BestPair Alt-Az goto tool and Astroplanner

[Vermin]

This bit of freeware claims to be able to pick the best possible pair of stars for your goto alignment:

http://www.ilangainc.com/bestpair/

[Miaplacidus]

I think you'll find that Best Pair is now incorporated into Astroplanner software, too (not free, but very cheap for what you get.)

[Merlin66]

OT, This software was developed by my mate Paul Rodman who helped me almost 20 yers ago to set up a 12" telescope system in South Africa. He was also the editor of the monthly newsletter Ndaba for the Durban Section of ASSA. Just thought you'd like to know his background.

[barees63]

I'll add my vote for Astroplanner.. very complex (and powerful) piece of software so can take a bit to get into it but I find it particularly indespensible with Argo Navis since it can communicate directly to upload your user catalogs into the AN unit. It's a steal for USD$20, amazingly rich feature-set.

[Miaplacidus]

Best feature of Astroplanner is that the Mac version supports voice recognition. Yes, supposedly you can actually say "Go to M104" and the scope will automatically do it. Way cool.

[Vermin]

I've just been playing with Astroplanner.

Wow!

I'm going to pay for registration tonight.

Also the software linked to in my first post seems to be specifically aimed at reducing mount errors in the Meade ETX or LX200 classic scopes.

[Vermin]

Can anyone tell me the best way to sort observing lists in Astroplanner?

I'm having trouble using the multiple sort option.

I want to be able to observe in an order that ensures each object is viewed at it's highest point for the night, and inside the range of 20 to 80 deg altitude (my limits set for unstable lower air mass and Dob zenith hole). Can this be done?

[barees63]

I don't know the answer to your question (I'm an Astroplanner newbie myself and still use it in a fairly basic way at the moment) but you could join the atsroplanner yahoo group, it's very active and the author, Paul Rodman, seems to be very responsive to any kind of question..

[Vermin]

Cheers I did that last night and found this interesting thread:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/astroplanner/message/5882

Seems it's not so easy to do.