AstroSpots.com - internationale Standortdatenbank

Hallo alle

Ich möchte mich Ihrer Community anschließen, mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut für mich, um alles auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Deshalb werde ich auf Englisch schreiben.

I would like to share information that our small startup https://astrospots.com/ has been released.
The main purpose of the application is to build an international database of viewing spots for astronomy observations and astrophotography under the dark sky.

The project is just starting. The basic functionalities have been added. Including - adding, rating, commenting spots.Each point is described by properties like name,
GPS location, information about the shape of the horizon line N, S, W, E, Bortle scale, travel parameters, etc.

But I would like to ask more experienced colleagues for opinions and suggestions. What’s determining a good viewing spot?
What would you like to see/use in this kind of website? What can we improve?

Any feedback is more than welcome and I will be happy to answer all your questions.

Schöne Grüße
Peter AST

Hello Alex

Thank you for your kind words. Let me answer your questions.

The observatories have been imported from the public MCP list. We are aware of fact that some of them are publicly available for people.
We thought that this is valuable information for users that are starting with Astro hobby. That they would like to get starting advice
from the source - and natural source is an observatory located near you.

Unfortunately, these are the only information available and as you noticed, some of the observatories are also not listed on that list.
If there is any observatory or spot that you would like to add – I encourage you to create an account and add it.
On Youtube, we also placed a quick video on how to do that :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3NpBivY7hE

For that one, you mentioned near Heilbronn, if you will give me a deskription I can quickly update it. And if you know both of them.
You can rate them and start a discussion about them.

Right now, we are in process of informing as many as possible Astro communities around the world, about the project. As amateur astronomers,
we know how important is the proper location for Astro observation and astrophotography that require time.

That why we kindly asking for feedback and suggestions. Feature related to light pollution is already on our short implementation list.
You can also have a look at the public Trello Feedback Board
https://trello.com/b/0XjiGrCS/astrospotscom

Where we are communicating about the current application state and progress. I think that’s it. The post is already long
Thank you for your suggestions and question. If you have more – I would be happy to answer them.

Schöne Grüße
Peter AST

Hello Carolin

Thank you for pointing this out, it is important. We will think about how we can target this concern and improve.

Anyway, this data is publicly available and already converted on Wikipedia for 2 years now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_observatory_codes

and it can be easily found on other maps, too.

Best regards
Peter AST

Hallo alle

That is an interesting and motivating conversation. Happy to hear and read all your answers, and glad we have this. I’ll try to address your questions.
In the beginning - just <b>wanted to set the common ground of understanding for further discussion.</b>

Astrospots.com is an international database for Astro communities from around the world. Each person is responsible for adding and managing a specific spot inside the system.
There is NO Web Scraping, Web Harvesting related to acquiring spots. So, if a spot is shown in the system, someone else has to add it – it’s an application for communities.

<b>Concerns.</b>
<i>“Yet, there are typically two reasons why (non-public) observing sites are not posted in public. Burglary is the obvious one for fixed installations (and this is a real issue)”</i>
We totally agree with this statement and we do NOT want private Astro installations, to be added to the system. Astrospots.com contains a protection/prevention mechanism related to that - reporting system.
So, if the spot is inappropriate or violating good spot rules (same for spot rating and comments) it can be reported and it will be deleted.
Please have a look at the attached print screen to see how it works :
https://imgur.com/a/mEJTN2Q

If you do not want to create an account, <b>just drop me an email with a link to spot – and I’ll delete it!</b>

About “to crowded” spots, - I understand this concern, but please – astronomy is not like football.
I can’t believe that there will be mass crowds visiting each spot every clear night, especially wintertime.
Especially family with kids, after 9.00 pm kids are tired and thinking about bedtime, older ones about TikTok or YouTube.
Not to see stars 40km from home in the middle of nowhere.

Please remember – this application is for all of US and base on free goodwill and community responsibility.
We are not asking or expecting to share all your favorite places - If you have this dream one. Keep it.

<b>Education.</b>
Concern related to ruining astrophotography is important – I think we all understand it!
But still, we can educate less experienced fellow astronomer, they should reduce car lights when approaching the spot or even leave the car a few meters before the spot.
That they should use red lights and not running laptops with full brightness etc.

<b>Possibility</b>
Thank to our conversation I can see a few potential features that can be added to the project :
- informing local authorities about possible observations – this is from Kelle and Holger conversation,
- information about whether and forecast – from Kelle - is already on our long list, we consider the possibility to use free sources vs paid ones,
- creating private spots and groups around then is a very interesting feature from Holger, I will add it to our public feedback board for voting.

<b>Summary</b>
This community is awesome! Thank you and I hope we can continue this valuable conversation.
Soon we will plan to release a new version with bug fixes and a more informative first page with a features list.

