DSO planner for Android

[popeye85]

Has anyone got any experience with the above app? I have got the free version and it seems pretty decent and looking at upgrading but £15 for a app is pretty expensive. I already have sky Safari 5 plus so not sure what is to be gained by having both-anyone got a opinion to help me choose. 

Thanks!

[AlexK]

I'm using DSO Planner for about 9 years. I'm one of its two developers. Let me list the most crucial differences of the DSO Planner app from the rest of similar Android apps (i.e. only its unique features).

1. DSO Planner is the only handheld app that has complete USNO UCAC4 stars database. So you can see ALL stars down to 16m on the chart. That tremendously helpful for the identification of the star field with any eyepiece on an up to 16" aperture scope. With my 12" Dob I can rarely see a not charted in the app star or DSO.
2. The most strict possible on the Android platform night mode with the fully user-adjustable brightness and size of dozens of chart elements. Most of the elements are designed to be giving up as little light as possible (wireframes). I'm observing from grey and black LPZs exclusively so the app is fine-tuned on my Galaxy Note 4 to avoid interfering with my almost 2 hours of elaborate darkness adaptation at all times. The day mode is also tunable to any taste. In general, the DSO Planner provides an enormous number of optional settings and tweaks, so you can personalize it to your routine in many ways.
3. Exhaustive support for direct pointing with the Telrad. I have improved the scope pointing technique with the Telrad by developing dedicated app features to the extent that I never use any other finders anymore for the past 8 years but pointing it to any DSO, even not visible in my main eyepiece, with Telrad in one swift motion of the Dob between stars. It's faster and more reliable than GoTo systems (I have Meade ETX 125 GoTo for 20 years as well to judge).
4. Star Boldness feature, which allows you to control how brightest and faintest stars are looking on the chart in real-time (the unique two handle slider), which is solving the problem of the real stars looking different in the eyepiece from the star symbols on the chart to a great extent, as every person's perception is different at that.
5. It provides the objects' databases control system rivaling most advanced desktop apps. An advanced user can filter, create, combine, import, and share stock and custom objects databases in almost any imaginable way (all the way to simplified SQL requests), extending the functionality of the chart and the planner almost indefinitely. E.g. I have created the Variable Stars database to use in the planner and show on the chart from the public GCVS catalog in just two hours!
6. Support for very old Android devices (excluding the Kindle series from Amazon, which is only a half-Android, plus there are some hardware restrictions for the Pro version on very early Androids). That means not only performance on high-end devices but also allows iPhone or WinMobile users to opt for a cheap second-hand Android device to serve as a dedicated astronomy navigator. My Galaxy Note 4 is dedicated to the extent of having a permanent clip cradle on the OTA near the focuser.
7. We have the permission from Steve Gotlieb to show his NGC/IC project's images and great objects' observation notes in the app.
8. DSO Planner even has its own app launcher, so you can start your other astronomy-related apps (or your observing flow supporting apps like weather) apps from one place (but prepare to part with your darkness adaptation if not wearing deep-red glasses or not using the screen film and opening a not well dark-adapted app). 

I believe we also have many other chart/database features improved over many obsolete ideas through these years, as we both are using our app in the field and from home first hand for several years already. We are listening to our users too and having short turn-around for new viable features as this is actually just our pet project, we are both doing different things for the living (which I believe is also an advantage for such an app development, no bold financial goals but pure observing efficiency).

The only downside I should mention it's not a trivial star chart and it not made for cheap amusement. Thus reading the highly technical and detailed user manual is a must for observing efficiency (we even have a pdf one downloadable from the site). There is a learning curve to its most advanced features. A good grasp of astronomy science and data science academic basics would be highly beneficial as well. But Astronomy is not a trivial hobby either. It's for perpetual learners.

Edited March 5, 2019 by AlexK

[Guest]

On 27/10/2018 at 18:58, popeye85 said:

Has anyone got any experience with the above app? I have got the free version and it seems pretty decent and looking at upgrading but £15 for a app is pretty expensive. I already have sky Safari 5 plus so not sure what is to be gained by having both-anyone got a opinion to help me choose. 

Thanks!

I think for most of us the Pro version is overkill, the plus would probably be adequate and is £11.  Feature comparison is here: http://www.dsoplanner.com/Overview

 

[AlexK]

You are correct. The only difference of the Plus is the lack of USNO UCAC4 stars below 14m and similarly cut off PGC catalog. Which is good enough for an up to 8" aperture scope in reasonably good conditions. To be precise though, the Plus version actually exists to amend the 2Gb app data limit of early Android devices hardware, which I have mentioned above (the Pro requires more than 2Gb which you can't move to the SD card, at least initially due to Google restriction on the installation destination of the app data). Otherwise, it's exactly like the Pro in functionality.

