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Observing Plan Document

The Plan document holds essential information for a list of any type of celestial objects. You can copy objects (Ctrl-C) from any Deep-Sky Planner report and and paste them (Ctrl-V) into the plan document, or you can enter information manually for any object you choose with the Plan Editor. Deep-Sky Planner calculates ephemeral data for each object in the plan document, and it provides sorting and filtering capabilities for a report. The report can be run at a specific time or it can be run continuously. Times in the report are accurate for the observer's location. Times and equatorial position values are given in the format selected in Preferences.

Information about the Observing Plan Report

The document contains three adjustable panes.

▪The upper document settings pane contains the general plan (meta) information, localization information and filtering options for the report.

▪The lower left report pane displays the results of the most recent Run of the plan.

▪The lower right detail pane displays graphical and extended textual information for the selected object.

Splitters and Hotzone Buttons

The upper pane is separated from the lower panes by a pane adjusting bar called a splitter. The splitter contains a special hotzone button - either or . The cursor changes to when your cursor hovers over the splitter. The splitter can be dragged to any position, allowing you to adjust the display to suit your monitor and viewing needs. The hotzone button allows you to pop the upper pane closed or pop it to the previous position with a single click. This is very useful if you want to reveal more of the lower panes' contents momentarily and then return to the previous display layout. Panes, the splitter and the hotzone button are described further in the glossary.

Document Settings Pane

Document metadata and filter settings are grouped logically into several tabbed pages on the upper document pane. Any data entry item name with an asterisk (*) indicates that its data is optional - you do NOT have to enter that item.

When a filter tab has settings that exclude any objects from a report, the tab area shows the filtered icon. This helps you identify at a glance any filter settings that are applied when the plan is Run.

Quick links to further information on each tab follows:

Lower Panes

Plan editing, column layout and plan running controls are all located on the lower pane's command panel.

Command Panel

Edit Plan is a drop down button with the following selections available:

Add (Ctrl-Ins) opens the Plan Editor so that an object can be added to the plan. The report is refreshed by default after objects are added. You can change this behavior in Preferences.

Edit (Ctrl-F2) opens the Plan Editor so that the selected object in the plan can be edited. The report is NOT refreshed by default after objects are edited. You can change this behavior in Preferences.

Delete (Ctrl-Del) removes the selected object(s) from the plan.

Delete All removes all objects from the plan. This operation must be confirmed by the user before objects are removed.

Fit Columns and Show Columns provide control over report content and layout. These functions are discussed in Working with Reports.

Help allows you to open online help to this page.

Get DSS Images opens the DSS Download Status dialog box where you can use the Smart DSS Download™ feature. Please see DSS Download Status for details.

Run processes the plan and produces a report once. The date and time specified on the Localize tab are used for calculations. Some data are only refreshed after the plan is run, such as Altitude or Apparent RA/Decl. When a plan has finished processing and the report has been refreshed, the plan returns to the Ready state.

Run every allows you to select how often the plan is run in automatic mode. Run every is expressed in minutes and can be from 1 to 60, inclusively. A large plan may requires thousands of calculations to produce a report, so keep this in mind when setting this value.

Auto processes the plan and updates the report in continuous fashion. The date and time specified on the Localize tab are not used for calculations; the current system date & time are used instead. Please see the Plan state below

Stop stops a continuously running plan and places the plan in the Ready state.

Plan State

A recessed status box appears beside the Auto button. It shows the state of the plan:

▪Ready means that the plan is ready to be edited, saved, closed, run or run continuously. The plan report may show data but the plan document is idle.

▪Calculating means that ephemeral calculations are being performed on the plan. No changes can be made to the plan in this state.

▪Running means that the plan is running continuously and is awaiting its next processing cycle. No changes can be made to the plan in this state, but you can click Stop to place the plan in the ready state and make changes to the plan.

A recessed status box appears beside the Help button. It shows the number of objects displayed in the report and the total number included in the plan. These numbers can be different if some objects are filtered out of the plan report.

Report Pane

The Plan Report pane contains the textual portion of the plan report. The contents of a report are described here. The text in the report can be scrolled horizontally and vertically using cursor keys or by clicking the scroll bars.

It is separated from the Detail pane by a splitter that contains a hotzone button as described above. In this case, the splitter is oriented vertically. The splitter can be dragged to any position. The hotzone button allows you to pop the details pane closed or pop it to the previous position. This is very useful when you want to view the details associated with an object briefly.

The report pane has a context menu that can be accessed by right clicking in the window. The context menu contains:

▪the system preferred designation of the selected object

▪all common names for the object in the database. The information icon indicates a common name for the object.

▪all cross references for the object in the database. The live lookup icon indicates that you can lookup and view essential catalog information for the cross referenced object by clicking the menu item.

▪object-specific functions

▪Preferences

▪Report Style Browser

Detail Pane

The Detail Pane is a multi-tabbed pane that contains graphical or extended textual content for a selected object. Currently, these tabbed pages include:

What About?

There are two general methods for exporting an Observing Plan document to other software and other devices. Most export capability is accessible via File | Export Plan to Device or File | Export Plan to App. The exception is exporting to Astronomy Control Panel (ACP) software. This export format is more complicated than the others so it requires a special export facility. See File | Export Plan to App | Astronomy Control Panel