Cheers
Peter AST

Hello Alle

Thank you for your comments, it’s always good to listen to more experienced.
Hmmm looks like there is a need to having private spots that can be shared with close fellows’ astronomers.
Not sure if spot reservation would be an option - maybe on private/comercial locations, hmm...

Anyway, this was a busy week, just wanted to let you know that project has been updated. Please see below a list of features that have been introduced in this release:

<b>1. Concerns around MPC Observatory list:</b>
We try to detect if we can distinct private and public observatory somehow, and we couldn’t find a reasonable solution.
That why, considering all concerns and the fact we don’t want to publish anyone private observatory too, and our reporting system may not be effective when you don’t know about it, long story short we decided to remove ALL MPC observatories from the list.
We are in process of adding only public observatories that we are sure about. If you can’t see the observatory in your city – please let us know or just add it to the map.

2. Light pollution map has been added to map,
3. Clouds forecast has been added to map and we are in the middle of testing,
4. Social media link sharing has been improved for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
5. The landing page has been improving, now contains a list of features available in the system,
6. Bug fixes: we fix a few issues and bugs that will increase map functionality and stability.

I think that’s it for now. Please give it a try and let me know what you think.

Cheers
Peter

Hello there.

We managed to add few new features to https://astrospots.com/ Hope this will place it at you favorites astronomy tools list.

<b>Astronomical Events</b>
List of upcoming astronomy events, moon phases, conjunctions, comets, meteor showers, etc. If you are aware about
interesting events in the coming months, leave info in the comment and we will add them to the list.
https://imgur.com/a/DqUOTvC

<b>Weather forecasts</b>
We managed to integrate and implement the weather API for the next 24 hours, including cloud cover, temperature, wind, sunrise/sunset moon, and sun.
We still have some data to pull out, like the lunar "noon", the phases of the moon, distance from the earth, etc. So definitely you can expect more
The data seems fairly accurate and more accurate than on some mobile apps - we'll see how it looks like over time.
https://imgur.com/a/UewJ0Go

<b>Light Pollution</b>
The first version was implemented previously; in this release, we improve performance and adjust the legend to be more friendly.

<b>Plans and Summary</b>
We need your help! We want to introduce it to the wide astronomy community around the world. That's why we need more astronomical points
and locations - we strongly encourage you to add them. If you have any questions, difficulties, or doubts, just let us know in the comments.

Feedback is extremely important to us. Let us know what you think about existing functionalities. If you believe that there is functionality or integration
that would make https://astrospots.com/ more useful, also please let us know!

Clear skies friends!

Regards
Peter AST

Hello

I just wanted to let you know about the next https://astrospots.com/ update, this time we added:

• Possibility to upload a photo of the location during adding a spot,
Link to the spot with photos: https://astrospots.c...spot/8fdechqo2h
This should make, much easier to find the location as well as the initial reconnaissance of what
we can expect on the spot

• creating an account / logging in via Facebook
Now you can easily create an account and login - using your favorite social media,

Next on the list is, redesign of the mobile UI and weather forecast, we plan to add more data and trials for use.

Finally, I cordially invite you to try out the application and add spots. Feedback is always more than welcome

Regards and clear skies
Peter

Guten Morgen zusammen

Another update of AstroSpots.com is behind us. The project is constantly evolving and database of locations is growing,

interesting spots have appeared in the Europe, check Spain and Greece.

We would like to point new feature that you might find interesting and useful for Astro observations:

• we increased the weather forecast to 72h,
• weather forecast now includes moon illumination and moon phases,
• we have added a "Resources" tab to the user's profile, where we will place files, freebies and gadgets related to astronomy.
  As first, appears - Astronomy Form for notes and sketches from observations,

• now on each spot, you can check how long it will take to reach it and what are the possible routes,
• we improved section with upcoming astronomical events:
  https://astrospots.com/astrospots/astronomy-events
• and finally, we added feature called - "stargazing opportunity", and this is a feature that we are using daily now since we develop it.
  User can define its own weather parameters condition, related to the observation, on his profile (point 1 on the picture) when checking
  the weather forecast for a given location, the system will show how many hours of stargazing opportunities you have during
  the night (point 2 on the picture) you can always check the details of the forecast and determine whether these are really
  good conditions for you (point 3 on the picture)
  
  Astrospots.com Stargazing Opportunity

These are probably the most important information. Let us know what you think. Your comments are valuable and welcome - also the critical ones!

For me, astrospots.com is great fun, both in designing and in gaining astronomical knowledge.

Hopefully, over time we will create a useful tool for the whole community and bring astronomy closer to the people.

Regards and clear skies

Peter

Vielen Dank Casati !

I really appreciate kind words, I hope you enjoyed Astro Spots.
If you have any suggestions or feature you would like to see, just let me know.

Cheers
Peter