill Tschumy January 03, 2019 21:18

  Jim,

  Sorry no one has responded to you before this.  Due to time constraints I no longer regularly read the forums.  Keiron has been swamped with the Starry Night 8 release.

  Locations are indeed tied to a session.  When you create an observation, it looks to see if the current chart time is within an hour of the the most recent session and extends the session if so.  Your location also has to be within 500 meters of the previous session's location for it to be extended and used in the observation.  If that is not the case a new "Untitled" session is automatically created for you.

  This should be all automatic.  You should rarely have to manually create a session.

  With respect to your LiveSky question:

  When you import an observing list (with observations) from SS5, much of the meta-data is added to the comments.  This includes Location, equipment, transparency and seeing.  It was deemed to difficult to map this into the way SS6 handles this information.   So the location information should be there in the comments but not in session.  In fact for imported observations, no session is automatically created.  You can always manually create a session and attach it to an observation.

   

   

• 0
  
  Jim Michnowicz January 26, 2019 02:01

  Bill, sorry for my delayed reply. Thanks for the detailed answer. It makes sense now - I hadn’t realized that sessions were automatically being created - I kept creating my own. Very intuitive now that I see how it works. Thanks!