Hi Greg and the group. Sometimes I'm kind of slow figuring out how to use SkyTools to its best. I have the Messier list here in front of me. I specify (in Nightly Planner mode) that I want to try this marathon this Saturday night. This will be my fourth year to do the marathon... so I guess I have a bit of an idea of how I'd like to do it. I hope to start as soon as M77 and/or M74 come into view in my EAA screen. That should be around 7pm-ish. I was a fascinated with the idea that the "Generate Observing Plan" mode might keep me organized and on track... 2 minutes to find the next target... 3 minutes to observe, then on to the next target. So I put the hopeful times into the "From... to..." boxes... from 7pm to 7:30am. Then i click "Generate Observing Plan."
First, I just want to make sure I understand the use of the "Altitude" field. With "Generate Observing Plan" checked, what should the altitude be informing me? What do you suppose these numbers in the Altitude field represent... It might be logical to assume that this is the altitude of the object at the time it's recommending i observe it, right?
Otherwise, the good news is... SkyTools is showing me proposed times for 88 of the 110 objects. But, if there is any bad news, it would be that it has completely left out the other objects that it doesn't think I should waste time seeing. So it seems to be leaving out some 22 objects without asking me. But it's a Messier Marathon. I have to try. How do I *force* SkyTools to show me what I want to see - my best chances of seeing the whole marathon??? In a way, this kind of goes back to my same weakness ... the same question I have so far in SkyTools. I can't get it to let *me* be the boss. How do I *force* SkyTools to show me the best case scenario of viewing all 110 objects?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Doug
First, I just want to make sure I understand the use of the "Altitude" field. With "Generate Observing Plan" checked, what should the altitude be informing me? What do you suppose these numbers in the Altitude field represent... It might be logical to assume that this is the altitude of the object at the time it's recommending i observe it, right?
Otherwise, the good news is... SkyTools is showing me proposed times for 88 of the 110 objects. But, if there is any bad news, it would be that it has completely left out the other objects that it doesn't think I should waste time seeing. So it seems to be leaving out some 22 objects without asking me. But it's a Messier Marathon. I have to try. How do I *force* SkyTools to show me what I want to see - my best chances of seeing the whole marathon??? In a way, this kind of goes back to my same weakness ... the same question I have so far in SkyTools. I can't get it to let *me* be the boss. How do I *force* SkyTools to show me the best case scenario of viewing all 110 objects?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Doug