OTOH, we don't plan to ever sell you a newer version of the app again and Google can't do upgrades later. So if you plan at least a 12" ever in the future and your Android buddy is at least of a Lollypop breed, consider the Pro. Also, the Pro is usually released the first in the batch, as we are making it for our own enjoyment

Edited March 5, 2019 by AlexK

[R26 oldtimer]

I have used the free version ( and I still use it) before downloading skysafari plus. If I didn't want to control my telescope through a planetarium app, I would go for the dsoplanner free. I found it better than the free version of skysafari, and had better push-to capabilities, although the limiting factor is the phone's sensors. I really liked the fact that it pairs specific telescopes with certain eyepieces or sensors, so when changing from my visual to my imaging telescope I instantly get the fov that the specific combo gives.

But for telescope control, I just found skysafari's UI more intuitive.

An excellent app non the less, and as I already said, still being used.

[AlexK]

Thank you, R26. That's true, our GoTo feature is minimalistic and requires 2 taps of the screen to move the scope or synchronize the chart with it. We could probably improve on that, but it's not the top priority, as we are both prefer just manual pointing   Even though I have Meade ETX-125 too, it was dedicated for terrestrial views and solar projection long time ago. My current passion is visual DSO observing with the twelve-incher.

Edited March 5, 2019 by AlexK

[Shaun_the_Sheep]

I prefer Sky Safari. The star chart is great and really helps me locate faint objects. I love all the information included about each object you are observing. It's like having an astronomical encyclopedia at the eyepiece. I can be looking at a galaxy, globular cluster etc, one tap on its info brings up a detailed description of the object. It really helps me appreciate what I am seeing (Which is usually just a faint smudge). I  tried DSO but its very very complicated

 

[AlexK]

I understand,  DSO Planner it's not an ordinary planetarium app but more of an observations planner app kind, inspired in many ways by the SkyTools desktop software. After 40+ years in the hobby, I wanted an ultimate field solution in the palm of my hand.  That required to move away from the typical approach of replicating paper charts functionality on a computer screen. So, a learning curve required in order to get rid of the old (paper) habits ?. You can check my write-up elaborating on my own routine here: http://dsoplanner.com/General_use_of_DSO_Planner Sorry for the still rough English, though still might be of help. After grasping the idea the planning of the entire night takes 5 minutes max.

Edited March 6, 2019 by AlexK

[Shaun_the_Sheep]

Was not aware of Skytools. I have also used Stellarium which is very good too.  Is DSO the android version of Skytools then. 

 

[AlexK]

48 minutes ago, Shaun_the_Sheep said:

Was not aware of Skytools. I have also used Stellarium which is very good too.  Is DSO the android version of Skytools then. 

 

No, DSO Planner is not a SkyTools clone, just using a similar approach to dealing with the data from data maintenance (planning) tasks to displaying (charting/tabulating).

I love Stellarium too! Very beautiful presentation-vise and open source (mine is rebuilt from sources with my own modifications). But its Android version is really frustrating so far. Also, it is following the third astronomy charting apps paradigm the "Home Planetarium" controlled by mouse and keyboard. Thus in many regards, it is hard to use at the telescope. Finally, our ultimate goal is to produce a standalone offline handheld assistant (it's often no Internet in the field) controllable with just one hand, preferably by a single finger (as your other hand might be occupied with the telescope controls, and when it is cold you should be able to operate the app with the capacitive stylus, keeping your hand in the mitten

Edited March 6, 2019 by AlexK

[Gfamily]

DSO Planner is a fine piece of software - I particularly appreciate that you can make audio notes against observation list objects,  so you can sit at the eyepiece and talk into it, describing what you can see without having to take your eye away from the eyepiece.

It would be great if there was a way of taking the recording when you were back home with wifi, and porting the audio file into the speech recognition process, to get a transcript. 

 

[Shaun_the_Sheep]

Alexk,  you are obviously very passionate about DSO Planner.  I will try it again and attempt to master some of its functions.  

[AlexK]

1 hour ago, Gfamily said:

DSO Planner is a fine piece of software - I particularly appreciate that you can make audio notes against observation list objects,  so you can sit at the eyepiece and talk into it, describing what you can see without having to take your eye away from the eyepiece.

It would be great if there was a way of taking the recording when you were back home with wifi, and porting the audio file into the speech recognition process, to get a transcript. 

1

Thanks! That was actually the idea behind that feature. I'm using the Dragon Dictate software for the voice typing for like 15 years if not more (not much lately, as my academic career is over). Thus that feature is already there! Read the "Note" here: http://dsoplanner.com/Observation_Notes#Note for all the details.

The 3GP container file format is the standard media container compatible with Android and Windows Players (not 100% sure about the rest of platforms, but most likely too). For an older voice recognition app, you may need to extract the audio from the container to some compatible format like .wav file using some free or online converter first (there are plenty of them).

[AlexK]

2 hours ago, Shaun_the_Sheep said:

Alexk,  you are obviously very passionate about DSO Planner.  I will try it again and attempt to master some of its functions.  

Thank you! Feel free to ask any questions right here. Our own forum engine seems to have the broken registration facility at the moment.

