Hi Marek,
Skytools will sort in Alt./Az. You can sort by page number of many printed
Atlases, rise and set time, you can even sort by optimum viewing time! I
like this program allot, as a matter of fact I'm going to remove most of the
astronomical software I have on my laptop.
I will keep Skytools 2.0, MegaStar 5.0 and for sentimental reasons TheSky
5.0, I'm dumping SkyMap Pro, Cartes du Ciel, StarryNight Pro and 2 or 3
others. That should clear out about 2 gigabyte of disk space. :-)
Next time we're out observing stop by my spot and I'll let you check it out.
Rashad
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marek Cichanski" <marekc@No-Spam>
To: <sf-bay-tac@No-Spam>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 1:00 PM
Subject: [TAC] Observing order, chart binning, and azimuth order
> I've found the recent thread about sorting one's observing list to be
pretty interesting. I've tangled with this a little bit myself.
>
> Bob and Mark have pointed out ways of approaching this that work fairly
well for them. Sorting by RA, Dec, or constellation are straightforward
algorithms, and they've had good luck with these methods.
>
> Matthew pointed out that there are 'traveling salesman' algorithms that
might be applied, to do things like minimize hop distances. Turns out that
astro planning software makes use of this. I use NGCView, which has its own
proprietary "Observing Order" algorithm. I believe that SkyTools has
something like this, too; Rashad might have some experience with this.
>
> I haven't tested the usefulness of NGCView's 'Observing Order' yet, but it
mostly seems to make sense. It does create a few weird, long hops from time
to time, though. One other nice NGCView feature is "binning". You can create
an observing list, sort it by 'Observing Order', and then bin it by SA2000
page or Uranometria page. This is pretty handy. I did this at Shingletown
last year, and it was pretty helpful.
>
> What I would really like to see is an "Azimuth Order" algorithm. Why?
Because I look at DSOs with a dob. The big pain the neck for me is making
changes in azimuth. Moving my Denver chair and accessory cart is a pain.
Altitude changes are less of a big deal when I'm using my dob, especially if
I exclude stuff above about 50 degrees altitude. I'd love to be able to sort
the list so that I only make azimuth changes in one direction as I work
through the list. Of course, other factors come in to play, such as the time
taken on each object, the time of night, and whether or not I take breaks
while working the list. Mark's approach of sorting an RA window by
declination is probably a pretty close approximation to the solution I'm
looking for.
>
> I swear, I think I like this part of observing better than the observing
itself - the "ergonomics" of it. I always want to know how I can make the
process as easy and efficient as possible, so as to maximize time and energy
spent looking at the object, and/or searching and destroying. I would call
my approach to observing "Stop and smell the roses while engaged in your
search and destroy mission." (Maybe just call it 'search and destroy the
roses'? Hmm, that sounds a little brutal to me...)
>
> Marek