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Posts: 1,335 | Thanked: 3,931 times | Joined on Jul 2010 @ Brittany, France
#4
You're very welcome, you deserve to be thanked, not me.

I can imagine how hard it can be to add a solar ecplise feature, especially because I can't imagine how hard it can be to code anything, actually. My field is Biology, not coding or astronomy, but I do enjoy using your application to try to discover/observe things in real life with my spotting scope. And sometimes I just play with Orrery just to "appreciate" ranges, like a child.

What I'd like may sound useless, but clickable planets in the Solar System part to show few details would be awsome in my opinion (revolution periods, mass, diameter, etc., all in regular units and Earth relatives, plus window of possible observation from user-set locations on Earth).

For objects of interest, a few additional details fetched from internet databases when internet connection is allowed would be nice too (year of discovery, discoverer, device used to observe it in first place, maybe some DSS pictures, etc.).

I'm also wondering whether it would be possible to have a schematic map of main current scientific missions/probes (New Horizons, Voyager...), but I imagine it would be extremely difficult to implement given the probably high number of missions ongoing, and difficulty to sort them from "main" to "not as important". However, as part of the dream, icons in the sketch (or rows in a - likely simpler - table) would be clickable to obtain an abstract of the purpose, ETA, date of launch, data aimed, and so on. This part would mostly act as a knowledge base for tracking missions and keeping them in mind, not observation of course, but that would be very interesting for curious people and enthusiasts, be they newbies or experienced.

And finally, for observers, a quick list of main objects of interest that can be observed by class of equipments could be useful. I'm thinking about a list of observable objects for spotting scopes (to sort by focal length and diameter of course) with for example Saturn, Jupiter and so on, then a list for entry telescopes... You get the idea: it would help people target what they are gonna try to observe, then use the relevant parts of Orrery to plan their observation and pinpoint the optimal window.

Maybe all these ideas are off-topic for your application, or too difficult to implement. I'd totally understand. These are just dreams and I already enjoy Orrery. I find it great and it provides information Stellarium will not provide, and especially not as easily as with a few finger taps like Orrery does. Plus Orrery provides list of predictions by category of events, to be ready when events occur, and not just to simulate them and note when they will happen without knowing they will occur before running the simulation randomly.

I think Jolla has confirmed several times they will not only support HTML5, I think Marc Dillon stated QT again at the GMIC. Some applications have already been ported with the SDK too and I don't think it was HTML5, but honestly I'm really far from having certainties about coding languages in any way. What I know is that I'm keeping an eye on Jolla and that I'll watch the event on Monday, which will most probably end by a pre-order from me too. I'm not really hoping a true N900 successor, but rather something closer to the N9 even if I would prefer an up-to-date N900, but I'm afraid of disappointment. Anyway, I'm almost sure I'll preorder if the device is decent enough, which it should be.

Thanks again for your reply and your work. I'm very excited to know you'll likely port the application to Sailfish. Considering the 30'000+ views on the Orrery wiki page (and considering probably more than 50% of Orrery users never visited the wiki), I guess a "few" other people will be happy too.

Last edited by Kabouik; 2013-05-19 at 03:29.
 

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