Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

FYI: Back in post #79 of this thread, I had mentioned that version 1.00 of Mephemeris had been released, but it looks like I never put it up on my webpage for download! Eeek!

Anyways, when I was posting my new app today (MGedcom) I noticed this, and made efforts to update Mephemeris to the latest version -- which I had done way back on Nov 24th!

http://darethehair.googlepages.com/software.html

It looks like I made a few minor improvements to the 'solar system' plot options :)

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

For some reason, I had version 1.00 of Mephemeris already installed. I also have version 0.11 of MOrrery, even though your site only mentions 0.09.

I don't know where I got it, but thanks.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

belanger:

This is bizarre, but thanks for letting me also know about MOrrery. I suspect that somehow my 'web page' got out-of-sync with what was actually available on my web site, so I have now tried to put it back to what it 'originally' was :)

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

I wish this existed for Maemo 5:

User points to the sky with his device and sees in the screen an equivalent graphic representation identifying the planets, main stars and constellations inview, based on the current time, location and compass.

Like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PRfVKzuUJ4 but pointing to the sky.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

I actually tried to make something like this but I'm afraid it wasn't very useful, at least with the N810. It (sort of) worked when zoomed out but the GPS provided compass wasn't good enough for any of the closer views (like on the video). My guess this could be improved upon using accelerometers/gyroscopes if the next maemo device has them, but even there some sort of calibration would likely be required (the sky is mighty big if your window is a 4" screen at an arm's length).

Also, for this purpose it might be worth checking out if Stellarium could be made to work with OpenGL ES, it's very representative, although definitely not a lightweight app.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

GPS will not know your heading unless you're moving, which is pretty inconvenient if you want to watch the sky at the same time...
A real, electronic compass could be a useful thing in a NIT, for some people. Unfortunately, even the new, upcoming omap chipsets with their kitchen-sink list of built-in features don't include an electronic compass afaics.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

I totally agree with you guys: a device that knows it own orientation (GPS/compass,etc), and also one that knows about its own movement (accelerometers). Even if all of this is not 'built-in', why can't some after-market USB plugin device be created?

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

There are tricks to get heading even from a stationary GPS, but admittedly that requires a very low level approach and is (still) pretty unreliable/unwieldy, especially for NIT style devices.

The electronic compass has few applications and many specifics to accomodate, (and as GPS can double as a compass most of the time) it isn't as popular with embedded chipset makers.

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

Ok, compromises can be made. For instance, the display might show a 21mm optic equivalent or even a simple set of views North South East West, defaulting to the view where the Moon is found (if visible). Also the Moon itself could be shown in its current phase.

These apps are impressive in the Linux desktop, but they somehow fail in the most popular mobile use cases: What is the name of that star? What is the Polar star? Where is the constellation of certain Zodiac symbol?

The compass thing is cool but not essential

Re: ANNOUNCE: Mephemeris - Astronomy Program
 

Heh, nearly spot on what my would-be app is for. Does this description fit ?

A Qt based lightweight astronomical observation aide, not unlike KStars, but without KDE dependencies and more oriented towards education through practical uses. The primary focus of the application is not just to show a dataset of stars and other celestial objects, but to make it possible to plan, track and help observations in the field, for beginners and advanced backyard astronomers alike. The primary target hardware platform is the Nokia N810 (being well suited for observatory style operations - long battery operated life, portable, built in GPS), but notebooks and other devices supporting Qt libraries could make use of Qt Observatory as well.

It is supposed to have most of the functionality you mention one day, with some educational additions (try to recognize location/constellations based on drawing the more prominent stars - something like liqbase).

The compass is good to match the movement of the user (=accelerators) to actual points in the sky. Without it, you just have one coordinate (altitude), and no reference point for the azimuth.

I don't know if calibration (=point your NIT) by celestial objects would be considered too complex, as it could provide a fixed point. This could be (as you suggested) the moon, a planet, or simply the brightest star available. Based on that, all sorts of niftiness would be possible.