- Deepsky Astronomy Software
Contents
1. this should normally be the leftmost spreadsheet column Click this block for M7 and it will be added to an Observing Plan The Plan is identical to a spreadsheet but it will only contain objects you select from other spreadsheets for inclusion in this manner Actually clicking pln for M7 first delivers an informational window asking you which tab you want to add the object to This refers to the spreadsheet tabs If you click the Spreadsheet 1 button an acknowledgment window 16 Plate 13 E object Details Object ID NGC 6475 Other ID M7 Scorpion s Tail Catalog 2000 Type oc RA 17 53 54 0 Declination 34 49 00 0 Epoch 2000 Constellation Sco Size arc min 80 00 Magnitude 1 3 30 Magnitude 2 Mag Type Gal Latitude 0 000000 Gal Longitude 0 000000 Herschel Position Angle 0 00 Separation 0 00 Sky Chart 22 Uranometria 377 Uranometria 2K 164 A20 Millennium 1437 Vol lll Current Altitude 18 2 Current Azimuth 153 24 Object Rises 07 40 PM Object Transits 12 05 AM Object Sets 04 30 AM Print Image Chart Close will appear briefly and you ll be returned to your original spreadsheet which will appear unchanged except for an X that s been placed in M7 s pln column To see your Plan you must click Show Plan the button directly beneath Apply Filters at the bottom left of the screen When you do that the original spreadsheet will be rep2. TeleVue Panoptic 35mm 35 0 2 2 Celestron C11 S 2 Celestron C11 SG T 2 3 1 om Celestron C14 11 SCT Celestron C4 R Celestron C5 10 12 Celestron CS 6 3 1 Celestron CS SCT 12 Celestron C5 S 12 Celestron C5 SGT 1 Celestron C N 1E Celestron C R Tse Celestron C RGT 1S2 Edit Telescope Close Plate 5 Scope or scopes selected Ocular time The eyepiece list though it includes many oculars from numerous manufacturers is not quite as up to date as the telescope list Many popular imported eyepieces like the Orion Expanses aren t there It s easy enough to add your own eyepieces of course Have a CCD cam Select that too In contrast to the eyepiece listings the CCD models are extensive with even the fairly new Meade DSI but not the brand new DSI Pro being present Miscellaneous preferences Plate 6 the next menu item under Prefs allows you to enter or change file locations of images and catalogs if you haven t done that already in the Setup Wizard This window also includes various other options all of which can be left at their defaults at least for now the forbidding sounding partition logbook for example FILE LOCATIONS C Program Files Deepsky Astronomy Software Hg Enter the HGC star catalog location CD Users j C Program Files Deepsky Astronomy Software Su_ Enter the SuperTycho star catalog location C C Propar Flo Doomshy Antorony Scfmare De bets
3. after they re displayed Now you re ready to light the fuse I know it seems as if we ve had to do a lot of work to get here but normally the only tab in this area youll come back to again and again is Select when you want to specify different constellations and object types and catalogs OK Click the Apply Filters button to the left of the tabs we ve been working with the button showing the current Moon phase cool huh When you do the program will think for a while a progress bar will appear at the bottom of the screen and your spreadsheet display will eventually change and should show all the NGC objects in Scorpius brighter than magnitude 10 and higher than 30 degrees in altitude for the time you ve specified Purty simple But what if you want to narrow things down a little That s fairly easy to do by altering your Ranges and Select choices Unless you want to include only the Messiers in Scorpius or any other constellation This is one of the few areas where Deepsky offers no immediately obvious solutions not using Filters Ranges anyway Oddly there s no Messier choice in Select or in any of the program s catalogs menus You can easily display visible Messiers by clicking Whats Up Messier from the Query menu to the right of Prefs in the top of screen menu bar Unfortunately doing that returns all the visible Messiers from all constellations and there s no way to modify What s Up Messi
4. button What s Up gives you quick access to that particular wizard Does your spreadsheet or plan contain every single object you want to observe tonight Anything left out If you ve got an object or two you need to add to the Plan but which you didn t retrieve by using What s Up or Filters or Queries you ll find the Deepsky search function Plate 15 to be a lifesaver as it allows you to retrieve single objects from that humongous database Clicking on the cute binoculars icon in the toolbar brings up this slightly daunting dialog Don t be afraid though it s easy to use once you get it Deepsky Database Search Select the fields and the criteria that you would like to use in youc S qgeh When are done you can click the Begin ch button to start or click Save Search to Save your settings for easy retrieval next time Quick Predefined Searches Object ID Constellation ObjectT ype Messier Herschell Observed Objects Saved Searches E Save Search Delete Search Begin Search Close Plate 15 20 figgered out The Predefined Searches buttons at the bottom of the window are your friends boys and girls Want to show all Messiers Just click the Messier pre defined search button and the Begin Search button Curiously unlike a spreadsheet sort they are arrayed in correct numerical order with M11 coming after M10 and so forth Want to look for a particular Messier Change the operator from gt to a
5. resident on your hard drive it s time to get the Deepsky going The installation procedure is basically identical for all versions If you did choose to go with the DVD as most of you probably will you ll find yourself with three disks a program CD and two additional DVD disks containing images Set the DVDs aside for now insert the CD program disk in your drive and let s get started I chose to install Deepsky on my laptop a 3 4 GHz Toshiba Satellite Windows XP with a DVD r w drive a gigabyte or RAM a large hard drive and a fairly powerful video display system Don t panic I know many amateurs will want to install the program on the older PCs many of us use at the telescope Rest assured it will work fine there I previously installed the program on a system as puny as my ancient 333 MHz Compaq desktop which is equipped with a mere 64mb of RAM and it ran well Naturally doing computer intensive things like retrieving massive numbers of objects from the Deepsky database will be faster and more pleasant with a more modern computer Once you re ready to start installing don t start First of all before you do anything else read the printed pages included in the Deepsky package those titled Please Read All of This First That means just what it says pardner Make sure you read and understand everything in these pages before you start the installation that s the surest way to keep yourself out of trouble Remembe
6. s earlier versions and partially because there seems to be some misunderstanding in the Internet astronomy community especially about what Deepsky does and how well it does it Mostly though because this is a complex and deep program A two page review or summary just won t give you a good idea of both what the program is capable of and how easy it is to make it do these things Deepsky does take some explaining It s a big sprawling program that can be a little intimidating Open it for the first time and you are greeted by tons of menus submenus buttons and windows The program is actually pretty logically laid out and very easy to learn to use but it sure doesn t look that way at first glance Unfortunately at least a couple of folks I know have given up on the program after an attempt or two They think it s just too complicated Luckily that s not the case as just a little digging will show and dig we shall I m going to take you through Deepsky from installation to use in planning an observing session to operation with a goto telescope and finally to logging your observations Don t get that look on your face I know I know you re interested in astronomy not computer programming Don t worry I m going to do the above in the simplest possible terms I m not going to talk about every button and function lm not going to tell you every single way to do a task with Deepsky My goal is to show you a way a
