Skytools 2 - A couple of questions

Hi All

I am thinking of purchasing Skytools 2 to use in conjunction with CDC.
It seems to meet most of my requirements, but I do have a couple of
questions re usage, mainly due to my slightly odd viewing
habits/situation.
I have looked at the website but can't find a demo version or definite
answers to my questions.

I have 2 viewing sites at present. Location 1 is my home address which
has medium light pollution, poor weather for much of the time and *very*
modest equipment. This is "real life" viewing. The 2nd is a robotic
observatory, viewed and controlled via the Internet from location 1. It
is located up a mountain in the Canary Isles, equipped with a couple of
16" Celstrons and SBIG CCD imaging cameras.

Questions:
1. As both viewing locations are used in the same evening/night can I
*easily* change Skytools viewing location/logs back and forth during the
night? (without running the risk of corrupting or mixing up the
databases) and keeping separate logging info for each site.

2. Could I search for an object, (say, NGC 6962) without specifying time
or location, and still bring up the object information window, even if
the object is not observable from the current selectable viewing
location?
The reason for this is to access the object database and look up other
names, RA & Dec etc. If the answer is yes, can I then easily get a
schedule of when it *would* be available for viewing (from either
location) at a chosen time?
I guess that I would need to specify the viewing location in this case,
rather than get a display of both locations at once, is that correct?

Any thoughts or drawbacks about this software would also be useful :-)

Thanks for any help.

Dave
--
Dave B

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 19:13:25 +0000, daveb wrote:

Questions:
1. As both viewing locations are used in the same evening/night can I
*easily* change Skytools viewing location/logs back and forth during the
night? (without running the risk of corrupting or mixing up the
databases) and keeping separate logging info for each site.

2. Could I search for an object, (say, NGC 6962) without specifying time
or location, and still bring up the object information window, even if
the object is not observable from the current selectable viewing
location?
The reason for this is to access the object database and look up other
names, RA & Dec etc. If the answer is yes, can I then easily get a
schedule of when it *would* be available for viewing (from either
location) at a chosen time?
I guess that I would need to specify the viewing location in this case,
rather than get a display of both locations at once, is that correct?

Any thoughts or drawbacks about this software would also be useful :-)

Thanks for any help.

Dave

And if you do buy Skytools, it comes with a Tutorial. That is how I
got familiar with it.

Bill

In message , Pierre
Vandevennne writes

1. As both viewing locations are used in the same evening/night can I
*easily* change Skytools viewing location/logs back and forth during
the

Yes for easily, simply by clicking on either the
location/observer/instrument and selecting the one involved (minor
complaint, their locations from pane to pane isn't consistent)

night? (without running the risk of corrupting or mixing up the
databases) and keeping separate logging info for each site.

Reliably, I don't know yet G. That's a valid question though.

2. Could I search for an object, (say, NGC 6962) without specifying
time
or location, and still bring up the object information window, even if
the object is not observable from the current selectable viewing
location?

Yes, and get the "yearbar"/"nighbar" or whatever other info you need.

The reason for this is to access the object database and look up other
names, RA & Dec etc. If the answer is yes, can I then easily get a
schedule of when it *would* be available for viewing (from either
location) at a chosen time?

Yes, that is one of the very strong points of the program imho. In CDC,
you'd have to select the object and the set the date and see where the
object is, or animate. In skytools2, the yearly and nightly elevation bar
give you the answer at a glance. And you could alternate between your
locations in two clicks.

I guess that I would need to specify the viewing location in this case,
rather than get a display of both locations at once, is that correct?

Put yourself in the nightbar or yearbar, Click on location. Select the
location, look at the curve. That's all there is to it.

Any thoughts or drawbacks about this software would also be useful :-)

I was thinking of writing something like that for my own use (actually
that would have been a program dedicated to my best quadrant, between the
trees and the meridian). Skytools does everything I wanted my own program
to do, and much much more. Now, this is not a blind tribute to the
program: I've had some issues with its scope control module. Where CDC
would just silently ignore an issue/delay with the Ascom drivers,
Skytools loses the scope a bit more than CDC, bombs out when it loses it,
and has, on several occasions, displayed dozens of message boxes on the
screen is such cases. A bit annoying if one is using VNC to access the
scope controlling PC.

Despite of that, this program is a must buy, and a steal as well at the
current USD rate...

Pierre

Thank you for that really useful info. The scope control is not an issue
for me at present as my home one has no goto facility so I don't plan to
get the real time add on. The rest sounds just what I am looking for.

Thanks for your help.

Dave

--
Dave B

Hi,

Pierre Vandevennne wrote:
I've had some issues with its scope control module. Where CDC
would just silently ignore an issue/delay with the Ascom drivers,
Skytools loses the scope a bit more than CDC, bombs out when it loses it,
and has, on several occasions, displayed dozens of message boxes on the
screen is such cases. A bit annoying if one is using VNC to access the
scope controlling PC.

Have you considered contacting us about it? I have never heard any
other reports of similar problems. My guess is that you have some sort
of configuration issue that would be easily addressed...

Greg

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply have a physician remove your spleen

Hi,

Pierre Vandevennne wrote:
Greg Crinklaw wrote in
:

Have you considered contacting us about it? I have never heard any
other reports of similar problems. My guess is that you have some
sort of configuration issue that would be easily addressed...

I don't think that's a configuration issue. I am experiencing the same
issue on the two desktops and two laptops I tried in an ASCOM config that
hasn't bombed once with CDC. I'll send you an extensive description of the
configs by e-mail. Also, I don't think the whole program should exit on a
time out issue.

Under normal circumstances it doesn't... Send the info and we'll see
what we can do.

Greg


This being said, your program is a must have: there are quite a few things
it does extremely well.





--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply have a physician remove your spleen