Hi All,
I finally got Argo Navis for my 12" inch Dob and enjoy it immensely. The pointing accuracy is great and the user interface is simple and very efficient. When star-hopping I had no idea that I can see so many galaxies from my light polluted backyard.
Being a beginner with about a year of observing history behind, I find use of Astro-Calendar at
http://www.calsky.com quite useful but got quickly tired scrolling to a NGC or Messier catlaogue number so I wrote a utility that converts CalSky output into the Argo Navis User Object file. Then I use Agronaut and delete existing User objects (Detele-Purge User menu) and upload the output file (Transfer-Send User File menu). Then simply scroll through User Catalogue.
Gary advised that ArgoNavis FLASH memory is specified for about 100,000 writes so if you use it every day and erase before writing the FLASH memory should last about 136 years.
You need to register an account on CalSky.com (can be done from within ArgoSky) then enter your CalSky Number at the top and click Go! button. It supports the following CalSky objects:
- Binary Stars
- Galaxies
- Open Star Clusters
- Globular Star Clusters
- Nebulae
Screenshot:
http://users.on.net/~che/ArgoSky.png
Sample output file:
http://users.on.net/~che/CalSkyArgoNavis.txt
ArgoSky program (free to use, source code available):
http://users.on.net/~che/ArgoSky.exe
ArgoSky source code in Python:
http://users.on.net/~che/ArgoSky_Sources.zip
Please let me know if you think it can be changed/improved.
Cheers,
Alex.