7. simple and easy to understand way to use the program Something to get you started and something you can build on later by exploring the program s myriad functions on your own reading the manual a few times and talking to other Deepsky users online Please don t be offended by the title of this piece Deepsky for Dummies either when it comes to software I am the CHIEF and original dummy Keep in mind as you read this little guide that what I am telling you herein may not always be the best way or only way or the really CORRECT WAY to do things with the program If you do things my way however I assure you that you will be able to begin using Deepsky productively Better can come later Before we can get started you ll need a copy of the software of course That s pretty easily accomplished no matter how shallow your pockets are at the moment If you need to lowball it Deepsky is available as a download from the author s website http www deepsky2000 net for a mere 29 99 The limitations of this format are fewer stars on the built in charts it tops out at magnitude 11 rather than the 15 5 of the more expensive editions and fewer images 109 versus 400 000 that s right 400 000 for the DVD version A step up from digital download is the CD edition which goes for the still surprisingly modest price of 49 95 It is identical to the program s top of the line DVD version in most respects but has a reduced ima
8. to Deepsky s logs later you Il want to learn the program s more fleshed out logging features It s a beautiful night One of those rare Summer evenings when the sky is dark clear and relatively transparent You guide your faithful scope from deep sky wonder to deep sky wonder effortlessly logging marvel after marvel Ah yes logging If you choose to enter your log data as you go along rather than recording it on a piece of paper for later entry and are not using the slideshow logging feature you ll probably want to use Deepsky s outdoor logging system This form shown in Plate 21 is a little less comprehensive than the normal log pages but it has one big advantage mouse use is eliminated and keyboard use is minimized This can be a real help in a dark cramped observatory You can make all the entries on this form with the exception of notes by using the tab arrow and enter keys Tab from entry field to entry field selecting menus with Enter and items to enter with the up and down arrows and the enter key To enter logbook data for an object in your plan just click the obs column and choose the Outside option 26 a H outside Logbook Entry 0 1 Log Entry 2 CCD 3 Session Notes Catalogo NGO 2000 Tithe E00 PM Transparency a Loatpe e Observing Notes NGC6I21 6 NGC 2000 7 26 2005 6 08 02 PM A ADD U UPDATE D DELETE G GRID C CLEAR Note Use CTRL key and the above num
9. will be superimposed on your object Not too hip to this GUI graphics stuff Click the middle scope icon on the toolbar at the top of the screen which is Enable Telescope Control Panel the scope icons to the left and right of this middle one will allow you to connect the scope and slew to coordinates respectively without fooling with the Scope pull down menu This enables a control panel that allows you to slew the scope manually with a virtual hand paddle or send it to typed in coordinates This screen shown in Plate 19 does a lot more but unfortunately most of this is only of interest to Meade scope users as these other interesting functions are reserved for the Meade way of doing things B Control Panel v 2 01 Connected to ScopeSim Telescope r Manual Siew Control EA Gol oe EI ma r Goto RA Dac Deo is n u U Site Setup Soh S 6 Plate 19 24 Unfortunately so is one of the program s most interesting functions Slide Show Well actually only in part It works well with other scope brands but it s really nicest under Meade protocol If you do have a Meade or Meade compatible scope it is really slick Not that it isn t slick with a Celestron telescope or other brand maybe I should say it is super slick with the Meades What does slideshow do It allows you to goto each object in a spreadsheet with just the click of a slide advance button Enable slide show from the Scope menu and you ll g
10. Deepsky for Dummies A Deepsky Users Guide for the Rest of Us Rod Mollise As most of y all know I ve long since turned away from planetarium programs when it comes to astronomy software Not that there aren t some good ones out there The Sky 6 for example is fantastic For what it does Which mainly is painting a hyper realistic picture of the sky on your PC screen Unfortunately that is not very useful for me in this day of goto scopes And it is the day of goto Heck even my 60mm wide field grab n go scope is computerized Being able to go from object to object with a few pushes of a hand controller button means there s much less need for star charts real or virtual now Star charts do still have their uses of course It is nice to be able to refer to a chart on the computer screen when my scope finishes gotoing its goto so that I can see what other interesting objects might be in the area Even so seeing a beautiful and literal representation of the sky on a the monitor is much less important to me these days than having some help in deciding what I oughta be looking at in the first place Enter planning software And enter Deepsky Yeah what us goto folks need is not a gorgeous expanse of silicon sky ala The Sky or Starry Night What we need is a computer program that tells us WHAT and WHEN What do we look at and when can we look at it That s the jobs of astronomy planning software including the subject of th
11. Quick Chart I and 2 buttons display the Williams charts with the first object on the spreadsheet in view This is just what the button says a quick chart While you can move around and zoom in and out you can t click on objects or perform other interactive operations These buttons are occasionally useful but never operated in an intuitive manner it seemed to me Yes as above they seemed to sometimes center the chart on the first object in a spreadsheet But several new spreadsheets later they still took me to this initial spot Never did get these buttons quite figured out When I wanted a quick chart I found it more efficacious just to go to the chart in the object information window by double clicking on one of the DSOs in my spreadsheet Course you re probably a lot smarter than Old Uncle Rod and may be able to figure out what the program does with these buttons I couldn t though Interactive Charts is a lot more useful It will display either clickable Williams charts or if you change the default chart type in Prefs to Cartes du Ciel it will bring up that fine 19 program Like the Quick Chart buttons it will center you on the first object in your spreadsheet Unlike Quick Chart I was always placed at the first object of my current spreadsheet The next leftside toolbar button is Logbook which as you might expect brings up your logbook which we ll get to after we get in some telescope time The last
