[Chaos-l] Observing the Orionids with the "Perseids" Android App

[Jon Stewart-Taylor]

Hi all.  I now have an Android smart phone (with no phone contract, so  
it's really just a PDA).  One of the apps i installed is the  
"Perseids" app, written by Wolfgang Strickling:

    http://www.strickling.net/android_en.htm#Perseids

which has the interface shown in the attached image (there are two  
more images on the web page, so do visit it to see them).



Basically, you tap on the top block on the screen for the main shower,  
tap the middle block for sporadics, and the bottom section has little  
blocks for appending details to the meteor recorded by a tap in one of  
the top two.  So, if you saw a Perseid about 2nd magnitude which left  
a trail, you could tap "Perseid", "0..3 mag", and "Afterglow".  For an  
ordinary sporadic in the 3-4th mag range you could tap "Sporadic" and  
"less 3 mag".  If you can't (or just don't want to) guestimate  
magnitude, you can tap just shower or sporadic and ignore the rest.

I used it for the first time for this year's Orionids, and found it  
pretty easy to use.  The basic function of tapping the appropriate  
type of meteor is doable without looking at the screen.  To add  
details such as magnitude or trail, i needed to look.  The display is  
in red, and not too bright, so it's not too hard on the dark adaptation.

Pressing the standard Android "menu" button gives an options overlay  
of the bottom third of the screen (see the second image on the web  
page), offering among others "start", "stop", and "comment".  The most  
important is a button to set the shower you're observing.  Tap it to  
bring up the list of meteor showers then tap the shower you''ll be  
observing (see the third image).  The options are in white and do  
affect your dark adaptation but for the most part not that badly.  You  
should select the shower before starting, and you don't really need  
dark adapted eyes after stopping observing anyway.

The exception to the "not hard on dark adaptation" is entering  
comments.  Tapping "enter comment" brings up a standard Android enter- 
the-text dialog box.  If you open the hardware keyboard  it kicks in  
the keyboard backlight, which really does a number on your eyes,   
Using the on-screen virtual keyboard is a little better, and taping  
the "microphone" icon on the keyboard lets you use the speech-to-text  
function enter your comment.  However, it's not a quick, easy, or red- 
light-friendly.  First, tap the menu button, which gives the options  
overlay.  Then tap "enter comment", which gives the text box.  Double- 
tap in the text area to bring up the keyboard.  Tap the microphone to  
get speech-to-text.  Say your piece, then wait for the input to be  
converted and entered in the box.  Tap OK to accept the comment, or  
edit/re-record it. You have to look at the screen throughout the  
process, which may mean missed meteors, and will mean diminished dark  
adaptation.  Finally, you have to be "on-line", either via phone or  
wireless connection, for the speech-to-text conversion to work.  I  
probably won't be making many comments during observing.  Might make  
some during breaks, or before or after starting, though.

The data is stored on the internal SD card, easily found under the "my  
files" icon.  It's not in a wonderful format, and will need to be  
massaged for use with PC software for recording meteor observations,  
or for submitting to the IMO.  However, it is simple, straightforward,  
and human-readable, which makes it easy to create the filter or even  
edit by hand.

My record for 2.5 hours of observing the Orionids, after editing by- 
hand is appended.  A short excerpt from the beginning of the session:

2012-10-21  02:16:07; ;Start Observation
2012-10-21  02:16:10; Orionid; -4 .. 0 mag,
2012-10-21  02:18:13; Orionid;
2012-10-21  02:20:09; Orionid;

A couple of things to note:

Make sure to set the screen time-out (in the Android settings) to an  
interval longer than you expect between meteors.  Otherwise you'll  
have to unlock the screen for every meteor, and that will affect your  
dark adaptation.

I was a little uncertain if i'd actually recorded a meteor sometimes,  
because i kept hitting the "ringer volume" button on the side of the  
unit, which made it vibrate.  The number of shower and sporadic  
meteors is shown after the label, but you have to look to see if it  
changes. Having the audio feedback turned on is good, so you get both  
the vibrate and the click.

I said above that the number of meteors is counted and displayed on  
the screen, but if you exit the app, or even use the "stop/start" to  
record a break, the counters are reset.

There is no option in the app to restart the log file.  To start anew,  
you have to delete or (probably better) rename the "Perseids.log"  
file. Otherwise it just keeps accumulating, which isn't wonderful if  
you want to store logs for different showers separately.

Is it better than paper and pencil?  On the whole i'd say yes.  It's  
quick and easy to record a meteor.  There's no paper to get soggy in  
the dew (i kept the unit under my blanket, so it didn't get dew on  
it).  There's no pencil to break, lose, or get dull.  The time-stamps  
in the file are accurate to the nearest second,  There's no  
opportunity for transcription errors to creep in. The file can be e- 
mailed or BlueTooth'ed to a PC, where the data can be fed to a filter  
for automatic processing.  My only real concern would be battery life  
during a long session since i don't let it go to sleep.  Fortunately i  
have electricity in my observing field so i just run it with the  
charger plugged in all night.

If you have an Android, and you observe meteors, i recommend trying  
it.  It's free and works pretty well.

Hope this was useful.

J.

-- 
Jon Stewart-Taylor:  joncst at earthlink.net
Chapel Hill Astronomy: http://www.rtpnet.org/chaos
Cape Fear Astronomy: http://www.capefearastro.org/





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