delphidolphin

Nightwatch now supports Shortcut Actions that can return information an agent could use.

Thanks to everyone for the warm response.

I've made some updates as a result to make the app more accessible following feedback from jareds, with improved support for different text sizes, voiceover, and keyboard navigation.

I've also added wider coverage for dark sky spots, aurora alerts, and the nearest clear sky following the reply from robotmay.

Thank you all so much again, and please let me know if you'd like to see any more features!

Also a big shout out to Dan the moderator - thank you for all your help!

Hi jareds - your reply prompted me to look at what accessibility options are already in Nightwatch, as I'm ashamed to say I'd not done enough in this respect.

Keyboard navigation, the ability to change text-size, and voiceover support will all be in the next version.

Thank you. I must admit that I created the horizon capture because my back yard has the same problem. I thought I was a genius for coming up with the idea, until I did a bit more research and saw that pretty much every astronomy app already have similar functions.

I might have a look at a Windows version in future, but don't have access to a PC at the moment. The code is open source on Github if anyone wanted to make an alternative version in the meantime. Nightwatch does make use of the Mac's location services and Apple Weather, but these should be easy to swap out. I don't know whether widgets ever made it back to the desktop on Windows, so anyone looking at porting it over might need to change the widget into a standard dialog.

I think you may be right in the fact that personal agents will probably take over these types of use cases. Nightwatch was a bit of a labour of love for me to tackle a simple need because clear nights in the UK are a bit of a luxury!

Thank you so much. I guess Nightwatch does some of what you're looking for, and the Dark Skies page under the All Targets button does offer alternative sites within driving distance. What I'd not thought of until I read your feedback is perhaps a function that looks for the nearest site with better conditions automatically - that might be my next feature!

Thank you - the Dwarf Mini actually rekindled this hobby for me. Since developing Nightwatch I realised there's actually a lot more accessible apps out there than I realised. I'm not sure which direction to go with it yet, as the clear skies notification was my immediate use case. If people like it I'll definitely look at building out a roadmap.

Nightwatch has a dedicated eyes & binoculars target page for people who are getting into the hobby. Though as leetrout mentions you really need a tripod or mount to get the best results.

I'm using a Dwarf Mini - here in the UK Amazon currently has them on sale at 24% off as part of the Prime Deal Days.

You must have a crystal ball - though Londoners also consider anything further than the Watford Gap as the north!

Without doxxing myself, I'm based in a village on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

I'll have a look at xasteria. I have thought about creating a companion iPhone app, though my biggest problem was finding a clear night to start out from, with my phone then used to control the Dwarf Mini. There are more good apps out there than I realised when I put this together, but I'd be happy to look at a either a companion or universal app if enough people wanted it.

I agree, it can get cluttered, especially if you have a Mac with a notch. The Nightwatch widget will give you an at-a-glance view of the night's conditions, as well as notifications which will hopefully provide a decent heads up.

Hi - the seeing and transparency information in Nightwatch come from 7Timer and Open-Meteo, and both publish free APIs.