12. bbell nebula Saved Quenes Saved Obmerveg Pune ib URs ee i e Oy Tauer From DespanyTabe Where Messerammer Oana Aw SQL Statervert p y Bs rE da 7 Stow A Hy Qusres owna Ekore Barges k Barges A Sot A Quoy A Pan Log A Qha Log A Reie A Lona A Images T205 2200 La tw E Lor tag 1038 Tine Tore 6 Ge Objects Shon OObsewed Quesy Tae tiet Plate 2 As with most Astro programs Deepsky can use the PC s time and date settings which is what I initially told it to do by checking the appropriate box in this window This is the most convenient way to use Deepsky by linking it to your PC s real time clock you ll avoid the embarrassment of booting the program and being puzzled by winter objects in the heat of summer if you haven t used Deepsky in a while You can always come back here uncheck the box and enter a desired time and date if need be Which will be often since yov ll want to set the program for a particular date and time when you re planning an observing run Date and Time Preferences Select Date 12 2 2005 gt 7 Use PC Clock For Time and Date settings Select Time in 24 hour Format Siak V Daylight Savings In Effect Syncronize time with Internet Time server OK Plate 3 6 Next up is setting your geographic location Plate 4 You can select your site from an extensive list of world wide cities found und
13. ber or character to access different functions Plate 21 Once you re back inside you can edit or add to these brief entries using the normal log format which is available from the logbook menu by clicking View Edit Logbook or by clicking the Log button on the leftmost toolbar The logbook entry screen is a form with four tabs The first displays a spreadsheet type display of your logbook Need to find a particular object Highlight the object ID column and use the right click menu s Enter Filter Criteria option Enter NGC 6903 in the Filter Criteria field hit enter and only that object will be displayed This is actually a handy tool to use with any spreadsheet at any time not just the logbook spreadsheet To edit your already existing observations you Click that s right the Edit button at the bottom of the window You ll usually do initial logbook entries from the spreadsheet When you want to make a logbook entry for an object all you have to do is as above click the obs column for your object of choice Assuming you re back inside choose Standard rather than Outside to use the fullblown logbook format You ll be taken to the form in Plate 22 You ll then fill in all the appropriate fields for your entry using the keyboard and drop down menus The info in the drop down menus sites telescopes etc is that which you entered into the program during its set up in the Prefs menu When you
14. dd Update Observing Location Remove Longitudes East of Prime Meridian are negative Please specify your time zone or n enter 12 to 12 12 East of Prime Meridia E Plate 4 Your next task is to select the equipment scopes and eyepieces you ll be using as seen in Plate 5 You can choose your gear from lists displayed in this window or you can create your own entries Chances are you ll find your scope in Deepsky s long list of currently popular instruments Note that as with latitude and longitude you ll still need to enter your scope type in ASCOM Deepsky uses equipment data only for helping you do observing log entries and other program specific tasks a Observing Equipment and Other Settings n add arequipment list Add Additional Equipment ie Filters etc Add Select Equipment Type so Eyepieces CCD Acc Exposure Mode Available Equipment Personal Equipment List AP 105 Traveller 5 8 ita Celestron C8 NGCT 200 AP 130 Starfire 6 17 9 Celestron NexStar 11 GPS 279 AP 130 Starfire 8 14m Aids Meade Deep Sky Imager AP 155 Starfire 7 1 1 Orion ShortTube 80 080 AP 155 Starfire 9 15 Orion SkyView Pro 8 EQ 203 AP 180 Starfire 9 1 lt Remove Orion StarBlast Astro Telescope 113 Celestron C10 N 2E TeleVue Nagler Type II 12mm 12 0 Celestron C10 NGT 2E TeleVue Panoptic 22mm 22 0 Celestron C11 10 E TeleVue Panoptic 27mm 27 0 Celestron Cll 6 3
15. e eee i 1 E E ae aa foie ooo EE EE nze oc FCRCETI EDECEDEINTED EZ ai Buritell nebul OCRE ia se NCEA afafa w w fa Hian mla afa a V lscuieAttsds Azmih nckde Chutes 8 Iv incue RiseSet Times Uze Urancerebis 2000 M ncvta Tranet Tire Show Terres AWiPw Fier z Exel Observed Otjects Apel I Stow Hersche Only Rest Pere Sot Tive a Show Pian 7 2785 2200 Lat a S645 Lon 85 T I Tere Cone 6 R Obes Shown O Observed Bay Tna Ikac Plate 9 12 Next you ll begin selecting the range of objects that will go into your spreadsheet and onto the screen Click the Select tab whichis just to the right of Filters and you ll be allowed to choose constellation catalog of objects NGC for example and type as in type of deep sky object via buttons and drop down menus For our example let s select Scorpius NGC 2000 and all types One slight oddity here is that if you ve used Select previously you must hit clear to enter a new constellation catalog or type For example if you ve entered Ursa Major in the constellation field in a previous session you ll have to hit clear before you enter Scorpius or you ll wind up with both Scorpius AND Ursa Major in your search retrieval range You re almost ready to hit the go button but not quite If you re using a 4 inch refractor from suburban skies you may not want ALL the NGCs that Scorpius NGC all t
16. eady resident on your PC If you purchased the DVD version of Deepsky you ve got those two additional disks the DVDs hanging around These are the image disks and you can as the manual indicates either leave the data on the DVDs or copy their pictures and other materials onto your hard drive Be aware though that copying this much data will take a long long time even with fairly speedy equipment hours in some cases I chose to leave the data on the DVDs If you change your mind later you can always go back and copy the DVDs to a directory on your hard drive just follow the instructions in the Deepsky installation instructions When you re done loading everything you want to load up take a look at your desktop and you ll notice that Deepsky has placed an attractive program icon there Moment of truth Giver er a click and see what happens What should happen is that you re greeted with a window which calls itself a set up wizard Answering the questions this wizard asks will give the program the bare essentials of information it needs to start working for you Mainly it wants to know where on your computer it can find the astronomical catalog data and images the program uses The manual and the Read Me guide outline what you should answer here but it s pretty simple The Tycho and Hubble Guidestar GSC catalogs are in the Deepsky directory on your hard drive which you ll find the install process has placed in t
17. ep2 Deep 3 Deep 4 peat mags Gallen Images 3 m Spread ak Plate 8 Remember this is a spreadsheet not an observing list You ll use spreadsheets to build an observing list which is called a Plan in Deepsky parlance If you understand that you ve basically got Deepsky licked and everything else is mere mechanics Before you can create the observing list for the evening you ll have to have a set of objects to choose targets from the spreadsheet is that set of objects Where does the spreadsheet come from You ll retrieve spreadsheet objects from Deepsky s massive database That is your first task in planning tonight s observing run Before you begin using spreadsheets though it s a good idea to set up the columns you want to display Not showing things like galactic longitude will mean you don t have to scroll horizontally to view all the data in a spreadsheet Set this up by using the Spreadsheet submenu under the same Prefs menu we visited earlier Select the 11 Formatting tab in the window that appears and click Select Columns to Display arrange things to your liking You ve got a spreadsheet full of Messier objects but these likely don t contain the objects or all the objects you re interested in observing How do you get candidate DSOs out of Deepsky s databases and onto the spreadsheet so you can work with them You can do this the easy way w
