Only show what you can see?

Hi All,

I was just reading the excellent Sky Diary in A&S (Well done Dave!) and I saw the diagrams of where the planets were going to be etc. and noticed that there were buildings in the forground.

Is that just a bit of clip art or is it actually possible to put in your own landmarks and limitations?

for example lets say I have 'garden' down as my observatory, can I put in my neighbours house into the foreground where I know that I cant see anything or the trees etc. so I can project in the future and know that at 2200hrs Jupiter will come from the behind the house and at 0200hrs it will set behind the hedge!

Does such a program exist?

Graham.

Graham --

AstroPlanner will do that. You can define the horzon for all your sites in 5° increments. (Actually, you can define three for each site: an upper limit, a lower limit and any light domes you want displayed.)

It's also got great tools for planning and logging observations. You can give it a test drive at: www.ilangainc.com/astroplanner/ .

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Hi Graham,

Thanks for the comments. The buildings etc in the diagrams are just clipart and don't have any real significance. They are just there for effect.

Jeff already mentioned astroplanner. Starry Night Pro also allows you to define a custom horizon and even use your own photos.

Hi Graham.

Cartes Du Ciel allows you to define a horizon as well.

Michael.

Thanks for the info!

Will give them a go!

I managed to get it working!!

I had a look at astro planner but I just couldnt figure it out!

I gave the Carte Du Ceil V3 a go and it was simple to use!

It was just like making a Html image map, I printed out a few protractors and using a tripod, bit of cardboard, sticky tape and a toothpick I got cracking!