AstroPlanner Features

Sites

Observing sites can be manually set up, by entering the latitude, longitude, etc. There is also an extensive list of US and Canadian cities that can be used. Google Earth can be used to display or enter a site’s coordinates (Mac-only at present). You can also acquire site coordinates from your computerised telescope or from a separate GPS unit.

You can define the site horizon for each site. This enables the application to determine visibility of objects during the night.

Telescopes

Telescopes can be set up manually, or by accessing a list of most commercially-available telescopes.

Eyepieces

Eyepieces can be set up manually, or by accessing a list of most commercially-available telescopes.

Visual Aids

Visual aids, such as Barlow lenses, focal reducers, etc. can be defined. They are used when calculating effective focal length of telescope.

Compare and match

Telescopes can be paired with each available eyepiece and visual aid to determine magnification, exit pupil size, etc.

Manual entry

Objects can be entered manually (or imported in various ways – see below). The user enters the coordinates of the object, or in the case of solar system objects, the orbital parameters.

Rapid search

If you only know the ID (e.g. NGC1234) or the name (e.g. Procyon), you can search the catalogues rapidly to find the object’s data. It takes only a few seconds to search 100+ catalogues.

User-defined fields

Several user-defined fields are available. These can be used for whatever purpose the user sees fit. Some uses include custom sorting orders, results of script executions, etc.

Help for obscure double-star IDs, etc.

Palettes are available to assist in entering obscure names and those with Greek characters, etc.

Catalogue search

Extensive catalogue search features are included, enabling you to “drill down” into the catalogues and extract just what you want. For example: "Find all globular clusters brighter than magnitude 7 that are visible from my observing site between 10pm and midnight on Saturday."

Over 100 catalogues

More than 100 catalogues containing over 1.3 million DSOs and 50 million stars are available. Dozens of object types are present, from stars and open clusters to pulsars and quasars.

UCAC and USNO A2.0 catalogues (optional)

These catalogues are available separately on CD- and DVD-ROM. The USNO catalogue alone contains over 500 million stars down to magnitude 19 and fainter. The UCAC2 catalogue is of interest to southern hemisphere observers.

USNO B1.0 on-line access

The USNO B1.0 catalogue is also available on-line, for those really dim stars.

User-contributed plans

The plans also include:

• Burnham’s Celestial Handbook. All of the observing lists from the 3-volume handbook have been converted into downloadable plans.
• Night Sky Observer’s Guide. All of the objects from the 2-volume guide have been converted into downloadable plans.
• Astronomy and Sky & Telescope. A number of observing lists have been created based on articles in these magazines.
• Astronomical League. Many of the leagues observing club lists have been converted to plans.

AAVSO variable star observing

Extensive support for AAVSO variable-star observers is included.

• Choose stars to observe from the AAVSO-sanctioned list, downloaded from the AAVSO website.
• Finder and constellation charts for the stars can be downloaded and cached or printed for future use.
• Observation data and charts can be accessed from within the application.
• An observation planner is included that allows you to plan observations of multiple stars over a period of time into the future. You are reminded which stars are due for observation, etc.

Solar system objects

Solar system objects can be included in observing plans. The current positions and magnitudes of the objects are constantly updated. These objects include:

• Planets and planetary satellites
• Comets
• Minor planets & asteroids

Comets, minor-planets and asteroid orbital data can be entered manually or imported from various on-line sources:

• Harvard Center for Astrophysics
• Jet Propulsion Lab
• MPCORB
• ASTORB

Extragalactic supernova data

Current extragalactic supernova data can be imported directly from the Harvard Center for Astrophysics website.

Importing object data

• Generic text files. Just about any text-based file can be read and parsed.
• PDA support. You can import observations made with the Planetarium PDA application, and also from Astromist user catalogues.

Exporting object data

AstroPlanner includes methods of exporting data:

• Generic text format. Covers just about any text format.
• ScopeDriver format. Directly importable by the ScopeDriver application.
• Excel format. Output directly to an Excel file (both old and new format).
• PDA support. Output data in a form readable by Planetarium, Astromist, and PalmDSC.
• Argo Navis user catalogue. Output in the format required by the Argo Navis system. You can also upload the plan data directly to the Argo Navis controller.
• Meade Autostar Tour. Construct tours suitable for telescopes using the Meade Autostar controllers.

Plan Creation Wizard

Let AstroPlanner select objects for your plan. Specify your telescope, observing site, skill level, what you'd like to observer, etc. and AstroPlanner will scour the catalogues and find suitable objects for your observing plan.

Computed parameters

As well as static parameters for deep sky objects (such as coordinates, magnitude, size, etc.), several columns are computed for your convenience:

• Visibility. As well as rise, transit set times and hour angle, a visibility status is shown that tells you at a glance whether object is below the (theoretical) horizon, behind the trees (user-specified horizon), out-of-limits for your telescope, etc. The date that an object transits closest to midnight can be displayed.
• Double-star info. For double-star observiers, two measures of difficulty can be displayed: Difficulty Index (based on fuzzy logic) and Lord’s Rating (based on relative magnitudes).
• Deep sky info. Surface Brightness, Log Object Contrast, ODM.(Optimum Detection Magnification).
• Variable star info. Air Mass, Heliocentric Julian date, Atmospheric extinction, Apparent Magnitude.
• Chart numbers. The page or chart number of an object in several printed atlases can be displayed. These include the Millennium Star Atlas, Uranometria (both editions), SkyGX, Sky Atlas 2000.0, and several others.