18. er At first I was stymied and unhappy over this seeming limitation I wanted just the Scorpius Messiers dangit I cooled off for a minute did some looking around and manual reading horrors and found that there is an easy way to show a single constellation s Messier objects but it involves using the Search function which we ll talk about in a minute rather than filters or wizards or queries And what about the Query function mentioned above You can access this tool either by clicking on the tab next to Sort at the bottom of the spreadsheet or by choosing Query Builder from the Query menu at the top of the screen If you re used to using databases and in particular SQL databases you ll find these query tools quite powerful and P m sure they will allow you to select out Messiers or anything else you choose from any constellation Zf you know how to to use them Unfortunately if you re as computer ignorant as Unk Rod you ll find this whole query business a little scary and will stick to select What s Up Messier and the more powerful but still easy What s Up Wizard That s OK You can do anything you want using Filters and the What s Up features along with Deepsky s very powerful search function You may not achieve power geek status by doing things the easy way but your blood pressure will stay down and your hairline will stay intact The What s Up Wizard is one of the b
19. er the general locations tab Or if you re a stickler for precision like me and or travel to a lot of star parties you can enter multiple personal observing sites by name with their geographic positions expressed in degrees minutes and seconds of longitude under the personal observing location tab of this window One peculiarity I noted here was that I was not allowed to leave any of the fields blank to go back and correct errors in previous fields The program insisted I first fill in all the blanks for either lat or lon before I could go back and correct an error Once position data is entered the selected observing site s latitude and longitude but not name will be displayed at the bottom of the main program screen Oh do be aware that the longitude and latitude values you enter in either general or personal are used only by the program for calculating object visibility You will still need to enter latitude and longitude in the ASCOM program setup if you re using a goto scope a Location Preferences Select your observing location either from your personal list or from the generale General Locations Personal Observing Location Select Personal Observing Location Environmental Studies Center Create New Observing Location new locations added will appear in drop down above Location Description Environmental Studies Center Latitude Longitude Time Zone ko gis is o Me o e e A
20. est features of the program and really makes thinking in SQL unnecessary for most of us Just click on this Wizard in the Query menu 14 see Plate 11 answer the questions it asks you and you should have no trouble filling a spreadsheet with the objects of your desire No it won t pick out the Messiers but it will pick out anything else Wd What s Up Wizard S 1 Select the consteiiabons to mclucte gs By selecting spectic cormted ions pou yal loct Available Comste lations AS Constaichore Sed Andoreda Cam nbpsdik Cap Capcomus CarCane Cor Csonopeis Len Lerkaus Cep Cepheus Cet Cetus F Apoy nead Crelerencas to et of Deansky Plate 11 So let s say you ve pushed the Filter button and you ve now got a spreadsheet on screen What the aitch E double L can you do with this list of let s say Scorpius NGCs The first thing you ll want to do is sort them to suit your preferences Maybe by object number maybe by rise time maybe by magnitude It s up to you To sort the chart by a particular column value just click on the column heading you re interested in Rise time for example By clicking a second time you can reverse the order ascending descending One annoyance here is that when you sort by M number M100 comes after M10 and you don t get M11 until after M109 M2 After M19 Ah well You ve got bunches of objects displayed and you ve sorted them into some kind of order that s meanin
21. et the window shown in Plate 20 When you do that your scope will also slew to the first object in your spreadsheet or Plan The window will indicate your current object show you an image of it if one is available offer logbook fields for you to fill in for the target and display basic object info including the Dreyer NGC codes which you ll recall I wished for in the object info window with a press of the Additional Object Info button aA Telescope Slide Show Object Info Object ID ecen oo Catalog oo o Telescope R A fs23330 oo Telescope Dec 232000 Additional Object Info z s T 2 Generic Logbook Fields 8 i et az Location Observed o i Equipment Used fF a Transparency Seeing Rating fe Short Description EE Bitar Bis I Use At GMTOffset 4 5 6 Previous Next Add To Log Shown 1 out of 8 Please Wait until scope stops until you go to another object Plate 20 FOV 60 x60 Size pixels 800 x 300 Now all that is all quite wonderful In my opinion almost worth the entire cost of the program But if you are Meade LX200 user Steve has taken things to a whole nother level A look at the manual this section is very clear and understandable reveals the amazing fact that Steve has figured out a way to make the LX200 hand paddle act like a slide projector remote Normally the scope can t tell a computer to do anything But 29 with a bit of program
22. ge set of only 11 000 pictures If your computer has a DVD drive or you re willing to upgrade to one these devices are insanely cheap now the top of the line DVD is really the way to go For only 69 99 you get everything including the aforementioned 400 000 pictures of deep sky objects All three versions including the el cheapo download include all the core Deepsky features including 60 astronomical catalogs full of 708 000 objects Well the DVD includes almost everything Steve also sells some ancillary items that may be of interest If you bought the CD version but find yourself wanting more pictures two additional CDs of images are available at 20 00 each The most important add on in the Deepsky store though A printed manual at 15 00 Yeah I know you say you ll print out the manual included on the disk But you know you never will A printed manual is always handy to have and is indispensable when you re learning Deepsky At least as desirable as a printed manualt or maybe moreso is the Deepsky training disk This is a CD of instructional videos that is one of the best and most useful ideas I ve yet seen in the world of astronomy software While these lessons can be downloaded from the Deepsky website for free unless you ve got a broadband connection that s not very practical The training video disk is only 9 99 anyway Just buy it Once you have disks in hand or the downloaded file
23. gful to you If you re happy with what s onscreen you could just click the li l printer icon at the screen top left it s a member of a horizontal row of mostly useful and identifiable toolbar icons and print the spreadsheet you ve got in front of you If that s what you want that s fine Deepsky does a fine job of printing allowing you to specify just how you want the finished hardcopy to look But I think you ll find that the spreadsheet isn t quite right It either shows too many objects the whole NGC bunch from Scorpius for example some of which are not overly interesting visually or not enough maybe you re also interested in viewing objects in Sagittarius What you really want is not a spreadsheet but the aforementioned Plan an Observing Plan How do you move choice objects from the spreadsheet and into this hypothetical Plan Not so fast not so fast You may need help deciding if you really want a particular object to go into your plan before you put it there Is it suitable for you your site and your scope To get this help double click on an object s ID Let s do that to M7 for example 15 A Object Details mee ee Bee 00 Xi SGX Other ID M7 Scorpion s Tail Catalog 2000 s Type oc R A 17 53 54 0 Declination 34 49 00 0 Epoch 2000 Constellation Sco Size arc min 80 00 Magnitude 1 3 30 Magnitude 2 Mag Type Gal Latitude 0 000000 Gal Longitude 0 000000 Hersche
