Water-Powered Ideas

Observation and Observation Lite 1.7 are out. This version includes some minor bug fixes as well as a big new feature that should improve the usability of the Conditions tab.

Conditions Location Selection: Select the location to view conditions from a list of nearby locations or browse a full list of all available Clear Sky Chart locations.

This version should also reduce the overall network usage of Observation in fetching Conditions information as well as improve performance slightly.

As always, Observation is available exclusively on the App Store in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas for $4.99 USD. Observation Lite is available worldwide exclusively on the App Store for $1.99 USD.

We’re also hard at work on some really cool new features for 2.0.

Observation and Observation Lite 1.6 are out. This release fixes is a text encoding bug that could cause a crash resulting from parsing Conditions data. There are some other minor bug fixes as well.

As always, Observation is available exclusively on the App Store in the US and Canada for $4.99 USD. Observation Lite is available worldwide exclusively on the App Store for $1.99 USD.

Water-Powered Ideas is pleased to announce the 1.3 release of Observation and Observation Lite for iPhone and iPod Touch. This is a performance and stability release that fixes some known bugs.

Changes in 1.4

• Fixed bugs related location services that could cause crashes.
• Specifically fixed a crash when location services are disabled on iPod Touch.

Observation is available in the United States and Canada for $4.99 USD/CAD exclusively on the App Store. in the Utilities category. Observation Lite is available worldwide for $1.99 USD exclusively on the App Store. in the Utilities category. Promo codes are available for qualified reviewers.

Now that Observation Lite is out, the core functionality of Observation is available for international users. Because the data source for Conditions in the full version is only for North America I was unable to sell it anywhere else.

Observation Lite might be missing the Conditions information, a large chunk of the full version’s functionality, but it’s by no means a “limited” edition of Observation. It is otherwise fully-functional. Log entries won’t have seeing and transparency automatically filled in, but in feedback I have received since Observation was released, this seems to be a fair trade-off. Observation is the only app on the iPhone/iPod Touch dedicated to recording astronomy log entries, and this lets international users in on the party.

The only down-side is that the only localization available is english. I will be working the bring more translations in the future.

I’m still looking for alternative data sources to bring the full version to users outside of North America, but I do hope this proves useful in the meantime.

Water-Powered Ideas is pleased to announce the release of Observation Lite for iPhone and iPod Touch. Observation Lite is a lightweight, more utilitarian version of Observation, a tool to help amateur astronomers record observation logs in the field by providing the NGC 2000.0 and Hipparcos catalogs of stars and objects and much more.

Observation Lite lets amateur astronomers enter observation logs on their iPhone or iPod Touch with automatic sky conditions and GPS coordinates, access to the entire NGC 2000.0 and partial Hipparcos catalog of objects, and custom lists of equipment. Custom objects can be created on the fly during observation, and the observed RA, declination, and magnitude of existing objects can be recorded.

Features Include:

• Automatic GPS & Conditions in log entries
• Stars and objects from the NGC 2000.0 and partial Hipparcos catalogs.
• Creation of new, custom objects on the fly.
• Custom Equipment entry for selection in log entries.
• Observed RA, declination, and magnitude entry in log entries.
• Log entries exported in CSV format.
• Ability to tint the entire app red for use when dark-adapted.

Device Requirements

• iPhone or iPod Touch with iPhone OS 3.0 or later

Pricing and Availability

Observation Lite is available for $1.99 USD exclusively on the App Store in the Utilities category.  Promo codes are available for qualified reviewers.

Water-Powered Ideas is pleased to announce the 1.2 release of Observation for iPhone and iPod Touch. This is a maintenance release that improves performance and stability.

Changes in Version 1.2:

• Substantial changes to Conditions data processing and location information handling.  This should fix some crashes related to the Conditions tab and should improve performance of the Conditions tab.
• Integrated PLCrashReporter.  If the app crashes, you’ll now see an alert the next time you run it asking if you wish to submit crash data back to Water-Powered Ideas anonymously.  We highly recommend you do so.
• Fixed issues with custom location coordinate parsing and added support for colon-separated values (DD:MM:SS.)

I’ve gotten a lot of positive and helpful feedback–look for future versions incorporating as much of it as we can!

Observation is available in the United States and Canada for $4.99 USD/CAD exclusively on the App Store in the Utilities category.  Promo codes are available for qualified reviewers.

Water-Powered Ideas is pleased to announce the 1.1 release of Observation for iPhone and iPod Touch.

New in Version 1.1:

Custom Location: Use the phone’s current location… or don’t. Observation will allow you to enter custom coordinates in one of three accepted formats instead of using the device’s current coordinates. This will be used to select nearby Clear Sky Charts and will be stored in Log Entries.

iPod Touch is now supported.

Changes in Version 1.1:

• Red Tint option renamed to Night Mode
• Better location error reporting and handling
• Fixed Conditions-related bugs that could cause stability problems.

Observation is available in the United States and Canada for $4.99 USD/CAD exclusively on the App Store in the Utilities category.  Promo codes are available for qualified reviewers.

Water-Powered Ideas is pleased to announce the 1.0 release of Observation for iPhone. Observation is a tool to help amateur astronomers record observation logs in the field, providing the latest weather conditions, the NGC 2000.0 and Hipparcos catalogs of stars and objects and much more.

Observation lets amateur astronomers enter observation logs on their iPhone with automatic sky conditions and GPS coordinates, access to the entire NGC 2000.0 and partial Hipparcos catalog of objects, and custom lists of equipment. Hourly conditions, including seeing and transparency can be browsed at sites nearby to select the optimal observing location. Custom objects can be created on the fly during observation, and the observed RA, declination, and magnitude of existing objects can be recorded.

Features Include:

• Hourly conditions including seeing and transparency.
• Automatic GPS & Conditions in log entries
• Stars and objects from the NGC 2000.0 and partial Hipparcos catalogs.
• Creation of new, custom objects on the fly.
• Custom Equipment entry for selection in log entries.
• Observed RA, declination, and magnitude entry in log entries.
• Log entries exported in CSV format.
• Ability to tint the entire app red for use when dark-adapted.

Device Requirements

• iPhone 3.0 or later

Pricing and Availability

Observation is available in the United States and Canada for $4.99 USD/CAD exclusively on the App Store in the Utilities category.  Promo codes are available for qualified reviewers.