It would be great if
1.- we were able to browse a subset database of brighter objects DSO (Messier, brighter NGC …)
2.- with accurate RA/DEC, and searcheable fields (like object type, RA/DEC, ATL/AZ, size, …)
3.- in order to know what is visible from our Location/Time of observation
4.- and to select the object of our interest, with the options "slew or center"
5.- and so to populate directly the data for plate solver (sparing the step of entry the aproximate RA/DEC, or find them in Astrobin etc)
It would be nice but I think this is quite a bit outside the purpose of SGP. There are a whole bunch of programs
that do object search and selection very well (I prefer Sky Tools 3 Pro) so I would leave it to those specialized programs to do that.
If MSS decided to enable some additional integration with some of those programs that would be fine, but personally I don’t think this kind of search program belongs as part of SGP.
Of course, another option would be to create their own separate program or add-on for that purpose but it is a pretty crowded field already.
Chisco,
That would be really nice. Or even some type of social integration with a site like astrobin? “TOP 10” objects being imaged right now?
That would be really cool.
Yes, I’m aware that they are stand alone software that manage huge databases, with a lot of options. But I think that we only need a few facilities. A non blind session of astroimaging, with an aid that guides us saying “there are the objects that you can target now”. That would be very useful, and much more simple.
I think what this comes down to is more of a planning feature vs planetarium. Ken and I have discussed this for some time. It’s certainly on our list of things we want to do with SGP and I think it would tie in nicely with the multi targeting.
Jared