Daytime observing

[Pikaia]

I have two related questions.

Last night, during twilight, I was wondering how far the Sun was below the horizon. I can find out it in ST3, but in ST4 Visual, Real Time Observing, the Sun was not shown, regardless of the filter settings. How do I find out?

This led me to wonder how I can observe objects during the day, for example during the upcoming conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Real Time Observing shows nothing during the day!

[PMSchu]

Hi Pikaia,

If you have a scope finder chart open, Click on the button at the bottom right of the chart next to the sky conditions. This will open the 'Sky Report' panel that shows the sun altitude, moon phase & altitude, plus a bunch of additional useful info about the sky conditions. It also indicates the expected limiting magnitude for the sky conditions & whether your object should be visible or not. 

I also tested this in the RT mode & it works there too, so this should get you where you want to be.

Refer to the Help to find out more about the scope finder chart functions.

Hope this helps,

Phil S.

[theskyhound]

Hi,

Real Time does not show you objects that can't be observed at the current time. These are usually objects that are below the horizon, but can include those that are either very low or very close to the sun. Be sure to put it into Best Now mode rather than the Sky Tour. The Sky Tour is not meant for daytime observing. I just tried it and it shows me Mars, Uranus, and Venus. The other planets are below the horizon at this time. It may depend on what telescope you have selected, but it should show Jupiter and Saturn when the time comes. Another factor is the seeing. Objects like the Sun and Planets are treated differently in SkyTools. The quality is calculated mostly based on the level of detail you can see rather than how dark the sky is.

Regarding the Sun, I can confirm that it is not showing up. I'll have a fix for that in the next update. It also looks like the quality is being calculated in the best way for these objects, and I will look into that too.

By the way, you can always start your scope from Real Time and then switch to the Nightly Planner, but I think you will discover that the objects not showing up in Real Time are either below the horizon or very clsoe to it. You can target your scope from the Nightly Planner.