I've recently been looking at transcribing my observing log books on to computer. I want software that allows me to compare observations of the same object and to upload photos and sketches. It must also have search facilties and prefereably have things like seeing and transparency, location, eyepiece, cameras and scopes already in the system so that these don't need to be typed from scratch each time. Planning and telescope control would also be nice, but not essential.
Up to now I've been using the excellent Astroplanner for my planning, but the logging part of the program isn't really what I'm after.
I've done some searching and I've found three programs that seem to fulfil my criteria. These are:
Deepsky
http://www.deepsky2000.com/screenthumb.htm
Deep Sky Planner
http://knightware.biz/dsp
and
SkyTools
http://www.skyhound.com/skytools.html.
Skytools looks very good, but is beyond my budget (its US$99), so it's between Deepsky or Deep Sky Planner, either of which I can get for US$45.
What are people's experiences of these programs? Has anyone done a comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of these programs?