Observing

Single-target project coordinates

Single-target project positions are stored and returned once:

{
  "project_targets": [{"name": "Target", "ra": 14.0, "dec": -45.0}]
}

ra is in hours; dec is in degrees. These are the units consumed by the observatory sequencer. Project settings and target metadata retain their existing fields; this change concerns the position fields.

The project editor converts RA to degrees for its form and converts it back to hours when saving. Form fields are temporary values; saved project payloads do not include top-level ra_deg/dec_deg or duplicate degree fields in the single target. Calendar and planning views read the same target as execution.

Hub normalization still accepts legacy top-level ra_deg/dec_deg and degree-only nested targets. For legacy projects containing conflicting copies, valid top-level editor coordinates take precedence during migration, preserving the user's saved edit. The normalized result removes the degree aliases. This happens on retrieval and save; saving persists the canonical format in Redis and SQLite. Existing disk records are not bulk-rewritten by this change.

Explicit multi-target projects and observing-sequence rows retain their current formats. Speckle reference requests and outreach FIFO blocks require RA in degrees, so they convert from the project target when constructing their own payloads. Deploy the updated Hub and frontend together.

Outreach framing option

outreach_require_identified_object defaults to false. Telescope owners can enable it in Hub Outreach Mode settings; Arbiter's Global Outreach Settings controls it independently for the global queue. Deploy the updated Hub, Averynet, and Arbiter together to use the option in both request flows.

When enabled, Averynet checks the requested camera rectangle against identified stars, Solar System targets, and loaded deep-sky catalogue objects. An extended object's outline only needs to touch the frame; its centre need not be inside. Display size, aesthetic and magnitude filters do not decide admission. An image title alone does not identify an object. No image files are opened or hashed.

Fixed-field submissions carry field_object catalogue metadata with RA/Dec in degrees, optional major/minor diameters in arcminutes, and position angle in degrees east of north. Both queues recheck this supplied geometry: Hub uses the configured telescope camera, global outreach uses its 40 by 30 arcminute frame. Missing telescope FOV is reported because overlap cannot be calculated without the camera dimensions. Moving-target definitions already identify the object being centred. This framing preference trusts the viewer's catalogue metadata; it does not independently authenticate that metadata against a server catalogue.