TheSkySearchers

It would be nice if we could have a calendar with astro events such as star parties, outreach etcetera. My local astro club provides a Google calendar link, for instance. I also see that phpBB has an events calendar plugin (https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2441291). I don't know if there should be a calendar per continent or if a filter could help with finding local star parties.

Such a calendar could foster interest in star parties and astronomy if it is publicly available. It would also be a vehicle for clubs or organizers to advertise their star parties for free and simply, without having to provide their own web pages. Right now, we have a calendar in a tiny window that at best provides a link to a thread maintained by an individual member. A full screen calendar with filters editable by members would be great.

SkyHiker wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 4:20 pm It would be nice if we could have a calendar with astro events such as star parties, outreach etcetera. My local astro club provides a Google calendar link, for instance. I also see that phpBB has an events calendar plugin (https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2441291). I don't know if there should be a calendar per continent or if a filter could help with finding local star parties.

Such a calendar could foster interest in star parties and astronomy if it is publicly available. It would also be a vehicle for clubs or organizers to advertise their star parties for free and simply, without having to provide their own web pages. Right now, we have a calendar in a tiny window that at best provides a link to a thread maintained by an individual member. A full screen calendar with filters editable by members would be great.

Thanks for the suggestion.

The extension you reference has been abandoned by the author and is no longer being supported. Also we are on version 3.3x and it stopped being updated at version 3.2.x. I try to stay away from abandoned extensions as they tend to have issues.

With that being said....

We have star party announcements (which I see you are using).

I will do some research and see if I can find something that has the potential to work with the newer versions of phpBB and report back.

Thanks again!!!

For people in UK, the gostargazing.co.uk website has a relatively comprehensive listing of clubs and events.
This can be accessed by date or by location.

https://gostargazing.co.uk/stargazing-events/

As ever, it's suggested that people contact the organisers to confirm dates and locations.

[Note to self: I must let Neil know that the Mid Cheshire group won't be meeting in August]

Gordon wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 5:35 pm

SkyHiker wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 4:20 pm It would be nice if we could have a calendar with astro events such as star parties, outreach etcetera. My local astro club provides a Google calendar link, for instance. I also see that phpBB has an events calendar plugin (https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2441291). I don't know if there should be a calendar per continent or if a filter could help with finding local star parties.

Such a calendar could foster interest in star parties and astronomy if it is publicly available. It would also be a vehicle for clubs or organizers to advertise their star parties for free and simply, without having to provide their own web pages. Right now, we have a calendar in a tiny window that at best provides a link to a thread maintained by an individual member. A full screen calendar with filters editable by members would be great.

Thanks for the suggestion.

The extension you reference has been abandoned by the author and is no longer being supported. Also we are on version 3.3x and it stopped being updated at version 3.2.x. I try to stay away from abandoned extensions as they tend to have issues.

With that being said....

We have star party announcements (which I see you are using).

I will do some research and see if I can find something that has the potential to work with the newer versions of phpBB and report back.

Thanks again!!!

Yea that phpBB plugin looked pretty dead to me too after clicking but I wasn't sure. Just brainstorming about how difficult it would be to do this so take it FWIW.

A link per continent or country to a Google calendar might be fine, linked from a calendar page that is linked from our front page. Here's a link to that of our own SBAU club, I believe it is public so I'm not trespassing on anyone's rights, I hope. Here's a link to the Googel calendar, it looks like it has the features (access rights, etcetera) that would be useful. The top-level calendar page can of course also have links to other pages that have lists of star parties, below our "own" calendar links.

I know that some people post announcements, but (a) the time of posting and the nature is entirely dependent on the person so if you need to book rooms a half year in advance it might be too late, and (b) The announcement gets lost in a flurry of other threads.

Just some thoughts, of course it's easy to be the backseat driver so thanks for all your work.

What I'm currently looking at would give users the ability to create a post in a specific forum (ie Astronomical Events) and "create" a calendar event. This would display a short notation on a calendar such as "new moon" for the specific days / times (both beginning and ending). The notation in the calendar is a link to the post in the specific forum where all of the information can be posted.

It works in theory, but I'm having some problems with the CSS code and getting the default colors to do what I want.

When I get closer I will give you access to the TEST forum and you can check it out.