Review: AstroPlanner

Product: AstroPlanner 1.1.3
OS X: Yes
Publisher: Paul Rodman, Ilanga Inc.
URL: http://www.ilangainc.com/astroplanner/
Category: Astronomical Planning
Price: Limited version is free, full version $30
Requirements:
- Power Macintosh
- Mac OS 9 or X
- 12MB RAM
- 10 MB HD Space
Rating: 3 bounces, Lustworthy

AstroPlanner is a text and table based application for planning astronomical observations of the same general type as ScopeDriver, reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Installation & Requirements

By the book at least the requirements are very modest. Both the Classic and OS X versions need a Power Macintosh with at least 5 MB of free RAM and from 30 to 100 MB of disk space depending on how many of the catalogues you install. Naturally, for a telescope controlling application, you will need a telescope capable of connecting to a Mac. AstroPlanner scores over ScopeDriver in the range of telescopes that it is compatible with, not just the Meade LX-200, LX-90 and ETX telescopes but also the Celestron Ultima SCTs, NexStar series and even the entry-level Celestron GT series telescopes. In addition AstroPlanner can be used to control the Astro-Physics GTO mounts. Since these telescopes all have serial interfaces, some sort of USB adapter will be needed to provide most G3 and all G4 Mac portables with serial ports.

A 'light' version can be downloaded from the Ilanga website that only comes with a bright star catalogue and two deep sky object catalogues, the NGC and Messier lists. Admittedly, these could give a lifetime of observing, but the real attraction for serious observers will come from the additional, more specialized catalogues. There are twenty-seven in all, and these include some pot-pourri catalogues containing various interesting objects such as the Caldwell and Herschel lists. But there are also more specific lists as well, such as Abell's galaxy cluster catalogue and the Palomar globular cluster catalogue.

To install, the AstroPlanner folder is simply copied off the CD-ROM into your applications folder. Of course if you don't want all the catalogues you will have to root around the 'Catalogs' folder within the AstroPlanner folder and throw away what you don't want.

Performance

I tested AstroPlanner on my 500 MHz, G3 iBook switching between System 10.2.1 and System 9.2.2, and one surprise was how differently the Classic and OS X versions performed. The Classic version was launched quickly and responsive when running under both OS 9 and OS X; in contrast the OS X version felt lethargic, launching almost painfully slowly. Using the OS X version of AstroPlanner was like going back to System 10.0 -- you'd click on the window title-bar, move the mouse, and then wait for the actual window to follow along. Perhaps the OS X version of AstroPlanner would work better on a G4 PowerBook, but for the rest of us using iBooks and G3 PowerBooks, the Classic version is preferable.

User Interface

AstroPlanner is based around a large, tabbed window. Taken in order, these are referred to as the Observing, Field of View, Sky and Planning windows. The Planning window is perhaps the one to start with since it is here that you pick your observing targets from AstroPlanner's catalogues. There are three main ways to do this. For deep sky objects you have the option of either creating a new object, giving it a name, and then entering the RA and Dec coordinates, or choosing it from one of the catalogues. Solar system objects can be chosen from a pull down menu which includes all the planets, the Moon and the Sun, but only templates for comets and asteroids.

The Sky window gives a basic, planisphere-like view of sky including the Sun, Moon, planets and the brighter stars. Various options exist, such as grids, constellations and so on. This isn't a substitute for a proper planetarium program, but its nice nevertheless. One potentially useful feature in this window is the Best Pair Alignment object, that can be used to calculate the optimal stars to use to align a go-to telescope. If you find the go-to accuracy of your NexStar or Autostar telescope to be inconsistent, then this is certainly worth experimenting with.

The Field of View window is a surprisingly little feature and one that corresponds somewhat to the zoom features on planetarium programs. Essentially, it simulates what you should be seeing through the eyepiece. The field of view is user controlled, and a whole set of eyepieces can be defined by user in the preferences. An annotated Telrad-style 'bull's eye' can be superimposed as well to indicate 0.5 degree, 2 degree and 4 degree fields. To get the Field of View window to work it is essential that the labels and magnitude settings are used judiciously and that only the catalogues you want are activated, otherwise the simulation becomes a cloud of spots and labels. Annoyingly, the default magnitude limit is set at an inconceivably dim 99 and there isn't anyway to change all thirty catalogues at once to a more useful limiting magnitude. If you live in suburban skies, you aren't going to see much below magnitude 12 even with a middle sized telescope like an 8-inch SCT.