24. he programs subdirectory of your drive Pictures unless you ve dumped the DVDs to your hard drive will be in the images directory of the DVD drive make sure an images DVD is in your drive as you re telling the setup wizard where to look for pictures if you use the window s browse button to furnish this information When you re done with this wizard the program will run for the first time and you ll be greeted by the main program screen Actually you ll first be greeted by the window in Plate 1 We ll talk about that some later For now just close it Closing should reveal Deepsky s home screen seen in Plate 2 but you re not close to being ready to explore its many features not yet You ve got some more setting up to do Go straight to the Prefs menu found after File Database and Apps at the top of the screen in typical Windows menu fashion Once there click Date and Time which will present you with the window seen in Plate 3 come to DeepSky x E Click Here Plate 1 File Osaba Accs Prefs Quey Report Jnegng SoierSysten Pamer Loytock Crs Sape interet Heb S HO Ba l POS CAH BBW AS Me 6 o ae Deep Deep Depa Despd DeeS i linsgeGoley Log ineger Celas ths Lina l iD Shel Tee Doteertiy clustes 3 Teil Duct Chest 1 Quek Chast z Mails Duct cluster irtersctes Chet A Tem
25. ight and head outside Hold on just a sec though Those of us into goto will be talking about logging in just a few minutes but since you re intent on doing things the old fashioned way you ll need some paper log sheets to record your observations for input into the Deepsky logging system later If you have a pre designed sheet you use fine use that But if you don t have one or don t have one you like Deepsky has you covered Go to the Logbook menu at the top of the screen and click Print Blank Logsheet Your printer soon will spit out a nice page just right for an old fashioned hard copy logbook or for temporarily recording observation data for entry into Deepsky Want to get even fancier Instead of clicking Print Blank Logsheet click Print Logsheet for All Objects in Spreadsheet When you do that Deepsky produces log pages for all the objects in your Plan with pertinent information like object names and positions already filled in If you re like me though you ve had enough of paper log pages analog setting circles TELRADs and dim finder scopes You ve decided to go whole hog with computerized amateur astronomy In that case get the scope outside grab your laptop and let s click our way to deep sky nirvana Since Deepsky uses the stable and well designed ASCOM interface to talk to goto scopes much of the pain of getting a goto instrument working with Deepsky has been eliminated In fact the main proble
26. ight be nice at some point to corral somebody with a good announcer s voice to do the audio narration Some occasional fluffs in the lessons clicking wrong items etc should be cleaned up as well The content of the training CD These lessons are presented in the animated screen audio narration format familiar to anybody who s ever taken any kind of software training course They are very helpful if you ll just sit down and watch them and I do not understand why nobody else in the astronomy software biz has thought to do this Man alive videos like this would be one heck of a life preserver for a big complicated program like The Sky 6 There are 11 videos on the CD that will take you from Installation all the way to using SQL commands for database searches if you want to Anything lacking It might be nice to add a video lesson that explains the most basic of Deepsky basics one that defines a fe w terms It may not be apparent to everybody for example what the difference is between an observing plan and the onscreen spreadsheet list of objects that is displayed when you start the program If you really want 10 to maximize the value of these videos it might be a good idea to run them while you follow along with the program itself if your computer is up to running both videos and Deepsky at the same time or if you have a second computer available Now it s finally time for the nitty gritty This is wha
27. is little guide review overview Deepsky Deepsky like its other planner brethren is really nothing more than a gigantic database of deep sky objects that can be searched and sorted for DSOs and times of visibility In addition to the databases this and similar programs usually include logging facilities goto telescope control and at least rudimentary chart drawing abilities While new amateurs naturally gravitate to something pretty like Starry Night old hands are increasingly taking up the planners There are currently several major programs in this category but as you may have guessed I m going to focus on one of the pioneers in this field a long time favorite Deepsky this time Deepsky has been around for the better part of a decade and may be familiar to you in its earlier incarnations as Deepsky 98 Deepsky 2000 etc Originally the author Stephen Tuma appended the current year to the title of each new major upgrade release Recently he has dropped this convention wisely in my opinion Just Deepsky is simpler and less confusing for new users Technically the program is actually called Deepsky Astronomy Software or DAS but its users and its creator usually just refer to it as Deepsky which I ll do here What I propose to do here is a little different and a little more in depth than what I usually do in software reviews In part that s because I ve previously reviewed at least a couple of Deepsky
28. ith Preferences and Filters or the hard way for some of us computerphobes anyway with queries To use Preferences and Filters to retrieve objects begin by selecting the Filters tab at bottom of spreadsheet The first time you use Deepsky you might want to set minimum altitude here See Plate 9 Entering a figure of 30 for example will exclude all objects that are not at 30 degrees of altitude at the current time Remember of course to reset the program to the time you ll be making your observations in the Prefs date time menu if you ve previously told Deepsky to use your PC s system date and time There are several other entries you can make in this window but Altitude is the most important I normally also check include altitude azimuth and include rise set times You can leave everything else alone for now Fle Database Apps Prefs Query Report Imsong Solsystem Fisnner Logbook Charts Scope Internet Heb 3 MO Ba i lt FOS CMBR AGM Me se 6 2 A Deep Dep Deep 3 Deep 4 Oeep5 InegeGaley Logimages pars n aa E T E A T E ST E A e a A z B ERT oe 2 13 60 0 21 82 17 40 06 0 IN Scorpion s Tail lt 17 3 54 0 34 5 90 9 us Lagoon Hourglass nebula mi 03 waloalalulanin Gs o gt fo fi A EZ ne peste anj ees E h Chat 2 inet attine Chat 2 oes se Sm Era a TE E s TT ee aw ECETEZEICSECETE Whe s Up eh ea
29. l Position Angle 0 00 Separation 0 00 Sky Chart 22 Uranometria 377 Uranometria 2K 164 A20 Millennium 1437 Vol Ill Current Altitude 18 2 Current Azimuth 153 24 Object Rises 07 40 PM Object Transits 12 05 AM Dene eon FOV 60 x 60 Size pixels 800 x 800 Print Image Chart Notes Close Plate 12 Place your cursor on this object s ID field NGC 6475 or its Other ID field M7 Scorpion s Tail and double click In a few moments you ll be presented with a window full of data including a picture if one s available as shown in Plate 12 Running along the left are the cluster s vital stats like magnitude type size etc While I wish Mr Tuma had included the Dreyer NGC codes in this data what s here along with the copious observer s notes available for many objects by clicking the notes button of this window Plate 13 usually gives you more than enough information to decide whether a particular DSO is something you really want to view Clicking the charts button in this window creates an attractive Dean Williams chart for your object which can be zoomed in and out only the Williams charts are available here you can t show a Cartes du Ciel chart in this window apparently unfortunately Once you ve made up your mind whether M7 is an appropriate object to view on this evening close the info window and look for a spreadsheet column called pln
