A small application to integrate primarily AstroPlanner and Stellarium (also SharpCap and tools such as OBS). The application provides a simple user interface to execute multiple functions via the scripting interfaces of AstroPlanner and Stellarium.
This is a work in progress!
Quick Observation: Displays a dialog allowing an observation to be added to one or more selected AstroPlanner objects in a plan or to all objects associated with an object in the plan.
Stellarium Sync: This moves the Stellarium view to the selected object in AstroPlanner. The size (or zoom) of Stellarium’s field of view is not altered.
SharpCapDSA: Select an object in AstroPlanner and pressing this button will place that objects SharpCap DSA format onto the clipboard. Paste the entries into SharpCap, using SharpCap’s Deep Sky Annotation dialog.
Add to AP: This adds the currently selected object in Stellarium into the AstroPlanner plan. I have noticed it can take time for the objects ID to appear in AstroPlanner. Usually, clicking onto another object and then clicking outside AstroPlanner forces a refresh. I’m afraid this is an AstroPlanner feature 😊.
Object Text: This writes information from the currently selected object in AstroPlanner to a file. The 'Opt' or option button allows the user to specify what object info is available, a maximum number of character before the text is truncated, the filepath for the file and a manual entry field for messages. This is useful if you use OBS and want to display the current target information.
Search: Uses the many object catalogues available in AstroPlanner (including the 5.5 million entry HyperLEDA catlogue) to find and display objects with a radius search around an object selected in AstroPlanner or Stellarium. The "Opt", option dialog allows the search to be refined and controls the display of object markers and labels in Stellarium. The search results can be added to the clipboard in SharpCap DSA format, displayed and explored in a tabular display or added to AstroPlanner.
The application runs on top of all other applications. So, it should be hard to lose 😊 I have assumed that this is running on your primary monitor. I hope that is OK. It will remember its location and size on the primary screen. It is also possible to resize the dialog just like any other window. There are some constraints on minimum and maximum size. Hopefully, this allows easy placement of the dialog on your screen and allows you to see the buttons you require. Holding the right-mouse button down and dragging allows the control panels buttons to be re-ordered as desired.
INSTALLATION
In AstroPlanner please create a new general script called “EAACP2”. It must be that name. Then copy the new script from the EAACP2.txt file and paste it over the top of the newly created script. You don’t need to assign a control key or display it in the script menu as it will not function that way.
The EAACP2 folder needs to be copied to a location on your system (Desktop, Documents etc). To run the application, double-click on the EAACP2.exe. The following may happen.
Microsoft will almost certainly want to scan the application first to ensure that it is OK. If you do not have the .NET framework runtime installed, then I believe Microsoft will prompt you to download it from their website. The application is using the 4.8 .NET framework runtime, available to download here Download .NET Framework 4.8 Web Installer (microsoft.com)
In AstroPlanner, please click on the menu item Edit->Preferences. On the dialog that appears click on the Web tab.
Tick the two marked checkboxes. The Port should default to 8080. I would also check the ‘Log all errors’ checkbox and finally click on the ‘Start Listening’ button. An Authentication string can be specified in this dialog and in the EAACP Configuration dialog. If any changes are made to the AstroPlanner dialog then please Stop Listening and Start Listening for the changes to come into effect.
To test it is working click on the link ‘Default page: http://localhost:8080’. Your browser should display AstroPlanner’s default web page.
In Stellarium the Remote Control Plugin must be loaded and switched to execute at Stellarium start-up. The EAACP configuration has a Stellarium tab where a password can be setup for Stellarium. This must match the password set in Stellarium's Remote Control Plugin configuration. The EAACP configuration dialog also requres that the path to the Stellarium "scripts" must be set. This is for the Search functionality. This is usually located in a directory similar to this "\Users\peter\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium\scripts". If not present then create the directory.
As always a work in progress and to be used at your own risk.
Have fun.
Pete