A week that changed the scale of the project
After the major visual realignment on 7 July, Ivrea Observatory continued to evolve quickly. The Tonight page became clearer in guiding observations, the dashboard gained logic that responds better to the time of day, and the whole site reached the coherence needed to be considered a first stable public version.
The important change was not the addition of one feature, but the stronger connection between every part of the project: environmental data, the live sky, observing suggestions, sighting memory, the Journal and visual content.
From PWA to the Android prototype
The site became an installable Progressive Web App and then started its journey towards Android. A first app prototype was built and tested, with particular attention to the mobile menu, Android Back behaviour and the removal of browser-only elements that would make the experience feel unfinished inside an app.
Mission Control and the Pioneer programme were also created to organise accounts, personal profiles and the testing phase. The app is not the final destination yet: it is the first concrete step towards turning Ivrea Observatory into an everyday service, rather than only a page to visit.
SkyCam becomes a proper gallery
The “sky in the last few hours” section has also been completed. Shots no longer open abruptly in an isolated browser tab: they now appear in a gallery integrated into the site, with a large image, caption, counter and previous/next navigation.
The gallery works with buttons, keyboard controls and swipe gestures on mobile. It may look like a small detail, but it changes the experience completely: the timeline no longer feels like a set of exposed files, but like a genuine part of SkyCam.
Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
Ivrea Observatory now has three official social channels: Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. They were not created to duplicate the site, but to tell the stories a dashboard cannot show well on its own: sky replays, changing light, passing clouds, project updates and small observing events.
Instagram will focus mainly on images and visual updates, TikTok on short and immediate replays, and YouTube on timelapses and content that deserves a longer life. All three links are now presented consistently in the mobile menu and site footer.
From web project to small ecosystem
Ivrea Observatory is no longer only a dashboard connected to a few sensors. It is now a small ecosystem made up of a physical station, SkyCam, a bilingual website, PWA, Android prototype, personal accounts, Journal, replays and social channels.
The next challenge is not to fill it with features. It is to preserve this quality, make every part genuinely useful and help every new visitor understand one simple idea immediately: the sky above Ivrea is observed, measured and told here every day.
Highlights
On the workbench
- Keep the project moving without losing the reasoning behind each step