[Kstars-devel] Summer of KDE Project for KStars

[Prakash Mohan]

> Hello.
>
> This is an interesting idea it's quite difficult to implement. I think
> it would be easier to write functions to calculate time when object is
> available taking into account inaccessible areas on the sky. (Obscured,
> light-polluted etc.) Telescope doesn't really matter. With one
> exception zenith area is inaccessible for telescopes with azimutal
> mount.

Yeah, we could even input some specific obscurations form the user as
well, for instance there might be a big building blocking south.

> IMHO creation of a schedule is much more difficult task. And in this
> case almost impossible. Probably creation of tool which shows time when
> objects are avalaible and some tools for manual scheduling would be
> very nice. Personally I'd like to have such tool.

Hmm, this seems more reasonable. We can start with the manual
scheduling, and _if_ we come up with an algorithm to set the times, we
can implement this. But I think we could come-up with atleast a better
model than setting the default time as the transit time.

For now, we do have the tools for manual scheduling in the Observing
List, but it displays only the rise and set times. This could be a
starting point for scheduling business.

> Also currently data model in kstars is under major rewamping by Victor
> Carbune. You may want to see recent discussions on the list and in
> Victor's blog[1].

Will that affect this problem? All we would require is alt-vs-time for
objects to be observed right?

Cheers,
Prakash

-- 
Prakash Mohan
Undergraduate Student
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras