How to Contribute a Plan Document for Deep-Sky Planner
Plan documents are distributed through the Plan Library in the Deep-Sky Planner Community. You can browse, view and download plans by logging in to the Community directly from Deep-Sky Planner (Community | Latest Plans, All Plans or Browse Community).
If you would like to contribute a plan, please follow these guidelines and submit your plan via e-mail. The plan will be reviewed and posted to the Plan Library if there are no problems.
The General tab of the plan document contains 'metadata' items. Please complete these as follows:- Plan Name - should be descriptive so that if it appears in a list of available plans, users can guess what it contains without downloading it.
- Category - should broadly define the types of objects contained in the plan. Deep-Sky Planner ships with a set of plan categories.
- Author/Contributor - should identify the person that is sending the plan to Knightware for distribution to other users. If the plan was authored by someone else, please include a citation in the Description.
- Description - should briefly describe the contents of the plan. Please be sure to include a proper citation for a work that is related to the plan, like a book or article. Other items you might include in the Description:
- number of objects
- relative difficulty or size telescope needed
- plan is for binoculars, DSLR photography, etc
Object Data should be taken from an accurate source. Please be sure to indicate whether coordinates are referred to the standard epoch and equinox of J2000, or are apparent coordinates for the date and time of the plan. Please include the source (e.g., catalog reference) of the object data as applicable.
Finally, save a 'cleaned' version of your plan before submitting it. 'Cleaned' means that localized information - such your location, observed statuses, report filters and sort options - are removed from the plan. You can do this with File | Clean and Save.
E-mail plans to plans -at - knightware dot biz. You will receive a reply confirming that the plan has been received. If you don't get a reply within 24 hours, please check your junk folder or spam filter!
Copyright Questions
A list of objects is not copyrightable, but other information in a plan, especially any descriptive information that may appear in the User Text portion of a plan may be copyrightable. Knightware cannot accept plans that include copyrightable content without proper permission in writing from the owner of the copyrights.
For plans related to articles and books: please include a citation for the related book, magazine or online article. Although such a citation is not required by US copyright law, Knightware wishes to give proper credit for authors of these works. Such an article or book should be read to appreciate the full value of a list of objects!