SkyTools 4.0h Update Notes

[theskyhound]

Time is short – Okay it’s a great night but I’m running out of observing time, and there are a couple of objects on my list I really want to observe, however they are not on the “Best Now” list.  At this point I guess I should go back to the Nightly Planner for observing.

The selection criteria for making the “Best Now” list seems to be related not just to the position of the object in the sky, but also the size of the list and the length of time that it’s considered good (I assume the decision comes primarily from your quality factor which I really like by the way).  For example I have a bright star list which in ST3 shows 24 out of 49 objects available.  In ST4 this same list shows 17 out of 49 available.  Checking the ST3 list I see a number of objects that have not made to the ST4 list that are brighter and higher in the sky than some that have made it to the list in ST4.  For example, Nunki made the cut at magnitude 2.0 and 19.5 degrees altitude.  However, both Deneb and Altair are brighter and higher in the sky but did not make the cut.  In fact both are above a 2x air mass at 33.3 and 31.5 degrees altitude respectively.  I guess because they are available later in the night when they are better positioned they did not make the “Best Now” cut.  So even if an object is reasonably placed in the sky it may not necessarily show up on the Real Time Observing list.  I’ve also seen this with deep sky objects.  For example, the Veil at altitude +59.5 degrees did not make the cut but NGC 3928 at +17.0 degrees did.  In this case if I wanted to observe the Veil before I shut things down I should go to the Nightly Planner where I can make my log and observation entries.

The Best Now list shows all objects that are observable at that time, unless you specifically filter them out. So it is difficult for me to reconcile with your comments above (and in the rest of your post). The only thing I can think of is that you are using the other mode instead. Real Time has two modes: Best Now and Sky Tour. These modes are vastly different. The Sky Tour mode needs to be understood in detail and it has a much narrower purpose.

Please check that you are indeed using the Best Now mode. Look for the setting under "Mode of Operation."

The Sky Tour is actually pretty cool, but it is not for everyone, and can suffer from many of the problems you have outlined.