30. laced with one containing a single object M7 This is your plan which can be sorted saved and printed Once you ve looked at the plan you ll probably want to go back to your original spreadsheet to choose more objects for inclusion Here we run into another of the program s minor peculiarities The Observing Plan now occupies the Spreadsheet 1 tab To get the original spreadsheet back you ll need to either apply your filters again with a click of the button or if you re working with the Messier list click What s Up Messier again You can avoid this need to restore your spreadsheet by placing your Plan on one of the other tabs 2 3 or 4 if you ve got your working spreadsheet in tab 1 as you normally will have If you place the plan in one of the other tabs you ll be able to toggle back and forth between it and tab 1 without clicking filters or anything else to restore the spreadsheet Oddly though if you do things this way the program does not place an X in the pln 17 column on your spreadsheet even though it places selected objects in the Plan Keep in mind that every time you add a new object to your Plan you ll have to click Show Plan again to make the new object appear no matter which tab you ve placed the Plan in g Star Charts By Dean Williams O gag Plate 14 Once yov ve got a Plan going you can continue to add objects to it either from your original spreadsheet or from ne
31. m is not configuring your scope or configuring your computer It s hooking the two together What s the problem there Take a look at your laptop At the rear panel of the computer What do you see USB ports Yep A parallel port Maybe A serial RS 232 port Probably not Not if your computer is less than a year or two old PC makers have recently chosen to eliminate serial ports especially those on laptops and for good reason The serial interface is slow and very few peripherals use it anymore Except telescopes Unfortunately scope makers are way behind the computer makers when it comes to i o issues With one exception every commercial scope still uses good old clunky RS 232 Unless you have invested in one of Meade s new USB equipped RCX 400s you ll have to figure out a way to make your computer talk serial if you want to use Deepsky to send it to objects A solution if not a perfect one to this serial problem is a USB to serial converter cable This is a relatively inexpensive little device that takes the USB your computer spits out and translates it to the serial your scope understands and vice versa This is not a perfect solution since not all combinations of USB serial converters scopes and computers work well together What has worked for me is a Belkin USB to serial cable It s worked reliably with my Toshiba Satellite and my Nexstar 11 and AS GT scopes that is but I cannot swear it will work as well for you de
32. ma for giving amateurs a wonderful program one which I m sure has helped many of us see far more than we ever dreamed possible Is Deepsky perfect Uh uh As I ve said in every review I ve written no program is But some are better than others What separates the good from the bad in software The author s commitment to users Believe me Mssr Tuma who s been steadily improving this program for 10 years has demonstrated this commitment It 29 shows both in the loyalty of his users and in the usefulness of his wonderful Deepsky Astronomy Software 30
33. ming wizardry don t ask me to explain it Steve has figured a way to make the paddle send instructions to the PC anyway Set up the slide show as per the instructions and with a couple of button presses on the hand control you can make the LX200 slew to each succeeding object in your spreadsheet plan Not only that you can set it to automatically filkin log data If that ain t the cat s meow I don t know what is Obviously Deepsky has a lot of goto functionality and at first blush it all seems somewhat overwhelming Luckily the ASCOM program provides a telescope simulator so you can figure out how the computer end of everything works inside in the daytime Just select Simulator from the ASCOM menu of scope choices There are a couple of gotchas here You must unpark the scope by clicking on the Park button on the simulator control panel and you must also check the Track box on this same simulated hand controller If you don t nothing much will happen other than the appearance of error windows when you try to slew the scope What now What like to do is just slew from object to object via Slideshow filling in the simplified log fields what Steve calls generic log fields as I go That s more than good enough for simple little me But if you yearn for a more formal type of log or if you re one of those folks who eschews goto and wants to initially record observations on paper for transfer
34. nd from 0 to the M number of your choice on the first line of the criteria field Need an NGC Click the NGC predefined search and type an NGC number in the criteria field you ll have to type NGC lt space gt number Changing catalog numbers and clicking on the other predefined searches should make it easy to find the objects of your desire The search function can be frustrating at first but is an incredibly powerful tool After a little practice I was also able to use Search to do the single thing I had not been able to do with Deepsky previously and which had been bugging me I was with a little fiddling able to display Messiers from the single constellation of my choice by clicking the Messier button and changing catalog to constellation and NGC 2000 to the constellation of my choice Plate 16 For many tasks Search is actually a better tool than the wizards and queries 3 Deepsky Database Search Select the fields e cr you would like to use in your se gpch When button to start or click Save Search ct TIME MessierNumber Constellation Quick Predefined Searches Object ID Constellation ObjectT ype Messier Herschell Observed Objects Saved Searches Save Search Delete Search Bean Seach Close Plate 16 21 Now it s fun time If you don t own a goto scope and or a laptop computer go ahead and print your completed plan Which you have saved under a unique name r
35. on the other hand allows you to easily find a log entry using its advanced search tools Paranoid about letting your treasured entries exist on a hard drive Don t be If you re super paranoid like me you can print out each observation Most of you will be OK with just backing up the logbook file occasionally via the Backup Logbook option in the top menu s Logbook selection if you re forgetful like I am you can set the program to automatically backup your logbook And so we come to the end of a beautiful evening s observing run and our tour of Deepsky Did I tell you all there is to know about the program Not hardly I didn t even mention the program s online Internet functions Barely touched on the image processing features Skipped over the many logbook options that are available did you know you can keep an unlimited number of different logs on your hard drive But it was not my goal to cover everything As I said at the beginning this little guide s purpose is to get you started using this complex program easily doing things in an easy but not necessarily optimum way Once you ve got the hang of Deepsky which shouldn t take long you can begin to explore the many rich features this software offers You can learn about them by exploring the User Manual and even better by hanging out on the Deepsky User s Group at http www deepsky2000 net What s left to say How about Thank you Steve Tu
