Welcome to Telescope - a terminal/console program for the amateur astronomer.
The top panel lists your telescopes with eyepieces in the lower panel. Add a telescope by pressing 't' and fill in the name, the apperature (APP) and the focal length (FL) in the "command line" at the bottom and press ENTER. Add an eyepiece with 'e' and enter a name, the focal length (FL) and apparent field of view (AFOV) and press ENTER. Select items by using the TAB/ UP/DOWN cursor keys. Press ENTER on a selected item to change the values in the command line. Delete an item by pressing 'D'. Move an with PgUP/PgDown keys. Sort telescopes with 'T' (toggles sorting by the first thre columns; Name, APP, FL). Sort eyepieces in the same way with the 'E' key.
Tag items with the SPACE key (untag all with 'u'), then press 'o' to create an observation log file (content shown in the lower panel).
Refresh all panels with the 'r' key. Escape the selected panels or the command line by pressing 'Ctrl-G'. Quit via 'q' (or 'Q' if you don't want to save your edits since last session). Save a backup session with 'b' and load a saved backup session with the 'B' key.
Telescope and eyepiece data is saved in the file '.telescope' in your home directory (backup file is '.telescope.bu').
You can install telescope by simply coloning this repo and put the file telescope in your "bin" directory. Or you can simply do gem install telescope-term.
In order to run telescope (without generating a bunch of warnings), you need to do a gem install curses (gets version 1.3.2) instead of installing via apt install ruby-curses (gets version 1.2.4-1build1 on Ubuntu 20.04). The installation via gem automatically takes care of this.
After installation, fire up the program and press '?' to display the help text.
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| APP | Apperature (in millimeters) |
| FL | Focal Length (in millimeters) |
| F/? | Focal ratio (FL/APP) |
| <MAG | Maximum magnitude visible |
| xEYE | Light gathering compared to the human eye |
| MINx | Minimum usable magnification (may be lower for refractors) |
| MAXx | Maximum usable magnification |
| *FIELD | Recommended magnification for star fields |
| GX/NEB | Recommended magnification for galaxies and nebulae |
| PL/GCL | Recommended magnification for planets and globular clusters |
| PLd/2* | Recommended magnification for planet details and double stars |
| TGHT2* | Recommended magnification for tight double stars |
| DL-SEP | Minimum separation, Dawes limit |
| RC-SEP | Minimum separation, Rayleigh limit |
| MOON | Minimum feature resolved on the Moon (in meters) |
| SUN | Minimum feature resolved on the Sun (in kilometers) |
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| FL | Focal Length (in millimeters) |
| AFOV | Apparent Field Of View |
| xMAGN | Magnification (with that telescope) |
| FOV | True Field Of View (deg/min/sec) |
| XPUP | Exit pupil (in millimeters) |
