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google calendar for astro events?


GazK

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I'm in the process of putting together a new website for our astro group - Salisbury Plain Observing Group - and I'd like to include a google calendar of astro events (conjunctions, oppositions, etc etc) on the site. Google has turned nothing up - is there anyone out there maintaining such a calendar?

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Thanls for the link - yeah I saw that one, and its ideal. EXCEPT that there's no way to hook into the data. I'm looking for a live data link so that current astro events can be displayed on the site without human intervention or update.

One thing I've noticed about the astro community, is that by and large - I'm generalising here, don't shoot me down - there seem to be lots of closed IT systems, with very little in the way of APIs or other means to share and use data across sites. The link above is a good example - how useful is that data?! And how inaccessible!

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One thing I've noticed about the astro community, is that by and large - I'm generalising here, don't shoot me down - there seem to be lots of closed IT systems, with very little in the way of APIs or other means to share and use data across sites. The link above is a good example - how useful is that data?! And how inaccessible!

I'm not shooting you down, but someone / something had to sit down and run those calculations, crunch numbers, etc, etc.

Why would they want to make that data public (open API) so you can leech it into your own site / calendar / publication?

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I'm not shooting you down, but someone / something had to sit down and run those calculations, crunch numbers, etc, etc.

Why would they want to make that data public (open API) so you can leech it into your own site / calendar / publication?

For the greater good of the hobby? Lots of people in other fields have built APIs for their datasets and made them available, usually with a linkback to the originator. I myself run a site on an unrelated topic, with a database which has taken 1000s of manhours to populate, and I would be more than happy to build an API if I thought there was any interest, but it seems to be too niche. Astronomy on the other hand isn't.

You're quite right, nobody has to hand out data they own, but for a hobby with such a learning /outreach message it seems odd no-one has done this. There are APIs out there for raw astro data, but seemingly nothing for the hobbyist.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi. I found this thread because I was looking for the same thing that you are.

I found the following link:

https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=guimdkgog9o96a1d7moepe494c@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

It's *still* not perfect, but at least it's a Google calendar with astro events. Hope that helps.

(The person who maintains the calendar is Mike Rector. I found the above link via: https://plus.google.com/113047225282720058964/posts/2uWNbUE7SJE )

Matthew

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  • 1 year later...

I found a decent Google Calendar that has a few events a month, which is great for the novice hobbyist like me and most people even mildly interested in science in general. I'm more likely to share this one with friends and family, who might only once be tempted to join in on a stargazing party with us.

Source

 That being said, I would love to find one with many more events to better track events on a more regular basis. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

" I'm looking for a live data link so that current astro events can be displayed on the site without human intervention or update."

So regular export/import does not meet the test. This is not live data.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Gaz,

Just noticed this. I've cobbled together an astro calendar for my own use: has things like appulses and occultations of bright stars in it. It also has meetings that I attend, which may not be of interest to you.

The times are also a hotch-potch: "civil" things, like meetings, are all in civil time, but the times of astro events (occultations, etc.) are UT even if it doesn't say so. (It works for me)

Anyway, you (and anyone else) are welcome to use it if you want:

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/llf0q8d58ipo5fthr3dii5homo%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

If you're publishing it, I'd appreciate an acknowledgement in situ.

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In retrospect, it might have been more useful if I'd posted the HTML code to embed it:

<iframe src="https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?title=Upcoming%20Events&showNav=0&showDate=0&showPrint=0&showTabs=0&showCalendars=0&showTz=0&mode=AGENDA&height=300&wkst=2&bgcolor=%23ffffff&src=llf0q8d58ipo5fthr3dii5homo%40group.calendar.google.com&color=%231B887A&src=ht3jlfaac5lfd6263ulfh4tql8%40group.calendar.google.com&color=%2323164E&src=en.uk%23holiday%40group.v.calendar.google.com&color=%23AB8B00&src=p%23weather%40group.v.calendar.google.com&color=%235A6986&ctz=Europe%2FLondon" style=" border:solid 1px #777 " width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
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  • 1 year later...

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