Using w EAA and the ASIAir

[jkmonroe]

I purchased Observatory to help catalog EAA images taken via an ASIAir.  With the Air, I am saving a stacked FITS locally, but when I hit the save as viewed button it drops a full res capture, as seen on the screen, into my iPad Photos.  This is the image I use, so now I copy out from Photos into my "SORT" folder (the names are IMG_xxx.JPG) and then have to go about the process of manually updating everything from my notes or memory.

A couple of questions ...

1) is it possible to allow us to drag and drop a "tag" from a plate solve into the name field instead of having to type?

2) since Observatory has access to file details of the JPG, is there a way to have it auto import the date based on the creation date in the file?

3) would it be possible to add a "Scope Setup" option where we can pre-configure our scope and cameras and instead of typing that information in manually, just select from a drop down option?  Or configure a default so all images would get the same instrument information?

With EAA, you might observe 20 targets per session instead of a single target, so the nature of handling the catalog seems a little different to me.  I think a few tweaks like above would be very beneficial to us EAA-ers.

But the software does seem quite capable and I think I can fit it into my workflow as-is, just with a lot of manual entry.  I'll keep exploring what it can do.

Thanks!   

[Sander Berents]

I do not quite understand what you mean with your first request. You can drag and drop text into the tags field already if that is what you mean. But you will need to drag/drop each individual tag, because Observatory doesn't split the text into tags (it allows tags to contain spaces).

Right now Observatory only uses metadata stored in the image itself, but using the file creation date if there is no such metadata in the image is a good idea. I'll add it in the next update.

Your last request is something I indeed want to add, but I didn't have time for it yet. For now, please be aware that Observatory supports batch editing. You can select multiple images when editing the metadata.

[jkmonroe]

Thanks for the reply.  I'll look forward to #'s 2 and 3 when they are released.  And yes, I have been using the batch feature.

For #1, my image filenames are always IMG_xxx.JPG since I pull them out of the Photos app.  They get into Observatory via a "watched" folder and  I run the blind plate solver which adds the data and tags.  I am asking if we can just drag the *tag* into the Name field.  I attached an image.

* Edit - to follow up on #1, I would *love* a checkbox which could make the "Name" and "Object Name" fields the same. *

[Sander Berents]

If you select a tag and press Command-C, you can paste it with Command-V in the name field.

[jkmonroe]

Sure does.  I'll give that a whirl while I wait for 2 and 3.