Tips for using Observing Projects

Observing projects help to organize the observations that you place in your log.  You do not have to use projects to use the observing log in Deep-Sky Planner.  The Observing Project Manager provides the capabilities used to work with projects.

You might think of a project as a list of links to observations.  The important point is that a project does not contain the observation itself, it contains a reference to it.  This design makes it possible to associate an observation with more than one project or none at all.  It also allows you to delete a project or rename it without affecting the observations associated with it.

Example: Suppose that you want to observe all of the Messier objects and record the observations for an award.  You can create a project called 'Messier' and select it as the active project.  As you add observations, they are associated automatically with the active project 'Messier'.  When you have completed observations, you can create a report of the 'Messier' project, print it and submit it for your award.  You can create another project later and any of the observations previously associated with 'Messier' can also be associated with the new project without disturbing the original 'Messier' project.

Another advantage of using projects involves importing and exporting observations.  It is quite easy to create a project, export its entire contents to a file, and import it into another Deep-Sky Planner database.  The export/import process maintains the association between observations and projects and duplicate observations are not treated as an error - that is, the duplicate entry is noted in a status report shown after an import, but an error does not stop the import process.  This means that if you import the same file into your database more than once, the database remains nominal - it suffers no ill effects.

Example: Suppose you want to organize an evening's observations recorded in the field with Deep-Sky Planner on your notebook computer so that you can add the observations later to a Deep-Sky Planner database on your desktop computer.  You can implement a 'briefcase' model by:

• creating a project for the evening's observations on the notebook computer
• add observations to the project during your observing session
• export the project to a file
• copy the file to your desktop computer
• import the file into your Deep-Sky Planner database on your desktop computer

Observing projects are a powerful way to organize your observations.  Be sure to read about the Observing Project Manager in Deep-Sky Planner Help to learn how to create, delete & rename projects, drag & drop observations, and more.