RTMC report

Excellent. Would you recommend one over the other for a guy just looking
to
do some observation planning?


Sky Tools is a commercial product and is designed for planning sessions.
HNSky is free and fast. I use them both. HNSky is available here...
http://hnsky.com/software.htm

-Florian

In article ,
AMnet says...
Rod,

I am looking for a program that will allow me to customize the visible sky
for my location. Specifically, I would like to enter the measurements for
my specific obstructions from my driveway viewing location (trees, houses,
small flying rodents) and have that selectable when I am using the program.
This will help me determine when I will be able to view items of interest.
Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?

The free Cartes du Ciel can do this, but you'll need to create a
horizon file with the obstruction altitude data in it. Not too
difficult, but possibly easier if you take a panoramic photo and work
from that (which is probably true of any program that offers
customizable horizons, including SkyTools and others).

--

-- Len Philpot - --
------ ----- http://philpot.org/ --

"Del Johnson" delastro@{right star in Orion's belt}.sdsu.edu wrote in
message ...
2. The conference was a ghost town on Sunday. Anybody giving a talk on
Sunday was just wasting their time. The RTMC organizers could fix this by
simply moving the big Saturday door prize to Sunday, the I guess that that
there are too many "I want in now!" whiners to allow for that. The RTMC
conference is for all practical purposes a one-day Saturday event.

I did not attend any of the talks in the dining hall on Sunday, but Ron
Wodaski's presentations in the annex on Sunday were pretty much SRO.

Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?

Thanks,

Tom

Hi Tom:

Yes. The Sky 6 will actually allow you to use a 360 degree panorama you can
create with a digital camera (or other_ as your "horizon". I'd be remiss,
however, if I didn't mention that you can do a simple version of this (filled
areas) with Cartes du Ciel, which is free.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

"Tom Hole" wrote in message
...
Rod,

I am looking for a program that will allow me to customize the visible sky
for my location. Specifically, I would like to enter the measurements for
my specific obstructions from my driveway viewing location (trees, houses,
small flying rodents) and have that selectable when I am using the
program.
This will help me determine when I will be able to view items of interest.
Can TheSky 6 do that for me? If not TheSky, some other program?

Starry Night Pro claims (although I have not tried it), that you can take a
panorama of pictures from your actual observing site and create the horizon
based on your photographs.

I attended one Sunday morning and got the heads up that Ceragoli hadn't
shown up for his talk. Too bad as it would have been an interesting one.

--
Bob May
Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less.
Works every time it is tried!

I peeked in a Chris Schur's Sunday talk and only saw a handful of attendees.
He normally draws a good crowd. The RTMC directors really need to address
this "come early, leave early" problem. Moving the merit awards to Saturday
night was a step in the wrong direction.

Del Johnson


"Alson Wong" wrote in message
...

I did not attend any of the talks in the dining hall on Sunday, but Ron
Wodaski's presentations in the annex on Sunday were pretty much SRO.

"Del Johnson" delastro@{right star in Orion's belt}.sdsu.edu wrote in
message ...
I peeked in a Chris Schur's Sunday talk and only saw a handful of
attendees.
He normally draws a good crowd. The RTMC directors really need to address
this "come early, leave early" problem. Moving the merit awards to
Saturday
night was a step in the wrong direction.

Del Johnson

There have been frequent requests over a number of years to move the merit
awards to Saturday, mainly to allow people to look at the telescopes and use
them on Saturday night, and also to allow attendees to vote for the
Astronomer's Choice Award. Having the merit awards on Sunday night might
keep a few more people around, but then they wouldn't have the opportunity
to look at them since most of those scopes are packed up and gone by then. I
believe your opinion is in the minority. The major door prizes are presented
on Saturday by request of the donors (Meade, Celestron).

The "come early" problem was addressed this year by strict enforcement of
the Friday morning entry time. In previous years, unauthorized people would
come in on Thursday.

Chris' talk was at the same time as Wodaski's workshop in the annex, which
was filled to capacity.

Overall attendance was in the neighborhood of 1,600, which was in line with
what we expected, considering the upcoming transit of Venus, waxing gibbous
Moon, and increase in fees.

The annex room isn't very large and most of the 1600 attendees were long
gone by then. Saturday's events filled the telescope areas, vendor booths,
and large lecture hall as well as the annex room. If the annex room was
full it was because there wasn't anything to see outside. Just about every
major vendor was packed up by noon, if they even bothered to open at all
that day. You have to decide if the RTMC is about a quick buck and a big
door prize, or, if it is about advancing amateur astronomy.

I wouldn't let anyone in until Friday afternoon, forbid any vendor activity
until Saturday, forbid non-astronomical vendors, and most importantly I
would kindly ask Meade to tone down the major door prize to a 10-inch
telecope and give it away on Sunday. Yes, there will be a materialistic
outcry from some but it will restore the conference to what it once was.

Did you know that the race to get in first is so intense that even
semi-local (within ~100 miles) people spend Thursday night in Big Bear
motels? It's crazy. People are taking Friday off from work and then
running home Saturday night on a 3-day weekend. All because of the Friday
"feeding frenzies" of the past. This needs to be stopped.

Del Johnson



"Alson Wong" wrote in message
...
"Del Johnson" delastro@{right star in Orion's belt}.sdsu.edu wrote in
message ...

There have been frequent requests over a number of years to move the merit
awards to Saturday, mainly to allow people to look at the telescopes and
use
them on Saturday night, and also to allow attendees to vote for the
Astronomer's Choice Award. Having the merit awards on Sunday night might
keep a few more people around, but then they wouldn't have the opportunity
to look at them since most of those scopes are packed up and gone by then.
I
believe your opinion is in the minority. The major door prizes are
presented
on Saturday by request of the donors (Meade, Celestron).

The "come early" problem was addressed this year by strict enforcement of
the Friday morning entry time. In previous years, unauthorized people
would
come in on Thursday.

Chris' talk was at the same time as Wodaski's workshop in the annex, which
was filled to capacity.

Overall attendance was in the neighborhood of 1,600, which was in line
with
what we expected, considering the upcoming transit of Venus, waxing
gibbous
Moon, and increase in fees.

"Del Johnson" delastro@{right star in Orion's belt}.sdsu.edu wrote in
message ...

2. I had a chance to view through Celestron's new 20-inch corrected
Dall-Kirlham cassegrain. [snip]

Are you sure? At NEAF I believe Celestron said the prototype they were
showing was only an 18", although the production model will be a 20".

Clear skies, Alan