The final window, the Observing window, is where you can keep track of things and control the telescope. There are plenty of options here but the key features are automatic recording of times and dates and a box for entering notes.

Operation

AstroPlanner works entirely as advertised, and does the job effectively, and so in terms of actual use nothing more really needs to be said. But there are a lot of buttons and pull down menus to get used to. When using any of these types of applications in the field you do need to compromise between actual observing though the telescope and spending time at the laptop. This is not just for lack of time, but also for letting your eyes fully adapt to the dark. AstroPlanner does its best with regard to this latter constraint, with perhaps the most configurable night vision mode I've seen. Besides being able to switch between a red or green screen, you can take the brightness right the way down to a barely perceptible glow.

Perhaps the ideal solution to this problem comes with voice recognition, allowing the user the control their telescope. This uses the standard PlainTalk software (installed by default in OS X, but an option in OS 9) and the program will only respond to a certain set of functions which you can press a button on the Observing window to look up. I didn't have a huge amount of success using this feature, but to be fair the built-in iBook microphone is probably not good enough for this sort of thing. But occasionally it did work, and I could easily imagine how useful this could be. If you find speech recognition works well with your set-up, then this could definitely be worth trying out.

Conclusion

Despite the shortcomings of the OS X version as far as speed is concerned, AstroPlanner is a useful, robust and rich program with much to interest the advanced amateur. It works consistently and fairly intuitively, and the well-written manual smoothes the learning process nicely. There's nothing not to like, and a great deal that is well thought out and intelligently implemented.

- Dr. Neale Monks

What do you think? Talk about it in our forum for Macintosh Astronomers...

MacBook Pro (5-17-06) Dr. Neale Monks. A subjective review of the MacBook Pro
Freeway 4 Pro (2-28-06) Dr. Neale Monks. Freeway Pro, the Quark-like web design program from Softpress, has been substantially revised and sports a bright new look. But do the changes go more than skin deep? Neale Monks finds out.
Astrostack (1-18-06) Dr. Neale Monks. Long respected as one best astronomical image processing applications about, in its newest incarnation AstroStack now runs on the Macintosh. Has the wait been worthwhile?
Virtual PC 7 (11-23-05) Dr. Neale Monks. Virtual PC 7 is the update to the venerable Windows emulator to be entirely all Microsoft’s own work. Can Mac users expect to see any dramatic changes?
Eudora Pro 6.2 (8-5-05) Dr. Neale Monks. Eudora has been one of the most popular e-mail clients for the Macintosh for more than a decade. Neale Monks finds out how it compares with the Mail application that comes with OS X
MacAstronomica (4-22-05) Dr. Neale Monks. How does this amateur naked eye astronomy software stack up?
iKey 2.0 (3-11-05) Jeremy Young. How well does this automation utility work? How much time will you save?
Wolfram Research Publicon (3-11-05) Jeff Terry Does this new scientific word processor live up to the potential?
Microsoft Office 2004, Part 3, Word (1-28-05) Dr. Neale Monks. Are there enough new features to necessitate a jump from v.X?
REALbasic 5.5 (12-03-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Neale takes a look at the latest version of this programming package.
Office 2004, Part 2, Excel and Entourage (11-05-04) Dr. Neale Monks. In the second part of his review of Office 2004, Neale Monks looks at Excel and Entourage.
Phone Valet 2.0 (11-05-04) Pat St-Arnaud. The best question to ask might be "Is there anything that you can't do with this telephone/Mac integration tool?"
TiPaint Touch-up Kit and iKlear iPod Cleaning Kit (10-29-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Is it possible to restore the shiny good looks of iPods and PowerBooks even after years of use? Neale Monks looks at two cleaning products designed especially for Apple hardware.
Microsoft Office 2004, Part 1, PowerPoint (10-15-04) Dr. Neale Monks. In the first part of his review of Office 2004, Neale Monks looks at PowerPoint, for many people still the benchmark for presentation software.
ScrapX (9-17-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Aqueous Software's ScrapX brings the Scrapbook to OS X
CDFinder (8-20-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Finding what you want from among a stack of similar looking CDs can be a hassle, but help is at hand. Neale Monks looks at CDFinder, a budget-priced but powerful cataloguing tool.
Endnote 7 (8-13-04) Dr. Markus Geisen. EndNote 7 is a literature database that seamlessly interacts with your word processor. Is the latest version worth the upgrade?