In this part of the world (SE Britain, the 'Norfolk Broads') a recurring problem involves dew. Last night was awful, partly from the seeing but also because it was so damp my charts were sticking together! I use paper charts in those transparent plastic pockets.
I have decided to convert my paper charts to e-charts for use on a handheld device (I don't actually have a handheld device as yet, though!) and with this in mind have designed a VB app that converts downloaded AAVSO charts into red-stars-on-black-background. I would like to take this further to produce another app which, through a dropdown box, does a search for your chosen star and then displays it, including a zoom facility. Only problem is that currently I have about 6-700 charts...
One other possibility for our hardworking softie dev team... make an option on VSP to download red-on-black charts!
OK... this is what I have so far:
1) A database of all the stars on my programme, which is queried by the app to populate a pair of dropdown boxes, the first by constellation, selecting any member of which brings up all the variables in that constellation in dropdown box 2.
2) Selecting a star in that dropdown box then displays its chart (together with a finder chart if necessary) and also fills in the fields in a form where the observation can be entered (star name, time, etc). This is the same form I currently submit my AAVSO obs with, so I know it works!