Importing data as observing list

[beecielo]

Hi everyone, apologies if this has been posted before.

I thought it would be cool to import Guy Pirro's 888 favorite northern sky objects into ST as an observation list. His list is just a group of objects in an HTML page. I was able to cut, paste and wrangle the data into Excel and create a list of objects, so far without their associated galaxies, but I'm going to try to do that as well. 

However, I don't know how to bring it into ST - what data needs to be included and what filetype (and probably a couple of other things!). Any help appreciated.

[PMSchu]

Hi beecielo,

Now that you have a .csv file with the objects that you want to enter into SkyTools, you can use the 'Get Observing Lists' -> 'Read From Text File' option on the Nightly Planner to import the data from the .csv file that you've created. For a .csv file, you'd want to select the 'Delimited' file option with the Comma as the delimiting character.

Refer to the Help for more information about how to set up the .csv file so that entries like object identifiers and coordinates are located in the correct columns.

There's also an option for a fixed column format, but as you already have the .csv file, the comma delimited format should be the way to go. What version of SkyTools are you using? If you have issues, you'll want to specify the version of SkyTools that you're using to make it easier to provide additional help.

Hope this helps,

Phil S.

[beecielo]

Thanks a lot Phil, that's perfect. I'll play around with formatting once I RTFM.  

I'm on ST 4 Visual, I believe, possibly 4.1 - I 'm away from the laptop ATM. 

Clear skies!

[PMSchu]

You can check which version of SkyTools that you have by selecting the 'Help' -> 'About SkyTools' option from the top menu. For example I'm running 4.1.11.14 currently.

Let us know how the file input is going.

Phil S.

[beecielo]

That was a lot easier than I thought - I imported the CSV of the objects only into a new observing list per your direction, and ST populated the rest.

I'm happy to make the list available to others or to SkyTools. Thanks for the help!

[PMSchu]

To share you new Observing List (OL) to the forum, you can create a special .stx file that SkyTools uses for information transfers and upload that .stx file to the forum. Then other forum users can download it. 

Click the 'Share/Export List' button on the Nightly Planner then select the 'Save as .stx file' option and find the OL to save it locally on your computer as a .stx file. Just upload the .stx file to the forum. It would be helpful to add a description of the OL, too.

Hope this helps,

Phil S.

[theskyhound]

If you share the list as an attachment here, I will make it generally available on the web site. Thanks!

[beecielo]

Happy to contribute! Hope I've given Guy enough credit.

Please let me know if the list can be made better.


  Guy Pirros 888 Best and Brightest Northern DSOs.stx (Size: 108.45 KB / Downloads: 4)

[PMSchu]

That's a very nice list! Thanks for creating and uploading  it here. My SkyTools says there are 872 objects in the list. Did I miss something?

One suggestion. I think you'll find that a list this large will be a bit difficult to work with. You may want to create some sub-lists by putting Check marks on a group of objects that you want to observe over a week or several days, etc. then use the 'Copy Checked' feature to copy those objects to a smaller, more workable list while you observe them. Resorting a list this large can take some time.

This list is a great starting point for any northern hemisphere observer (and southern hemisphere folks, too).

Phil S.