NightScribe — Product Design

Versión en español

Note (2026-10-15): this is a historical design document. It describes the first-stage design; the product moved on since. The Observatory tab folded into the Capture step, the Sun and the sky went to the Tools menu, telescope control is no longer out of scope (ADR-030/081), the tabs are Tonight · Projects · Campaigns, and the default configuration ships no MPC code. The living description is docs/user/ and the ADRs in docs/adr/.

Vision

Plan your night, understand every object, tell your science.

NightScribe is a desktop application for amateur astronomical observatories that closes the loop: it tells you what is worth observing tonight, explains why each object matters in plain language, and turns your observation into ready-to-post bilingual content for social networks.

The differentiator: existing tools show raw tables or dated charts. NightScribe translates, explains and draws beautifully — rigorous but human.

Target users

• Amateur observatories with an MPC code that report astrometry (NEOs, comets, PCCP).

• Amateur astronomers who follow supernovae, comets and exoplanet transits.

• Anyone who wants engaging, data-driven astronomy content without spending hours.

Default configuration ships with MPC station Z41 (Irydeo Observatory) as an example; everything is configurable so any observatory can adopt it.

The views

(UX v3, ADR-019: the app reorganises around Projects; tabs: Tonight · Projects · Solar system · History. Explore/Post/Blink become contextual panels opened from a project, with ad-hoc access under Tools. Guided per-kind flows in WORKFLOWS.md.)

1. Tonight — the home view

Not a table: a recommendation (see ADR-017 for the v2 redesign, ADR-019 for v3).

• "Right now" band: targets currently above the horizon, with live altitude and azimuth, ordered by score. Beyond the window, each card also shows the safe observing range (ADR-020): a green «⊕ HH:MM–HH:MM · ≤ HH:MM» chip (the planned window + the latest safe start) or a red «⚠ does not fit» chip when the planned session cannot finish before the object drops below the horizon — the instrument is never forced.

• Top 3 unified ranking (NEOs, supernovae, comets, PCCP candidates and

exoplanet transits compete on one 0–100 score) with medals and a generated one-liner: "why tonight" (in the UI language).

• Full target list below: sortable by clicking any column header, with dynamic columns per type filter (NEOs show NObs/MOID/NEOfixer priority; supernovae show type/host/discovery date...) plus a detail panel with per-target actions (Explore / Post / Observed).

• Entry point to Explore (UX v3, phase E): the row, the double-click on the table and the card button (🔭 Explore / ▶ Continue, depending on whether an active project exists) all open the pre-filled Explore dialog. Inside, the Details tab offers a single full-width CTA: "Continue project" (green) if one is active for the object, "Create project" (orange) if not; the earlier pair of buttons and the old "Create post" button are removed. The project is no longer created from the card, but from the dialog.

Interface shell

Menu bar (File / View / Tools / Help); Settings live in a modal dialog (Tools → Settings…); language switch under View. Tabs (UX v3, ADR-019): Tonight · Projects · Solar system · History. The UI shows a single language at a time; only generated posts are bilingual.

• Header with night context: sunset, end of twilight, Moon phase/illumination.

2. Projects — the guided flow (UX v3, ADR-019)

Every target can become a project: a persistent, guided flow per object kind (Plan → Capture → Process → Publish) that carries the full context — no re-asking for names, coordinates or images. Capture sequences and ephemerides are exported as files for external software (NINA, CCDciel, TheSkyX, Cartes du Ciel — ADR-021); astrometry measured elsewhere is pasted back, validated and packaged for the MPC report (ADR-022). Constraints honoured by the planner: real local horizon, Moon, session feasibility and camera plate scale (ADR-020).

3. Explore ("Explora")

Type any identifier (2021EQ3, 29P, SN2023ixf, HD 209458 b, sol) and get the explained object card:

• Orbital family with context (Apollo, Aten, Trojan, Jupiter-family comet, Oort...).

• Every orbital/physical parameter translated, in two depth levels (basic / deep).

• Honest risk assessment (MOID, PHA, Torino scale) without alarmism.

• Size estimates from H and spectral class, everyday comparisons.

• For comets: expected brightness from M1/K1, perihelion window, origin story.

• For supernovae: host galaxy, distance, "the light left home X million years ago", reference field cutout with crosshair.

• For exoplanets: planet type, "its year lasts X days", equilibrium temperature, host star.

4. Post

• Drafts in Spanish and English plus a 280-character tweet, always both languages regardless of UI language (the audience is bilingual).

• Ready-to-attach PNG charts (orbit, night sky curve, transit window, SN before/after), rendered with the same code that draws them in the GUI.

• Copy buttons; CLI writes post_ES.md, post_EN.md, tweet.txt, PNGs.

• Optional user observation image → side-by-side or animated blink GIF (reference survey vs. observatory image).

5. Solar system now ("Sistema solar ahora")

• Sun: latest SDO image (public domain) in several wavelengths, own active-region map built from NOAA coordinates, sunspot number and trend (NOAA + SILSO), GOES flares, solar wind (DSCOVR), Kp → "auroras tonight?"

• Moon: phase, illumination, current distance in km (the measuring stick of our posts).

• Planets tonight: which are visible from your site after dusk, with magnitudes.

• External resources as links (Raben maps, SolarMonitor, SIDC, universemonitor) — never embedded, for copyright reasons.

6. Settings ("Configuración")

• First-run wizard: enter your MPC observatory code → coordinates resolved automatically (MPC ObsCodes) — or full manual location (lat/lon/height).

• Observatory name (signs the posts), telescope aperture (filters transit feasibility), UI language (System / Español / English), NEOfixer API key (optional), TNS credentials (optional, only to display discovery images in-app).

UX principles (identity trait)

• Guided flow, not technical panels: open the app and the night is already suggested.

• Zero required fields; sensible defaults (mag < 18, altitude > 30 deg).

• Tooltips everywhere; human-readable errors; progress in the status bar.

• Native light/dark theme, HiDPI friendly (Qt6).

• Everything reachable in two clicks: suggest → observe → publish.

Object types and their stories

Out of scope

• Telescope control (the sibling project saas does that). Exporting capture sequences and ephemerides as files for external software (NINA, CCDciel, planetariums) is in scope — it is file generation, not control (ADR-021).

• Automatic publishing to Meta/X APIs (copy & paste by design decision; the MPC report is also packaged for the user to send, ADR-022).

• 3D orbit visualization (2D top-down by design; maybe later).