36. pending on your type and vintage of gear A little asking around on your particular goto telescope s Yahoo group should get you some answers about what works best with your equipment when it comes to serial interfacing Once you ve got a working link between scope and computer everything else is easy Oh you do have to configure ASCOM but this is simple Just choose Scope and Scope 22 Setup from the menu bar at the top of the Deepsky screen You ll be presented with ASCOM s Scope Chooser Select your brand from the long list provided see Plate 17 and once you ve done that push the Properties button Doing so brings up the configuration dialog shown in Plate 18 which will allow you to set up the driver for your particular scope Enter your scope model position data and the other requested information click OK and you re finished If you re using a Meade scope you ll find a few more blanks to fill in including data concerning the Meade LX200 focuser which can be operated from Deepsky With scope physically connected to computer make your cable connections to both before you turn on the power to either please and ASCOM configured your next step is ASCOM Telescope Chooser Select the type of telescope you have then be sure to click the Properties button to configure the driver for your telescope Properties Click the logo to learn more about ASCOM a set of standards for in
37. r Deepsky is at heart a database and databases are one of those types of program where incorrect installation can cause a lot of problems You might also want to open the Deepsky user manual pdf either from the CD or the website http www deepsky2000 net and print the whole darned thing if you haven t taken my advice and shelled out for the printed version Yes I know you hate to read manuals but do it anyway One slight down check for Deepsky is in getting the installation process going Most recent programs will begin their installations automatically when a program CD is inserted into the drive Deepsky did not Instead I had to select run from the Windows Start button and browse to the setup program on the CD Not a big deal sure and this procedure is clearly explained in the installation directions in the Read All of This pages but for the computer ignorant among us which includes Old Uncle Rod the simpler the better Despite that minor quibble I was very pleased with the installation procedure on my machine Once started it ran without a hitch and I was not asked to reboot the computer following the installation or do other weird or annoying things Earlier versions of Deepsky sometimes proved troublesome to install with hang ups and multiple reboots being the order of the day Not this time The new Deepsky Version 2005 6 28 is current went onto my drive without complaint or hesitation leaving me with an ini
38. rge menu of choices that includes selections for creating large scale charts You ll have a choice of using the built in Williams charting module or Cartes du Ciel and also of displaying all the objects in your spreadsheet on the chart or just the selected object Remember please that the charts whether Deepsky or CdC generated will only display the objects contained in your spreadsheet Which do I prefer Williams or CdC Both have their strengths The Williams charts see Plate 14 are pretty and give you access to the observing notes for objects the latest version of Deepsky includes over 8 000 notes from experienced observers in a larger easier to read format than in CdC You can access this useful data whether in the Williams charts or CdC by clicking on the object of interest On the downside the Dean Williams charts are comparatively slow not terribly interactive and only the bright stars are clickable for information CdC is a wonderful and full featured planetarium program and goes together with Deepsky like ham and eggs love and marriage or a horse and a carriage The right click menu also includes numerous other tasks and options the most important of which concern controlling a goto scope something we ll take up later Returning back to the main spreadsheet screen you ll find a vertical row of attractive toolbar buttons arrayed down the left side Spreadsheet takes you back to the spreadsheet from other functions The
39. t you shelled out the bucks for If you exited Deepsky to run the training disk bring it back up When you start the program you ll first be presented with the aforementioned introductory window that allows you to view the program s online documentation look at the training videos contact the author by email check into the Deepsky User s Group and check for program updates To do these things you ll naturally need an Internet connection and for everything except checking the User Group you want this to be a high speed connection There s a check box that will prevent this window from being shown at subsequent start ups if you get tired of seeing it Dismissing the help window allows you to see what it s been covering up the main program screen a spreadsheet full of objects the Messier objects to be exact No matter what you set your filters to you ll always be greeted by these familiar Ms in spreadsheet number one you ll notice by the way that there are tabs for five different spreadsheets see Plate 8 Frankly I really don t like this I d much rather the program start up with my last used spreadsheet but it only takes one button push to retrieve the previous sheet of objects so this is not a tremendous annoyance a Deepsky By Steven S Tuma and Dean Williams ii Fie Database Apps Prefs Query Report Imaging SolarSystem Planner Logbook Charts Scope Internet Help SMO Mng SPAC OM NO A A 2 aa Deep1 De
40. ter operation of astronomy software Cancel Plate 17 Scope Tyne Advanced C8 SGT Has GPS Serial Port coma Track Mode Eq N T Show Hand Control m Scope 7 p ite Aperture mm 203 Elevation m oO Focal Length ram 2022 Latitude a0 36 38 In Obstruction 7 E Longitude aF 46 45 w Version 4 2 4 Help OF Cancel Plate 18 23 to do a goto alignment of your scope just like you usually do Once you ve done that and the telescope is tracking go back to the Scope menu and click Connect Telescope If yov ve got everything correctly cabled and configured you should get a message indicating that your telescope is connected to the computer What next Goto some gotos There are two basic ways to do that with Deepsky The easiest way to get the scope slewing From the spreadsheet Plan screen select an object and right click In the menu that appears you ll see that one of the previously grayed out options at the bottom is now clickable namely Locate Object in Telescope Click that and way she goes Like to do things the planetarium way Bring up a Dean Williams chart click on your object of choice and you ll notice that there s a goto button at the bottom of the info window that appears Pushing that will you guessed it send your scope to that particular object Once your slew is complete a yellow cross
41. the Deepsiy Datatsas eat DADSSImages tt sts s Specify the Path to the Deepsky supplied images LOG TYPES Log Types allow you to partition your personal logbook into multiple logbooks Show ALL Delete Insert MISC i F Sounds Speech Check Sounds to enable various sound effects including SPEECH Requires ACP v Data Log Lookup Leave this box unchecked for fastest data retrieval Checking t causes the Type software to examine the loabook directly instead of the observed flaca I LogDate NonUS Check here if the logbook date observed shows up in the spreadsheet as blanks Limit fi ooo Sets the maximum of observations loaded into logbook spread This is used to Rows make the list load faster Leave at default unless you have more than 1000 obs p gt Obs Flag Include Include Catalog when determining if object has been observed Leave unchecked Catalog to use object id only in the determination Scope Delay Delay used to update crosshair in star charts Recommended setting is 3 3 OK Plate 6 External applications allows you to set up other programs Cartes du Ciel for example to run from the Deepsky s Apps menu To configure this up you enter each program into the table by means of browsing to its location on your hard drive from this window and finding and clicking on the program s executable file usually identified by name and a program icon that looks like
