General Usage Guide

Elite Observatory is a powerful, modular tool designed to monitor and report upon Elite Dangerous journals.

Here you'll find documentation for getting the Observatory set up, as well as detailed guides and troubleshooting for its many plugins.

Features

• Read and analyse all CMDR journal files
• Configure pop-up and/or voice notifications
• Choose from a wide array of [[startnew#Plugins|plugins]] providing expansive functionality
• Define custom search/reporting criteria using Lua

Installation

• Download the latest version from the releases page.
• Double-click on the downloaded ObservatorySetup.exe to install.
  • During setup you will be asked which supplementary plugins (if any) you would like to install.
• Once setup has finished, launch Elite Observatory as you would with any other app.

Quick Start

Hit "Start Monitor" and start exploring in Elite Dangerous! The out-of-the-box defaults will notify you about a selection of interesting object as you scan with the FSS.

If you'd like to scan through your past discoveries switch to the "Explorer" tab and hit "Read All".

Detailed Usage

An example of Observatory Core's main page.

Once Observatory is started, you will a tab for each installed plugin along the top.

Main Window Buttons

• Export: Exports the content of the current plugin tab to a file. The format of this file is potentially selectable in the Core Settings.

• Clear: Clears the content of the current plugin tab.

• Start Monitor / Stop Monitor: Toggles watching the Elite Dangerous journal files for changes and enabled realtime alerting for in game activity and discoveries.

• Read All: Reads all Elite Dangerous journal files and loads all historical events and activity. Some plugins may require this as an initial priming step to populate player information.

Core Tab

The Core tab is the main location for configuring Observatory and its plugins.

Core Settings

This block of settings controls the general behaviour of Observatory and functionality not specific to any plugin.

• Journal Folder: Shows the location your journal files are currently being read from. Double-clicking the path will allow you to select a new one, but this should be unnecessary in the overwhelming majority of cases.

• Export Format: Chooses the format of exported files between tab-separated .csv and office open XML .xlsx (commonly referred to as excel format). Plugins can override this selection and export in other formats if necessary.

• Theme: Select the visual theme for the application. Support for different themes within plugins may vary.

• Add Theme: Allows users to add their own custom themes. See the custom theme documentation for details.

• Volume: Adjust volume of audible notifications and sounds played by plugins.

• Audio Device: Selects the audio output device used for all sounds.

• Start Monitor On Launch: Enables realtime monitoring automatically as soon as Observatory is launched.

• Read All On Launch: Immediately performs a full read of all journals as soon as Observatory is launched.

Plugins

There are many optional plugins available for the Observatory, designed to supplement and enhance the core application.

By default, three plugins are installed along with Observatory:

• Explorer: Finds interesting astronomical features while exploring
• Botanist: Tracks planetary biological signals scanned on foot.
• Herald: Enables high-quality cloud-based speech notifications.

Additional plugins can be downloaded as .eop files and can generally be installed by simply double-clicking the file.

• BioInsights: Provides in-depth detail on biological signal sources.
• Evaluator: Provides detailed mapping value information for system bodies.
• SignalMonitor: Detects and provides notifications for certain uncommon signal sources.
• GeoPredictor: Tracks and predicts planetary geological signals.
• Telegram: Sends notifications via Telegram messenger.

For more detailed information on plugins and their usage see the plugin documentation.