Looking for Beta Testers!
Update (Feb. 29, 2020): The beta period for Observer Pro 1.3 is now over. Thank you to all who participated! If you are interested in testing future versions of Observer Pro, please follow the email link below so I can put you on the list.
Several months ago I put aside the work I was doing to re-build Observer Pro with powerful new capabilities to focus instead on making fixes and improvements to the current version to make it fully compatible with current versions of iOS and devices. Many long weekends were spent updating layouts for iPhones with larger screens and replacing code that used out-dated functionality. Not the most exciting aspects of software development, but it has been nice to see Observer Pro moving forward. And, to be honest, I was getting really tired of how old Observer Pro looked on my iPhone XS.
There are still lots of little fixes that need to be made here and there. Enough that I realized I will need help making sure it’s ready for prime time. So, I’m putting out a call for beta testers. If you are interested in testing and sharing feedback on the upcoming and future versions of Observer Pro, please let me know by using the feedback form inside the app or email me directly at joshua@observerpro.com.
If you do reach out to join the Observer Pro beta, please tell me a little bit about how you do astronomy. What part of the world are you in? Are you primarily an imager or visual observer? Are you mostly in it for the views and/or photos, or scientific research as well? How does Observer Pro fit into astronomy for you (or how would you like it to)? It would also be useful to know what version of iOS you are running.
Thank you all for the excellent feedback and support you’ve given me over the years and, most of all, your patience as I slowly make time to keep Observer Pro in development!
Clear skies,
Josh
P.S. One thing that is new in this version that I had a lot of fun working on was rebuilding the horizon measurement tool using Apple’s ARKit framework. Apple has been doing a lot of work to support augmented reality applications over the last few years and the new horizon measurer in Observer Pro is way better for it. Far more accurate, responsive, and you don’t have to hold your phone a certain way to use it anymore.