That is the best way to scan, in quadrants. I'm not the astonomer that you speak of, but this is how I search, not only in the telescope but also my images (yup, astrophotographer also).jsmaje wrote:You're absolutely right that the eye and brain can't take in everything at once, and that scanning quadrants in a systematic way is the best way to go. You can then take another close look at anything of potential interest, and finally make a holistic assessment (repeatedly focussing up & down can help spot deep features behaving differently from surface ones, even in one's peripheral vision).
An astronomer on this forum who is used to viewing astrophotos said exactly that (sorry can't find the link - the so-called Search facility on these forums is pretty-much useless, as also pointed out by others before). As an ex-doctor, that was the way I was taught to scan an X-ray, and as an ex-private pilot, that was the way to scan the sky out of the cockpit window (the four most vital cockpit instruments were also scanned systematically, though in a T-shape in that case).
It's a matter of training yourself to do it that way, and once in the habit it becomes instinctive. Since there are already going to be at least 700,000 focus movies to be looked at by the time they're finished, I don't think multiplying that number by four would really be much help.
And by the way, from the Tech FAQ: "We recommend using at least 1024 x 768 resolution."
Instead of changing the program to present 1/4 of the image, why not just do what astronomers have been doing for years, make do with what you have. Meaning, if you only want to see the top left quad, take a piece of paper, cardboard, whatever, and cut it to shape. Wah-lah, when you hold it up, you only see one quad.
I'm not trying to put down the suggestion, I'm just saying that not everyone should have to see only one quad at a time. What I do is focus on one quad at a time, running focus up/down numerous times. I learned to do that searching the sky, where to aim my focus. It gets easier with time.
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Christine
I hate getting things wrong