Sorting and selection strategies

• Single and multiple column sorting.
• Minimum-slew sorting. Sort the objects into an order that will minimise slewing of the telescope.
• Highlighting. Highlight objects on the plan based on various parameters. e.g. visible, not yet observed, within certain magnitude limits, etc.
• Cross-referencing. Cross-reference objects in other catalogues.
• Duplicate deletion. Delete duplicate objects (that might have a different name, but represent the same physical object).

DSS and user image display

Display the fields containing the objects from various on-line sources:

• POSS 1st Gen
• POSS 2nd Gen
• SDSS
• Others

The images can be optionally cached on disk for viewing later in the field. User images can also be attached to objects.

Current, Nightly and Annual visibility graphics

Graphical displays show current azimuth and altitude of the object, the visibility of the object (and the moon) during the night, and during the year.

Observations

Observe and log your observations directly. Sort and summarise your observations.

AAVSO support: Log all AAVSO field data in a user-friendly way and let AstroPlanner deal with formatting the observations for submission. Submit observations direct from AstroPlanner via e-mail.

Night vision mode

Adjusts screen gamma (Mac) or screen element colouring (Windows) to help preserve night vision.

Graphs of user-defined values

Draw charts of user-defined values in observations. Includes tools to detect and display periodicity in the data.

Clear Sky Clock

AstroPlanner will find and display the Clear-Sky Clock for the station nearest to you.

Voice control (Macintosh-only)

Use voice recognition features to select objects, find the current time. and control your telescope using only your voice. Includes synthesised speech feeback.

Whole sky

The whole visible sky is plotted, including (optionally) stars and planets, constellation figures and boundaries, milky way, coordinate lines, user plan objects, meteor showers, telescope alignment stars, user-defined horizon, telescope slew limits, etc.

Field of View

A chart showing the "predicted" field of view, given a specified optical system (telescope, eyepiece and visual aid) can be drawn. Objects from any or all catalogues can be plotted. The field of view can be rotated (either arbitrarily or to follow the view as seen on an alt-azimuth mounted telescope).

You can also plot constellation stick figures and boundaries, proper motion of stars (for cluster identification), tracks of solar system objects over time, planets (including scaled and correctly oriented satellites and rings for Jupiter and Saturn), etc.

You can define and display reticles on the chart. These can be for CCD and other imagers (including rotatable tracking sensors), astrometric eyepiece reticles, Telrad or Rigel reticles

DSS images

Download DSS images of the current field of view (or display cached images). Display them next to the list of objects, or in separate windows. Overlay with field of view outline for various telescope/eyepiece combinations, custom reticles, etc. Identify objects in an image by moving the cursor.

Go-To telescope support

All go-to telescopes include reporting of current pointing RA/Dec, and slewing to a particular object or RADec coordinate.

All Meade and Celestron Go-to telescopes are supported. Other Go-to telescope mounts supported include:

• Astro-Physics
• Vixen SkySensor
• ServoCAT
• ACL-compatible mounts
• Sky Tracker
• Emulated go-to telescope. This can be used to try various telescope-related functions without a physical telescope being needed.

Digital Setting Circle support

All DSC-mounted telescopes include reporting of current pointing RA/Dec. Supported controllers include:

• Argo Navis. Includes direct plan uploading, including solar system objects.
• Sky Commander. Includes direct plan object upload.
• Meade Magellan.
• Orion Intelliscope. Includes a graphical interface to calibrate the telescope.
• Emulated DSC telescope. This can be used to try various telescope-related functions without a physical telescope being needed.

Automatic telescope detection

AstroPlanner can check all known serial ports for the presence of a telescope controller, and in most cases determine the telescope type.

High-precision slewing

Slew the telescope to a bright star near the target for synch before the final slew. This helps in making accurate precise to a target that might be hard to find if it isn't dead centre in the field of view.

Spiral scan

Slew the telescope in a spiral path from origin. This can be helpful in locating an object, esp. if the optical system has a small field-of-view.

Alignment star selection

Helps in choosing suitable alignment stars for your telescope in order to get the best initial mount alignment. Best-Pair alt-az (for LX200 Classic and others) and polar alignment 2- and 3-star selection algorithms. Alignment stars can be shown on the whole sky chart.

Meade telescope control palette

Palette includes functionality to control motion, tracking rates, focussing, de-rotator, fans, etc.

OTA temperature

Track and chart OTA temperature on Meade Autostar II controlled scopes (LX200 and RCX400).

Polar alignment

• Iterative polar alignment. Homes in on the best alignment iteratively using a convenient user interface that tracks error, etc. Selection of pole star (for those living near the equator).
• Drift alignment helper. Uses a convenient user interface to assist in drift alignment of polar-mounted go-to scopes. Select suitable stars, slew to them, and set a timer to help with drift measurement.

Argo Navis and Sky Commander download

Direct download of plan objects to the telescope controller. No intermediate steps required.