SkyTools2. All You Need?

After the Nightbar come drop-down menus that allow you to select the observing list you want to work with (save as many as you like on your hard drive) and filter objects for display in the chosen list (by current visibility, magnitude and type). These commands are responsive and their functions are quite intuitive.

And then there’s the meat. The actual observing list. It’s attractive and easy to read (a good thing, given my middle-aged eyes). But what’s the best thing about it? The little icons. In another small touch that at first seems like a throwaway, Greg places a small icon at the beginning of each object’s row to represent its type—a little spindle shape for a galaxy, a teeny fuzz-ball for a globular, etc. Doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, but, at 3 am out in the field, it’s a feature that I really appreciate. No hunting for abbreviations or guessing as to what NGC Umptysquat is. Each object in the list is accompanied by the usual data—position, magnitude, etc. If this isn’t enough, clicking on an entry brings up a data window with further details. One surprising omission is the Dreyer abbreviations for NGC objects (you know, Vb*Cl, Ri,, etc.). I know some folks don’t like these abbreviations and find them annoying, but my opinion is that they present a lot of data in a very compact format. I miss ‘em in SkyTools.



Right-clicking on an object brings up a sub-menu that allows you, among other things, to produce a chart. Just about every planner does some charting. But usually the maps seem like an afterthought. I didn’t get this feeling at all with SkyTools 2. Not only is the Interactive Atlas, in its “realistic” mode, beautiful to look at; it really is “interactive.” Being able to click anywhere on a chart and center on this position, for example, is something new to planner software, whose maps tend to the very static. And it is very welcome. I can actually work with SkyTools’ charts instead of just look at them. What really knocks peoples’ socks off, though? SkyTools’ nebulae (see figure 2). Not boxes. Not outlines. Lovely hydrogen red clouds painted on the sky. Fill that sky with colored, bit-mapped stars and you’ll know why folks are finally talking about a planner-program’s star charts!

But before you can develop lists and charts of objects for the evening’s observing you’ve got to pull ‘em out of the program’s gigantic database. With over a million objects, search facilities must be good, and I mean good. Luckily, SkyTools 2 is up to the task. It provides two methods of finding objects to place in your lists. The first method is the quick and dirty one: “Designation Search.” Clicking the little magnifying glass icon in the toolbar brings up this window. In it, you can type in object names or numbers and retrieve DSOs on the fly. Typing “M 8” or “Lagoon” or “Lagoon Nebula,” for example, brings up a list of candidate objects, one of which is the famous nebula. This works well for the most part—though I was annoyed that the program required me to type “M <space> 8”. It resolutely refused to accept “M8.”

Designation search is OK if you just want to add an object or two to an already-existing list. But when you want lots of NGC galaxies in Virgo you obviously need a more capable retrieval engine. Hit the icon next over from the magnifying glass (looks like a magnifying glass beside a lightning bolt (I think)) and you get the somewhat scary looking screen shown in Figure 3, “Power Search.” This window isn’t so bad once you get used to it. It has to look a little busy, since it’s called on to do a lot.

Using its tools, you can specify exactly which objects to retrieve based on type, catalog, magnitude, constellation and more. Once the objects are retrieved from the databases, they are displayed in a window and you can then select which to include in the final observing list. One nice feature is the ability to send these objects to any list, not just the one displayed on the Observing Lists screen at the moment. This is also the place where you’ll start a new list via a “New” button. The only thing I didn’t like here was the method of specifying magnitude ranges for the search: “Magnitude >X <Y” where “X” and “Y” are values you enter (or can leave blank). I found this confusing, especially late at night, but finally figured out that specifying “Magnitude < 10” would, for example, search for objects of magnitude 10 and brighter. I’m comfortable with this system now, but I still think it’s a little less than obvious—to me, anyway.

In the end, how did I like SkyTools2? I liked it! I liked it! I’ve been using it for most of my planning tasks since the day I received it. It works well. It never has acted funky, never hung up my machine. It’s fast on my hardly state-of-the-art computer. In fact, its minimum system requirements are surprisingly modest: 100mhz processor, Windows 95 and 12mb of hard disk space (in addition to a CDROM drive, natch). It ran so snappily on my 566 machine that I have no doubt that it will do quite well on older, slower “observatory computers.”

What didn’t I like? Not much. Other than the few nits mentioned above, most of my complaints are more in the order of wish-list stuff to make the program better rather than major deficiencies. One thing that I think this—or any other planner—cries out for is PICTURES. It’s one thing to read a description or look at a plotted chart. And it’s quite another to see an actual photograph of the area of interest. Sometimes, seeing a real picture makes object location and identification MUCH easier. I’d really like to see ST2 at least include thumbnails for all the NGC objects. Another thing that’s missing that‘s really a must these days is telescope control for goto scopes. Apparently the author thinks so too, as the program’s website mentions that scope control is “coming in 2003.”

Actually I’m a little bit snitified that I can’t find more to criticize. I mean, this is a big, sprawling program that sure claims to do a lot. Can it be that good. Yep. I must admit that it can. My hard drive is full of astro-software, but I could easily wipe it all and survive with just SkyTools2. Easily. It is that good. Just go to http://www.skyhound.com and ORDER it! 99 measly bucks gets you…OK…I’ll say it: one of the best programs—if not THE best program--in the astronomy biz right now. Period.

Added:  Friday, August 01, 2003
Reviewer:  Rod Mollise
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