Importing an object data base.

[Guest]

Bit of a silly question here so no giggling at the back please

I've recently installed the DSO planner app from google play.  I am a complete newbie with these type of astronomy apps but this does look useful.  Anyway,  I recently typed up an observation list for myself in Word.  This evening I was playing about with DSO planner and found an option to import observation lists.  So, can anyone advise me if its possible to convert a Word file onto a format that this app will accept.  It will also accept the Sky Safari format for import. 

Thanks

Found this.....

You can also email your observing list as a plain-text attachment, or as a CSV (comma-separated value) text file attachment. This lets you import your observations and notes into other programs.

 

 

[Gfamily]

If you want to know what format it's expecting, I would suggest you use the 'select' function to make your own observation list within DSO planner, and then export it - it'll go into a DSOPlanner folder on your phone. 

Email that to yourself and have a look at it in Notepad or Excel on your computer. 

You can then create a similar file with live or 'dummy' data and put it on your phone and see how well it imports into DSO planner.

Which version of DSO planner do you have by the way? I have the Plus version, but I've not used it to import an observation list. 

 

[Guest]

Excellent idea !!!

It's the basic paid version with the increased objects.  

I'll give your plan a go.......watch thus space

 

[Guest]

It is possible to import a list:

Using a Text editor (Word for example) type up a single column of targets to observe . The names, catalog references etc,  must match your app database, DSO Planner, Sky Safari etc. 

Save the file in the CSV format (Comma delimited) or just plain text. As far as I can determine this does not support the Greek / Latin alphabet of the Bayer designations. 

Transfer the file to your smartphone and import the file from within the app you are using.  The list should now be available to add to the Observation List function. 

DSO Planner users can also do the following:  

You need to set up search parameters only the first time. After that
you may keep them or update only the necessaryones.•Star
Chart/Menu/Settings/Star, object and image layers— turn off NGCIC/SAC,
and PGC layers•Object Selection/Select— You come to Select Conditions
screen•Select object catalogs— Messier, Caldwell, Herschel 400•Select
search type— Primary•Select Object types— Select types of objects you
wish to observe•Primary search parameters/Filter type— No filter•Time
of Observation— Set up observation period, e.g. Begin Time - Astro
Twilight Ends, End Time - AstroTwilight Begins•Geographic Location—
Enable AutoLocation (if not already enabled).•Update— Go back to the
Object Selection module and tap Update button.•Add ALL to Observation
List— select that item in the Context menu (long tap on the list to
open it), objects inthe list are now shown on the star chart.

Or don't bother,  I'm sticking to my paper atlas !!!!

[AlexK]

DSO Planner's dev. is on the forum now!
There are several ways to deal with a list of arbitrary objects for importing into DSO Planner.

1. Using Import into Observation List.

Gfamily has nailed the easiest way to grasp it. Export some list and study how it's organized. Then wrap your objects' names in a similar way. However, there are some shortcuts. For example, objects from NGC and IC catalogs can be imported by a single line like &ngc=3031; and &ic=2;

If you know that some of your objects are in the internal databases of the app, you can import them in DSO Planner format by the designation like this: &catalog=3; hr=6554;  which is for the Yale star database HR6554 star import. To find out the catalog number you can select one of the objects from that catalog in the app (e.g. directly from the corresponding database found through the Settings/Databases menu) and add a dummy observation note to it (select "Add Note" option from the long-tap menu of the object's record). Save the note. Then in the Notes Taker list's bottom menu select Share option and share by GMail app. You will see the complete record of the Note in DSO Planner format in the email message body. Among the many text fields there, you will see the catalog=NN; which you want to use with all of your objects from that catalog along with the accepted object's designation abbreviation.

Sharing feature is actually easier for studying the format compared to the file export.

Everything you want to know about the DSO Planner data format can be picked from this single page: http://dsoplanner.com/Data_formats

2. Import using the SkyTools delimited text format. That's exactly what the Guest has suggested: One object name per line in the plain text file. Even though that's actually a lucky coincidence of the DSO Planner's SkyTools data file importing algorithm, which is throwing away irrelevant characters (like extra spaces, dashes, linefeeds) it's fairly usable, as soon as the designation of the objects is matching something in the internal databases. Bayers designations, for example, are not imported, as the internal database of bright stars encoded differently. There could be some more quirks as this method is considered being a pure hacking (e.g. the first line in the SkyTools file could be a special header or something). I plan to research more if there is a bulletproof way of importing plain lists with that facility in the code, make a note in our knowledgebase and share it here tonight.

So again, whatever you are trying to import must be already in the app and named the same with this method too.

3. Create Custom User Database! This is the way to import almost anything you want, but it requires full-fledged database records to be imported for every object. Even though you can omit most of the fields you need at least RA/Dec and it should be of the current epoch to be displayed on the chart where they should be.

See more on that here: http://dsoplanner.com/Objects_Databases#User_Database

In fact, the Import/Export functions were designed to exchange data between DSO Planner users, and within the app for database operations, not to import arbitrary lists of objects. The latter is actually quite a serious task even for Artificial Intelligence software.

[AlexK]

Here are my research results.

You can import plain text files with objects names into DSO Planner Observation Lists using the SkyTools importer option and following certain rules for the text file format described here: http://dsoplanner.com/Other_Modules#Import.2FExport.2FPaste.2FShare in the Hacks sub-paragraph.