User`s guide

Observation Tools 127
This contextual menu can be quite handy,
especially if you have a laptop to take
outside during your observing session. For
example, as you work through observing
each of the objects on your list, you could
choose Centre from each object’s
contextual menu to show you a sky view
that will help you find the object, and then
choose Add Log Entry to add your
observing notes. See
“Adding Log Entries
” on page 162 for
more information on the observing log
feature.
Determining if an object will be visible:
Once you have built up an observation list
of objects, you can select to list All
Targets or only those objects Visible
Tonight from the “Show” dropbox in the
“List Viewer” layer. If you made an
observing list for a specific night, selecting
Visible Tonight should give you the same
list as All Targets.
Tip: Targets in your observing list that are
below the horizon will be greyed out in the
“List Viewer” layer.
To find out the best time to view a specific
object, right click (Ctrl-click on the Mac)
on the object, and choose Start Graphing
from the contextual menu. The object is
added to the graph that runs along the top
of the window.
This graph plots the altitude of the sun (in
red), the moon (in green), and your
selected object (in blue), over the course of
the night. See “Graph Tool
” on page 120
for more information on using the graph.
You can use the graph’s plot to help you
find the best time to view your object.
Ideally, you will be able to find a time
when your object has a high altitude, while
the sun and moon are beneath the horizon
(have altitudes less than 0). Sometimes,
this is not possible. If you find that
conditions are not suitable for viewing an
object in your list, you can try to observe