During a qualifying session
- Use naked-eye vision only—no binoculars, telescope, or optical finder.
- Ordinary glasses or contact lenses needed for distance vision are allowed.
- Predicted times and expected difficulty remain hidden until the session ends.
- Report “not seen” freely. A careful non-detection is scientifically useful.
- Report clouds, haze, glare, obstruction, and uncertain identification as they occur.
- Do not identify a suspected object as confirmed when you are unsure which star it is.
Why the timeline matters
A last non-detection followed by a first suspected glimpse and later confirmation constrains the true threshold to an interval. The system never turns that evidence into a false exact second. A star already visible on its first check is recorded as an upper bound; a star never seen before the session ends remains right-censored data.
Voice and timing
Original audio is the source record. Speech onset, speech end, report time, any claimed earlier observation time, transcript availability, interpretation time, and server receipt are separate fields. Automatic recognition may help the live workflow but cannot erase or replace what the observer actually said.
Blinding
The scheduler may use a frozen model prediction internally to choose informative targets and re-check intervals. The active interface receives only neutral identity and direction data. A post-session comparison may be opened only after finalization.