Starry Starry Day Professional

Starry Starry Day Pro allows the daytime use of a total station to rapidly obtain highly accurate True and Grid North azimuths to astro objects without needing an internet connection.

Brief Usage Instructions
1. The app starts and automatically takes a GPS reading. Hit the Get Location button when you are at your jigger to update your position.
2. The app can work in True or Grid North. It starts up in the system it was left in. Grid Bearings will be displayed in red, True North azimuths in black. The Grid Bearing button toggles between the two.
3. Under Settings set Automatic Triggering of Recording to n, where n is the number of seconds you want the app to wait before triggering the countdown.
4. Start observing either the shadow of your jigger or observe a limb of the moon. Hit the Take Observation at the same time and set the bearing displayed if using the Moon, and the backbearing if using the Sun.
5. Select the planet or star you wish to observe from the pull down list – the app automatically calculates its HA and ZA on selection. To update this position at any time hit the Take Observation button.
6. FOCUS ON INFINITY. If you don’t do this you may be looking directly at the object without realising it. If you have an autofocus jigger, you may be able to avoid this step if you are observing brighter objects such as Venus, Jupiter (only visible if not near Sun), Sirius and Canopus.
7. Set your HA and ZA to the nearest minute displayed and you should find the object in your field of view.
8. Once the object is found, you may choose to put your jigger on a more accurate azimuth. To do this initially, move your vertical cross hair ahead of the object and as it crosses it, hit the Take Observation button. Update the HA in your jigger.
9. You are now ready to start meaning some observations to the object. To do this hit the Record Observation? Button. It will turn red and change to Ready to Record. Make sure that your volume is turned up. At this point you will notice that the Get Location button changes to Remove Worst Obs and the Grid Bearing button changes to Current Az & Alt.
10. Now hit the Take Observation button. The button turns red, a voice counts down from 5 to 1 and then MARK. Track the object with your vertical cross hair as accurately as possible. When you hear the word MARK, stop turning your horizontal slow motion screw.
11. The Take Observation button turns white. Below the Current Az & Alt button you will see a text entry field marked Enter Jigger Obs. Enter the horizontal angle displayed on your jigger and hit ENTER. The correction of the jigger reading to get the app reading is displayed and the standard deviation of all the recorded observations.
12. If you lose the object in your telescope because of cloud or an interruption, hit the Current Az & Alt button to find the object again.
13. Repeat steps 10-12 as many times as you wish. Check that your standard deviation is not too large. If it gets too large, possibly because of a mis-entry, hit the Remove Worst Obs button. The app will search for the observation with the largest correction will be flagged to be removed from the observation set and the standard deviation is recalculated.
14. When you have taken sufficient observations and are happy with your standard deviation, hit the Ready to Record button. A file called astrolog.csv is created with all the readings that you have taken including the ones that have been removed as a permanent record of your observation session. The last column of the file indicates whether the observation was removed or not.
15. Read to your RO and record the Grid or True North bearing.
16. The Settings TAB to set a clock correction and details of your UTM grid. If you are working on a special Central Meridian you need to enter it, otherwise leave it blank.
17. The Prediction TAB allows you to do mission planning in the future at defined locations.
18. The About TAB gives you details about the app and usage instructions.