salvaged a solution

It is not all doom and gloom!

I was able to import an observing list into Stellarium!

I made it work. Holy Universe, we have a pathway—for the time being. It's clunky, it requires some fiddling, some carefully documented procedures. But we can make it happen.

For the time being, I am so happy to offer a solution.

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This goes back to something a couple of days ago, early in the testing. I attempted to import a list, as noted, and nothing seemed to happen, at the moment.

Later in testing, almost out of the corner of my eye, I saw something new. At the time I missed it sequentially, when it happened. But now I know the particulars.

If you import a list, the software does not show anything immediately. It truly appears that nothing happened. But in fact the data was imported.

To see the result of the import, you must shutdown Stellarium and relaunch it. Then you'll discover an entry marked "bookmark lists"  with description text "Bookmarks of previous Stellarium version."

First time I saw it, it looked random to me, a bunch of stars by the HIP number, and I just ignored it, moved on with other tasks. 

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Moving forward. I read the GitHub note that Chris V had shared and noted one of the devs saying something along the lines of an odd behaviour occurring and a new list with content appearing. 

Ah. Same as me.

But, again, it went on the backburner.

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Today, at the beginning of trying the personal-use-only test, I noted three generic entries in the observing list menu. Where did they all come from? Spawning?

I thought back. Well, last night I had, on a whim, tried importing, specifically from a target list not copied to John Grim before, the spring segment of the RASC Finest NGCs, downloaded from the Toronto Centre archive.

And then something clicked. No, not my bones.

I switched to these lists.

One, nothing, empty.

The second one: HIP stars. Those are from the RASC Double Stars program! I'm sure. I had imported them successfully but not reaslised it!

Third one, UFO Galaxy, Lost Galaxy, the Eyes including NGC 4438. A quick glance at the official RASC program target list... yeppers. Entries from spring FNGC! Inside Stellarium. In a distinct list!

And there it was.

While poorly labeled, these entries were absorbed into an observing list through the import process.

Up to this point, I thought the import was completely broken, so then making it impossible for us to transfer lists between computers. But joyfully I was wrong.

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Here is the procedure for Stellarium version 23.2 with integrated work around, adapted from the instructions in the Quick Reference Card.

Import an Observing List

1. Access a source for Stellarium observing list. E.g. Toronto Centre archive.
   https://rascto.ca/astronomy/stellarium-observing-lists
2. Download a prefab observing list/bookmarks JSON file.
   E.g. RASC Finest NGC Spring targets list.
3. Click the Observing lists button or press Alt b or ⌥ B. The Observing lists window appears.
4. Click the Import list... button.
5. In the file dialogue box, locate the preferred JSON file, and click the Open button.
   E.g. RASC Finest NGC Spring v2.json 
6. Shutdown or quit Stellarium.
7. Relaunch Stellarium.
8. Click the Observing lists button or press Alt b or ⌥ B. 
9. From the List menu, choose the entry marked "bookmark lists." There may be more than one. Ensure the correct entries appear in the list area. 
   E.g. includes UFO galaxy aka NGC 2683.
10. Click the Edit list button.
11. In the List name field, enter an approrpriate brief title.
    E.g. RASC Finest NGC spring
12. Optionally, enter a description.
    E.g. RASC observing certified list. Bookmarks of previous Stellarium version.
13. Click the Save list button.

And you're done.

Double the steps but hey...

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Chris corroborated my findings.

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Re-examined the importing process and made some important discoveries. Read this important update for the full picture...

It also impacts the procedural instructions above...