Column sorting disabled

[theskyhound]

Hi Greg,

Please, please enable column sorting in Real Time. 

I totally get the "ideal" point of observing is to make the observation when it is best place in the sky.  No argument on that concept.  But in reality, observers don't always have those conditions.

First, I am a double star observer working off of long-term projects (physical binaries, all of Struve, all of Aitken, all of Burnham, etc.).  I am willing to make an observation if it is not ideally placed, knowing what I give up in quality.  But also my observing location is a suburban back yard, with a huge tree blocking meridian to the east, and my north blocked by my house, and I am on the landing path to a major airport so I have planes disturbing the air, and neighbors turning lights on at random.  Usually my best place to point the scope is not where the "Best Now" or "Tour" algo says it is, and I can't keep up with my projects because these algos remove my targets from Real Time.  Yes I can pick the object from Nightly Planner, but it's a real pain to use: I have to first open up the detail window and then a sub menu to slew to -- instead of just hitting a button on Real Time.  When using ST3 I was very efficient because I could sort the columns as dictated by conditions -- now it is observing with ST has become very irritating.

I observe with a 20-inch f/5.25, so I am on the ladder all night.  When I could sort columns I could arrange my list by constellation and RA, and I could stay on the ladder for the whole session because the sky would bring the double stars to me.  Now look how "Best Now" pre-sorted a list of Struves in Hercules: there is often 1 hour of RA difference row to row.  I either have to move the ladder with each slew, or I have to scrutinize the observing list and "sort" it manually by earliest RA.

Please, give us the flexibility to manipulate our observing lists.  Yes we give up the best view, but in life we don't always have that opportunity.

Thanks
Mark

Mark,

I only had a brief moment to read your message yesterday and my responses were poor as a result.

Thanks for sharing your observing situation and the screen capture. The way the algorithm currently works is when you are looking overhead it minimizes how far you move the telescope. In my experience, the way that works in practice is to move from one object to another in a group of similar RA, and then jump in Dec to another group. I see from your screen capture that in your case it is staying at a similar Dec and moving in RA, which I can see as not optimal for a Dob with a ladder. This is something that could potentially be improved in the algorithm when a Dob with a ladder is in use. But given that this isn't the way I usually see it work, before I look into changing the algorithm, I'd like to see the full screen capture with the top object selected, the use of a more reasonable value for the seeing, and the proper quality filter set. That and I can't tell if you have set up an obstructed horizon. My concern is that in your efforts to work around a perceived problem you have in fact created a much larger problem.

I strongly suggest adding an obstructed horizon so that SkyTools is aware of the places in the sky where you can't observe. 

Looking again... you have disabled a lot of useful information, including the quality columns, and aren't using any filters on the list. This makes me wonder if you don't have things set up properly (I can't see the Nightbar in your screen capture) and have given up on other ST4 features as a result of that. Please reach out to me with more information about your location, and full window screen captures.

Thanks!