Observation is a tool to help amateur astronomers record observation logs in the field.
View a graphical representation of the current Clear Sky Chart for nearby locations. Find the object you're observing in the NGC/IC or the Hipparcos catalog. Create custom objects at the time of observation if you see something new. Create custom equipment for selection when making an observation.
Observation will use all of this information to help you log your night out under the stars. Spend more of your time looking up, rather than down at a logbook.
Select from a nearby Clear Sky Chart and see more than just the temperature and cloud cover forecast. Observation will show you both the seeing and transparency at the given site with hourly forecasts up to 8 hours into the future.
Seeing: Observation uses the scale above to quantify the steadiness or turbulence of the atmosphere and presents it graphically.
Transparency: Observation also uses the scale above to quantify the transparency of the atmosphere and present it graphically.
Observation is designed to make recording observations on your phone in the field as easy as possible. All information that can be filled in for you automatically is, and things like equipment can be defined and then selected for any log entries you make.
Export Your Logs: Observation will allow you to email your log entries in CSV format to yourself, your friends, or anyone. This allows you to keep a backup copy of your lot entries outside of Observation and off your phone aside from the standard iPhone backup.
Automatic Fields: The date and time of the observation, your current GPS coordinates, as well as the seeing and transparency conditions read from your selected Clear Sky Chart are all filled in for you. Once you select an object, its RA, declination, and magnitude will be shown in the entry. The equipment used to make the observation can be selected from your list of equipment. You may also enter an observed RA, declination, and magnitude for the object, as well as any notes you may have.
Objects: Observation includes all objects from the NGC 2000.0 catalog and a portion of the Hipparcos catalog to provide tens of thousands of objects already available for logging. Additionally you may define your own objects as needed. The Observation object catalog allows for searching your custom objects, catalog objects, or both to find what you're looking at.
Equipment: Observation allows you to enter all of your equipment in order to quickly add it to a log entry. Included are 8 common equipment types with easy to recognize icons so you may browse quickly through a large list of equipment to find what you're looking for. You may also search the equipment list by name.
Night Mode: The entire application can be tinted red for ease of use when dark-adapted. While the tinting is not perfect due to limitations in the iPhone SDK, it provides functional relief to dark-adapted eyes.
Custom Location: Use the phone's current location... or don't. Observation will allow you to enter custom coordinates in one of three accepted formats instead of using the device's current coordinates. This will be used to select nearby Clear Sky Charts and will be stored in Log Entries.
Export Your Logs: Observation will allow you to email your log entries in CSV format to yourself, your friends, or anyone. This allows you to keep a backup copy of your lot entries outside of Observation and off your phone aside from the standard iPhone backup.
Observation Lite is a lightweight, more utilitarian version of Observation that removes the Conditions functionality to provide a more streamlined application at a lower price that's also available to users world-wide rather than just North America. There are no limitations in the app.
Observation Lite is available world-wide for $1.99 USD exclusively on the App Store in the Utilities category.
