What is Observation Manager?
Observation Manager is a free and open logbook for (amateur-) astronomical observations. All logbook entries made in Observation Manager are stored in the free and open OpenAstronomyLog XML Schema.
Log your observations and make sure next time you're searching for an celestial object you can make benefit of your past observations!
Observation Manager comes with four catalogs of astronomical objects (Messier, NGC, IC, Caldwell, Solar system, GCVS 4.0) and if you miss an object, just add your own entry!

Some features of Observation Manager;
  • Full compatible with <OAL> 2.1 format
  • Written in pure Java (runs on many platforms)
  • FITS Image support
  • Export data to HTML
  • Run statistics on your observation data
  • Create light curves for variable star observations
  • Export your data in AAVSO visual format
  • Supported languages: English, German, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Dutch, Italian, Finnish, Spanish

System requirements
  • Minimum JRE: 1.4.2 (tested with version 1.6.0ga5)


Observation Manager on an eComStation machine with Open JDK


Installing Observation Manager
Download observationManager1.321.zip. Make a directory/map with the name "observationmanager". Open the zip file and you see the sub-directory/map "observationManager". There are two choices. One, you don't make a new directory and copy this directory to a location of your choice. Second, you open this sub-directory/map and copy the contents to the new created directory. After copying you can delete all files for other systems like "obs.bat"; "obs.command"; "obs.sh" and "obs4Mac.zip". They are not for our system. That's about it!

The used cmd file
Observation Manager works with Open JDK in OS/2-eCS. I have a obs.cmd file with the following contents; 
@echo off
SET BEGINLIBPATH=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
SET path=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
SET CLASSPATH= 
[drive: observationmanager]
cd [drive: observationmanager]\observationmanager
java -Duser.home=[drive: observationmanager]\observationmanager -Djava.ext.dirs=./lib
 de.lehmannet.om.ui.navigation.ObservationManager %1 2>observationmanager-bugs.txt
The above line with "java..." is actually one line and not two, this is done for this page. Mind the space between "-Djava.ext.dirs=./lib" and "de.lehmannet.om.ui.navigation.ObservationManager".
I use 2 separate folders (directories), one for Java and one for Observation Manager with the files created by this program. The references used in the cmd file;

  • [drive: java] = drive with Java
  • [drive: observationmanager] = drive with Observation Manager

should be replaced with real drive letters. Save the file and name it "obs.cmd" or use the file from the distribution. This file is copied to the "observationmanager" directory/map. Furthermore, different paths?, adjust according to your needs.
Create a new program object. Specify the path and file name: "[drive: observationmanager]\observationmanager\obs.cmd". In the tabpage Session check the boxes "OS/2 window", "Running as an icon" and "Close Window to end program". In the tabpage General you can enter the name "Observation Manager".

Parameters / options explained
  • The statement "-Duser.home=[drive: observationmanager]\observationmanager" will ensure that Observation Manager will save all necessary files in own directory instead of saving them in the home directory.
  • The addition "2>observationmanager-bugs.txt" ensures that errors are saved in the file "observationmanager-bugs.txt". The 2 in "2>" is not a typo!

Download
In the file you can find the above command files (all drive letters are on set to C:) and an OS/2 Observation Manager icon: observationmanager-ecs.zip.

revision January 1, 2018