2026-05-14, 05:56 AM
Hello,
There is a misunderstanding. The purpose of the planner is to help you plan which objects to look at that night (and which ones to save for a night they will be better) and to tell you what time is best to look at them. The quality filter isn't about the object. Its about whether or not the object is at its best that night. Some objects need a dark site, some don't. Some objects need to be as high in the sky as possible, but some aren't affected as much by the altitude. SkyTools knows what the quality for viewing the object is at any time. For the selected object, that is the blue line on the Nightbar. When high, the object is at or near its best. There is also a color bar just below that tells you when the best time of night is for your object and what the quality is during the night. You want to look at the object when the bar is bright green. The quality filter only shows objects that are at or near their best that night. So you can leave the poorly observed objects for another night. Jupiter will make people happy, but not when its a boiling mess ten degrees off the horizon. A nebula may also make people happy, but not when the moon is up. Make sense?
The sliders are on the far left and far right ends of the Nightbar graphic (at the top). Hold the left mouse button down to grab them and move to the time you want. You can also set the the start and end times by entering the times in the boxes on the dialog.
The Nightly Planner isn't about sorting for a season. Its about sorting for that specific night. Its a different way to think about it, but if you stop and think, it makes the most sense. Take an observing list, like the Messier, and the Nightly Planner will tell you which objects too look at (because they are at their best) and what time to look at them. Click on the Best column header and it will sort by the best time. Just go down the list after that, looking at each object near that best time. There isn't a good reason to care about next week or next month. Just take it night by night. If you miss objects, it will only be because of bad weather, and there isn't anything you can do about that anyhow.
As I suspected, your location isn't quite set up correctly. Go back to the location dialog and change the time zone to MST (-7) and then click the Daylight Saving Rules radio button. Once you close and look at the Nightbar you should see that midnight is much closer to the middle of the dark period of the night (its off by one hour because of Daylight Saving time).
I recommend opening the Help menu at the top and watching the first two tutorials. That's an old version, and a few things are different, but the basics are going to be the same. The second video about using the Nightly Planner may really help you get more out of the software.
If you have more questions, please fee free to ask.
There is a misunderstanding. The purpose of the planner is to help you plan which objects to look at that night (and which ones to save for a night they will be better) and to tell you what time is best to look at them. The quality filter isn't about the object. Its about whether or not the object is at its best that night. Some objects need a dark site, some don't. Some objects need to be as high in the sky as possible, but some aren't affected as much by the altitude. SkyTools knows what the quality for viewing the object is at any time. For the selected object, that is the blue line on the Nightbar. When high, the object is at or near its best. There is also a color bar just below that tells you when the best time of night is for your object and what the quality is during the night. You want to look at the object when the bar is bright green. The quality filter only shows objects that are at or near their best that night. So you can leave the poorly observed objects for another night. Jupiter will make people happy, but not when its a boiling mess ten degrees off the horizon. A nebula may also make people happy, but not when the moon is up. Make sense?
The sliders are on the far left and far right ends of the Nightbar graphic (at the top). Hold the left mouse button down to grab them and move to the time you want. You can also set the the start and end times by entering the times in the boxes on the dialog.
The Nightly Planner isn't about sorting for a season. Its about sorting for that specific night. Its a different way to think about it, but if you stop and think, it makes the most sense. Take an observing list, like the Messier, and the Nightly Planner will tell you which objects too look at (because they are at their best) and what time to look at them. Click on the Best column header and it will sort by the best time. Just go down the list after that, looking at each object near that best time. There isn't a good reason to care about next week or next month. Just take it night by night. If you miss objects, it will only be because of bad weather, and there isn't anything you can do about that anyhow.
As I suspected, your location isn't quite set up correctly. Go back to the location dialog and change the time zone to MST (-7) and then click the Daylight Saving Rules radio button. Once you close and look at the Nightbar you should see that midnight is much closer to the middle of the dark period of the night (its off by one hour because of Daylight Saving time).
I recommend opening the Help menu at the top and watching the first two tutorials. That's an old version, and a few things are different, but the basics are going to be the same. The second video about using the Nightly Planner may really help you get more out of the software.
If you have more questions, please fee free to ask.
Clear skies,
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound
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