[AlexK]

After migrating DSO Planner to the latest Google Android libraries, we had several issues reported on the newest Android X devices, which are more widely utilizing new Material Design features in their system apps. In particular, users were struggling with the virtual Navigation Buttons Bar (usually Back/Home/Recent apps buttons at the bottom of the screen) and several interface "beautifications" which were frankly ruining our meticulous darkness adaptation measures in the Night Mode of the app, as the original mechanism hiding that Navigation Bar on Android Tablets was not working properly with the new interface. Even though, there is an option to hide that bar in the Android settings, other features had no user-side control over them at all. So we have decided to make a quick patch in the DSO Planner taking care of these Android system changes as we are considering the darkness adaptation being the most important precondition to the perfect observing experience.

Thus, in the version 3.7.2 just released:

• New settings option "Hide the Android Navigation Bar" which works on latest devices. Additional controls added to make navigation more straight-forward without it displayed.
  • Tip 1: If you feel confused using integrated DSO Planner "finger flicks" gestures for the fullscreen navigation (without that System-provided Navigation Bar), you can turn on the long-time available for tablets "Floating Back/Menu buttons..." option(s) in the "System-wide settings" menu. 
  • Tip 2: For myself, I have that Navbar completely disabled in the Android System settings globally, but allow to trigger its commands by flicks up from the screen corners for a long time. That's saving the screen space, and so natural and functional that when our users reported the issue I could not even recall if I have that annoying Navbar feature on my Galaxy S8 at all!
• Improved Night mode support for new Android OS "Material Design" themes. The new Android feature showing a bright balloon under the text entry cursor when you make observation notes was really blinding for new Android devices' owners, and there is no system control for it. Now it's barely visible in Night mode (but it is there, so you can still move the cursor if necessary). Multiple similar fixes around the app color Themes.
• Added automatic Android Navigation Bar theme change with app screen themes changing (between 3 modes: Day, Onyx, and Night) to match the visual experience better.

More significant features are in the work, so stay tuned!

Edited September 8, 2020 by AlexK

[AlexK]

Oh! Missed the previous announcement, there it is:

Finally, the long awaited Android future-proofing DSO Planner update 3.7 is in the wild!

The primary goal of this massive update, which took several months to polish, is making sure that the DSO Planner app will stay fully compatible with all Android device versions from the ancient Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) all the way to the latest Android 10 devices and even farther in time as it is now leveraging the latest recommended for developers Android API. I would highly recommend that update, even though it might pose a minor inconvenience for the folks who has moved their databases to the external SD card (the fix is trivial actually, see below).

Despite of our focus on future-proofing, we have managed to implement a couple of neat new features based on requests from our users:

1. Full support for the QuInsight collimating pointer (I believe that’s a great Telrad pointer successor). You can adjust its additional ultra-wide rings sizes with the same high precision as Telrad rings (see the QuInsight discussion on CN forum: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/691228-quinsight-the-telrad-successor ).
2. The user-selectable option which allows to remember orientation and mirroring settings of the star chart for every zoom level. Which is saving a tap or two on the screen (as well as the chore of remembering to do that manually each time) when your observing flow with a particular telescope is well established repeating step by step procedure.
   For example:
   when you are starting from the full sky view (chart at a wide FOV like 150°) mirrored so you can easily figure which constellation is where in Azimuth above the horizon; then, moving to QuInsight (chart at around 20° FOV) with the straight view; then, to the finder (if you are not using the TPM method) with rotated 180° view (chart is at ~6° FOV). And finally to the main EP view with smallish FOV upside-down charts.
   Now you can just turn ON that mode and set up your typical charts sizes with typical orientations and mirroring you need. They are saved even if you turn OFF the feature for some other project (it's OFF by default).
3. The Observation Notes feature is now directly accessible from the Tools module of the main screen as a separate DSO Planner “application”, same as the "Red Flashlight" and "Twilight calculator" mini apps. It simply opens your observing notes database with just two taps on the screen. As you might already have guessed, we have huge plans for extending that very popular and powerful feature further (and much quicker now as the new API also means the new versions releasing train as well!).

The possible issue after the update on Android 10 devices is about the "Image" button in the Object Details data screen. If it stopped working or is not displayed for a regular NGC/IC object (DSO Planner has the entire NGCIC.org project's images database integrated), just check the Alternative Path value in the Settings / System-wide Settings / Data files location / Change data files menu. If you see some path there you don't recognize, simply clear the text in that field and tap OK button (if not, just tap OK button). Reopen the app. That should fix the issue.

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by AlexK

[mdstuart]

DSO planner works well for me.

Great for checking the position of faint galaxies.

I also have sky safari pro and I find I use both. 

Mark

[AlexK]

Thank you, Mark. Galaxies is where DSO Planner excels!
If you see anything changed in an "unsatisfactory way" lately, just let me know. That "major refactoring" was quite challenging for our "team of two".