[Kstars-devel] My vision for Prakash's GSoC project

[Akarsh Simha]

Hi

I was just wanting to express my vision for Prakash's GSoC project. 

Of course, I don't think all of the stuff I've mentioned here might be
completable within a GSoC, and I don't know how much of this stuff is
in Prakash's proposal. IMO, we should try to go through the
"important" independently implementable stuff in this list, making
sure we have "mergeable code" at each stage, and finish as much as
possible.

Typically when one goes observing, I guess one needs the following
things:

1. A list of objects to observe "tonight"
   - Preferably with time stamps for best observing times
   - Cache images of objects in the list from online source(s) for
     comparison in field
   - If community integration is done, cache community observing logs
     for those targets

2. A log to record observations made that night
   - We must open an 'observing session' that has info about
       + Location Details
       + Weather, Sky Condition (Transparency, Seeing, Humidity...)
       + Equipment (Telescopes, Eyepieces, Filters...)
     [COMAST provides ways to log all this beautifully]
   - We should have places to input observation logs about all
     planned targets
   - Normally, one ends up having some unplanned targets. So we need
     the ability to add unplanned objects on the fly and store logs
     about them as well

3. A nice integrated UI to plan your observing session
   - One might like to have an "overall" observing wishlist of all
     objects one is interested in observing, out of which, one selects
     some objects for tonight.
   - A nice UI to plan "tonight's" observing list from that selection
     of objects, would include
        + Altitude vs Time tool
        + Sky Calendar tool [?]
        + An easily invokable almanac, complete with moon and twilight
          info
        + Ability to sort observing wishlist objects by magnitude,
          type...
        + Ability to automatically "suggest" an observing list for the
          night [Far fetched?]
	+ A picture of the object
   - Ability to schedule future observing sessions in KOrganizer [?]

4. Tools to "execute" an observing list:
   - Load an observing list and order it by planned time of observation
   - Present details about the object - cached image, magnitude, NGC
     description...
     [Also, community logs if community integration is done, retrieved
     from cache]
   - Present a log for the observer to log details about his
     observations
   - Possibly, ring (irritating) alarms when timestamps for objects
     are hit :D

In addition to these, it would be nice if KStars would offer to
schedule observing sessions for astronomical events. For instance, if
the conjunctions tool found an interesting conjunction, I should be
able to schedule an observing session for that conjunction from within
KStars.

I haven't thought about these enough - particularly the implementation
details. Maybe I should also have a look at some software that are
meant for planning / logging observations like the one that Prakash
mentioned in his GSoC proposal.

It'd be nice if others could pitch in their ideas on this.

Regards
Akarsh