Carbon, Variable & Double Star Observing
Deep-Sky Planner 9 allows you to search through a database of over 700,000 stars from 7 catalogs - carbon stars, double stars, variable stars and ordinary stars - and report results in a tabular format. In addition to essential object data, the contents of a report can be configured to include or exclude any item (column) of data. Deep-Sky Planner also computes high precision ephemerides for well-studied visual double stars, as well as the date & time of next light extrema for well-studied variable stars.
The star atlases cross referenced in Deep-Sky Planner reports include:
- The Herald-Bobroff AstroAtlas by David Herald and Peter Bobroff, HB2000, 1994.
- Millennium Star Atlas by Roger Sinnott and Michael A.C. Perryman, Sky Publishing Corporation, 1997.
- Pocket Sky Atlas by Roger Sinnott, Sky Publishing Corporation, 2006.
- Sky Atlas 2000.0 by Wil Tirion, Sky Publishing Corporation, 1981.
- Uranometria 2000.0 by Wil Tirion, Barry Rappaport and George Lovi, Willmann-Bell, Inc, 1987.
- Uranometria 2000.0 2d Ed. by Wil Tirion, Barry Rappaport and Will Remaklus, Willmann-Bell, Inc, 2001.
- interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas by Ronald Stoyan and Stephan Schurig, Oculum Verlag GmbH, 2013.
Click here to see a list of star catalogs included with Deep-Sky Planner.
Star catalog search criteria include:
- object designation, including range of object numbers or object name with wildcard pattern matching
- common name of object, e.g., search CGCS for 'Hind's*'
- whether ever viewable at your latitude
- magnitude range
- magnitude difference range
- angular separation and position angle for double stars, including high precision measurements calculated for well-studied visual binary stars
- spectral type(s)
- variable type(s) - includes major types (e.g. pulsating) and all subtypes (RR Lyrae, etc)
- variability period
- constellation(s)
- sky position (on a chart from 7 supported atlases, within a range of altitudes and azimuths, whether visible given your local horizon, or within a radius of an equatorial position that can be specified by telescope position or by looking up an object in the database)
- viewing time (up during the date's astronomical darkness or during a user-specified time period)
- whether observed
The results can be sorted in any combination of ascending or descending order of any one or more data items (columns) in the report.
- compute altitude and azimuth of objects at specified date & time
- slew your GO TO telescope to the object (or sync the telescope position with the object)
- push-to using Argo Navis, Nexus DSC or Sky Commander
- show a star chart centered on the object using TheSky6/X/64, Redshift, Starry Night, Stellarium or Cartes du Ciel (see version compatibility)
- view a Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) image centered on the reported object
- view a graph of any reported object's altitude over time on the specified date
- view a graph of any reported object's altitude at a time of day over a specified year
- view all common names and cross references for any reported object
- view your logged observations of any reported object
- add observations to your log for any reported object
- print or save reports to PDF, formatted text, HTML or delimited text (CSV)
- print a report and print to fit page size
Double Star Report
The example report shows a search of double stars brighter than magnitude 8 in Bootes above the local horizon at 10 pm on 10 June 2024 and sorted by separation angle. Double stars with high precision ephemeris data available show the year for which the measurement is calculated. The calculated separation and position angle data are accurate for the ephemeris date & time of the report - 10 pm on 10 June 2024.
Variable Star Report
The example Variable Star report shows a search of bright red variable stars above the local horizon at 10 pm on 10 June 2024, and sorted by time of next light extrema.