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The observation editor

The observation editor is the 5-step form you walk through to build an observation. It lives at /observe in the web app.

Two ways to enter the editor:

  • From scratch. Hit /observe, pick the entity that will own the observation (yourself or one of your organizations), and you land on the wizard hub. Pick "blank observation" and you're in step 1 with a new observation.
  • From the project catalog. Same entry, but pick a ready-made project — see Project catalog. Starting from the catalog creates the project's observations for you, already configured, so you don't go through the editor step by step.

This page is about the from-scratch flow.

The five steps

1. Accounts     →   2. Target     →   3. Requests
                                          │
                                          ▼
              5. Review & create   ←   4. Configuration

You build the observation as you move through the steps; the editor holds your work as you go. Each step is its own page, and you can move back and forth between them freely before you create the observation.

Everything you set across the steps adds up to a single portable description of the observation — the observation spec. You don't need to think about it to use the editor, but it's what makes duplicating, exporting, and starting from a catalog project work. See The observation spec.

Step What you do Page
1 Pick the observing grants that will fund the observation Accounts
2 Pick the target — what to observe Target
3 Add one or more data requests describing what data to collect Requests
4 Set observation-wide identity, scheduling, and instrument-selection rules Configuration
5 Review everything and create the observation Review & create

What stays consistent across steps

A few things are always present:

  • Owner — set once when you enter the editor (/observe → pick entity). The owner is who funds the observation. All grants shown in step 1 are filtered to grants the owner can use.
  • Your work in progress — the observation you're assembling. The editor keeps it as you move between steps; you don't lose it by navigating around the form.

When can I create the observation?

The final step runs a checklist:

  1. At least one grant selected (step 1).
  2. Target has a name and a resolved position (step 2).
  3. At least one data request present (step 3).
  4. Observation has a name (step 4 — identity sub-section).

When all four are green, the Create button is enabled. See Review & create for what happens when you create it.