42. the one installed on your desktop This sounds confusing but is well explained in the manual Spreadsheet preferences Plate 7 allows you to change the colors of the spreadsheet among other things I found the default yellow green to be fine The rest of the selections under this window s tabs can be left at their defaults for the moment aA Spreadsheet Formatting Preferences r Specify spreadsheet formatting preferences Spreadsheet 1 Spreadsheet 2 Spreadsheet 3 Spreadsheet 4 Spreadsheet S Formatting Spreadsheet Options Font Color E Courier New 8 ss Bold Grid Color B Grid Obj Color a Each tab can have its own font and color settings Please specify the settings you would like to use Font Plate 7 Star Chart Preferences the next Prefs menu choice concerns some minor configuration details of Deepsky s included charting module Like Miscellaneous Preferences these can be left at their defaults Whoo eee done setting up for now finally What next You can start working with the program immediately but ISTRONGLY suggest that you exit insert the Training CD and view it s instructional videos Maybe view em a couple of times This will really help you get going without a lot of Uncle Rod style mucking around Criticisms of this disk s production values Steve s voice is easily understood and is much better than my Southern drawl for sure but it m
43. tial impression of solid and professional Just because you ve got the main program installed that doesn t mean you re done installing If you want to control your goto telescope with Deepsky you are required to also install the ASCOM program as well as any drivers that ASCOM furnishes for your particular scope A copy of ASCOM is included on the Deepsky CD but you might want to check the ASCOM website at http ascom standards org to make sure you ve got the latest version Please do this as depending on your scope model having the latest ASCOM can be very important for proper goto operation Also found on the Deepsky CD are Cartes du Ciel Virtual Moon Atlas Pocket Deepsky and several other apps If you re interested in any of these go ahead and install them too if you need detailed instructions for Cartes and Virtual Moon check the websites of these programs instructions for Pocket Deepsky are found in the program manual Pocket Deepsky by the way looks like a very nice program but since I m a Palm user I was unfortunately unable to evaluate it The only one of these additional applications I feel is a must is Cartes du Ciel If your tastes in astronomy charting programs are like mine you ll probably find yourself using the Cartes charts with Deepsky instead of the built in Dean Williams charting system More on that later For now just trust me and go ahead and set up Cartes du Ciel if it s not alr
44. u ll be taken to the window shown in Plate 23 To attach an image to an entry just click the little folder icon and browse to its location You ll also find buttons that will let you detach an image from an entry and perform simple image processing functions What kinds of images Most popular file formats are supported though fits is unfortunately not among them If your files are in this format you ll need to convert them before placing them in your log Naturally if you ve done a sketch you ll have to get it onto your hard drive via a scanner before you can add it to the logbook Once it s scanned you ll be able to attach your drawing to an entry like any other image That s really all there is to logging Open your plan click on the obs column for the objects you ve observed and enter your notes What s that you say Cool Breeze You don t want to record your observations on a computer outside as you work and wonder whether it s really worth the trouble to transcribe them into the computer later Vl say it is The main thing that keeps amateur logs from being useful is the fact that it s just too hard to find a particular entry for a particular object in the average observer s logbook Sure you can cross index entries on cards like I did for years but that means you must add a note to an index card in addition to making an entry in your log Every time Will you do it every time No I didn t anyway Deepsky
45. ve completed all the fields you want to fill in be sure to click the Add or Update button at the window bottom when you re done Luckily if you forget to save a new entry add the program nags you to do so 27 What if you re a CCDer or a confirmed astro sketcher Deepsky makes it easy to append image files to your log entries Hit the View Images tab at the top of the logbook Fie Otee doce Pret Qey Ret Dogg SdeSetey Pame Leoi wits Some ineret Heb MG BA R FAS CREB HAM Me t4 Alte Summary Lopes fotry tegen Vw ticles Vaw Laii Object IWentitication vu orre f ef Rept eae Wr Tite Dechais sea TT Chet Type Gt Easing 6am iS soy pt3 oe ne 7 3 J Daata FEE cee fip F r coe Seven 7 Lee Mather M Dosta GoTyor Ga ORES Soor Mst sow Locators O Tutae Rating f mise j M I Orey aes Srenhiee Kaaa Mome 5 moge Manager amass Notes sewin tio Cob iy UserDetres mi 5 ret come Batna LAGT 19 cuaran Ate eas upise Oates iwer Vs Poet Va Ouse REPOS SARS VRS SEG are ROTA SY Tesco O E ON GaTe Plate 22 BD Orewsiv fr wey ing Fae Cette doce Pref Query Amit vogrg SdeSuter Pree Leod Outs Some ineret Hep Me BA R FAS CREB HAM Me A Alte Semar lapot maces View fetes Vaw a Sie oooi Gain f t m Showed lages Fon ad Obana b Poet w Dasa NS O LE E E ion 48H 19S Tra Zira Tba OOtaah ir Your Plan Guay Tree Sae Plate 23 28 window and yo
46. w spreadsheets you generate with the What s Up Wizard Filters or queries Once your Plan is complete be SURE to save it If you don t it will go bye bye into Never Neverland when you exit the program To save it or bring it back go to the Plan menu in the top of the screen menu bar and choose save or open existing plan Normally you ll save into the Deepsky Astronomy Software directory on your hard drive In here by the way are MANY wonderful ready made observing plans for your use Use open existing plan to load these useful Plans Once you ve got a Plan ready the next step is guess what Get out and observe A look out the window on this summer afternoon though shows there are still a few hours to go 18 before astronomical twilight arrives While waiting let s explore a few of Deepsky s other useful features Just to the right of the pln column on your spreadsheet you ll find one titled img If there s an X in this column there s a picture of this object available Clicking on the X for the object of your choice will bring up Deepsky s built in and rather full featured image processor yes this program does do almost anything and display that image If your images are on a DVD or CD be sure that disk is in the drive or nothing much will happen obviously What else Highlight an object by clicking once on its ID field Then right click You ll be presented with a la
47. ypes will deliver to your spreadsheet some will be so dim they will surely elude your little scope You need to filter magnitudes To do that select the next tab over from Select Ranges 1 The fields you mostly need to worry about are those associated with Magnitude 1 Plate 10 Let s set upper limit dimmest to 10 999 the default will retrieve all magnitudes The lower limit brightest setting is 1 and you can leave that as it is Also be sure to leave the Include Blank boxes in the Magnitude 2 and Size fields checked You should uncheck this same box for Magnitude 1 Doing these things will ensure that objects for which size and or magnitude is uncertain many nebulae will be included in the spreadsheet normally a good thing Logbook 7 What s Up Apply Filters My Plans Plans Show Plan My Queries 7 2 2005 22 00 Lat 30 36 45 Lon 88 10 38 Time Zone 6 82 Objects Shown 0 Observed Query Time 48sec Plate 10 The tab to the right Ranges 2 lets you set separations and position angles for double stars as well as search parameters for object type You can leave this alone unless you re going after doubles on your first Deepsky run 13 The next tab Sort can also be bypassed at the moment This as you d guess sorts object during lookup It s less confusing at first however just to click on spreadsheet columns to sort the objects
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