updated the BYE QRC

Did some course development today...

I am keen to offer a new course in the new year.

Over the last few days I have been thinking about it... What are members most interested in. If I had to guess, I bet there's a lot of people that have SkySafari. I know I've helped get SkyTools in the hands of a few RASCals. But I've been thinking about Backyard. 

For SkyTools and Backyard, I had some materials already built up. I have two full quick reference cards for SkyTools! I knew I had detailed procedural notes on Backyard. That meant it'd be relatively easy to get going with these. SkySafari? Ground zero. An impending new software version for Android is coming. I have some issues... with SS. I'm just not in the mood.

So I picked Backyard! Backyard EOS.

This afternoon after work I dug out my old write-ups in Evernote. A good set of topics.

Fired up Google Docs and started drafting a quick reference card. But one topic in I started to have a funny feeling. Perhaps my shoes were too tight... Haven't I done this before?!

Dove into the E hard drive of John Max and lo and behold I found a rough-and-tumble QRC in MS Word. How about that!

A weird lookin' thing too. Like something Emily the Strange would conjure up. I had formatted the document with red text on black pages. Astronomer-friendly format, ha ha!

Started up the old ASUS netbook, connected the nearby camera to it, and launched Backyard EOS 3.1.

I opened the DOCX on the lenovo laptop and started the update. Took screen snaps from BYE to capture the various icons, buttons, and toolbars.

After one lenovo crash and a fight with a wonky keyboard on the ASUS, after a couple of hours, after a wee bit of cursin', I had a much-improved document.

It is ready for testing. I can now do a walk-thru of the QRC topics in a simulated classroom delivery to see if there's enough material and content for a 2 hour course. I think there will be. Looking forward to that.

I then drafted "hub" copy and the level 1 course "copy" for the RASC web site...

Exciting. 

It'll be neat to launch this in a week or so. I'm very curious how much interest there might be.

In the meantime, I can say: Backyard EOS training is "coming soon!"