I while back I mentioned I was building an 'pre-observing' tool

[pauldaviesuk]

Well, here it is.

AstroBlock is a simple tool to plot obstructions against the night sky. We all would love to have access to an on- obscured view of the sky, 360degrees round and from the horizon to the zenith. Unfortunately, for most of us, expecially those of us living in urban environments, we have to put up with some degree of obstruction to our view of the night sky.

AstroPlot seeks to aid the astronomer by allowing him/her to see their local obstructions against a the sky. After all, its no good trying to observe M13 (for example) if its hidden behind nextdoor's tree. After entering your local obstructions, and telling AstroBlock where you are and when you are observing, it will give you an observing list of DSOs, filtered by type and magnitide, that are visible at any given time.

So. I'm a Java developer, concentrating solely on server-side, web-based applications, so this, as a standalone, Windows GUI app, is somewhat new terratory for me. This version is very much a first stab at this app. Its functional as opposed to pretty.

Also, the plotting isn't very accurate. Its good to +/- a few mins of arc. This is (semi) deliberate. The app isn't supposed to be a replacement for a dedicated Planitarium app. Its supposed to be a quick tool to give the observer an idea what is actually, as opposed to potentially visible from their observing location.

Anyway, have a play with it and remember its a work in progress. Comments are welcome.

BTW, check out the 'Help' page for details of how to set up your own set of obstructions for your observing site.

cheers

Paul

astroBlock.zip

[pauldaviesuk]

OK.. save the Zip file and extract it in a location of your choice. I was hoping to bundle the data files inside the exe, but it didn't like it .. maybe in v0.0.2....

[david o]

Nice one Paul.

I'll have a play later today, see if I can break it for you.

As a Java app, could this be got working under Linux or Mac, without to much pain?

[pauldaviesuk]

Indeed.. I just packaged it as an exe to save people pfaffing with JVMs and command lines etc.. I can post the jar, if needed.

[Breakintheclouds]

Yes please! I run Linux and would really appreciate that.

[david o]

Please, that'd be nice.

For those interested, basic command line usage:

Windows

= java -jar C:\path\to\folder\ *.jar

Linux =

java -jar /path/to/directory/ *.jar