Hi folks,

I'll be sending upgrade offers shortly, I hope... as soon as I
figure out how to trick Eudora into "bulk-mailing" them. Shouldn't
be too tough. (Andre, you and a lot of other people will be getting
"you will receive Guide soon" notices, rather than "here's how to
upgrade" notices.)

A few comments about "the best astronomy software", telescope
pointing corrections, and Megastar and software history:

THE BEST ASTRO SOFTWARE:

I basically regard "compare this astronomy software to that
astronomy software" or "which is the best astro software" to be
roughly comparable to "is a hammer a better tool than a saw" or
"who's the better artist, Rembrandt or Monet". Rembrandt and
Monet were both great artists, but you can't say they were
doing quite the same thing.

The analogies are intentionally chosen, since these programs
tend to be both tools and pieces of art. If astronomy software
authors were funded by the US Government, it would be a tossup
as to whether the money would come from the National Endowment
for the Arts or from the National Science Foundation.

Guide is much more of a tool than a piece of artwork, and
there are a few other programs out there that lean more to the
"art" side. I don't see anything "wrong" with either approach;
it's a matter of individual needs and tastes, sort of like the
way some people prefer Monet's works to Rembrandt's, or may like
both artists' works in different ways, or may need to pound
nails instead of (or in addition to) cutting pieces of wood.

TELESCOPE POINTING:

One minor problem with the MEC (Mechanical Error Correction) system
in Guide: it only applies to encoder-based systems, not to "GoTo"
scopes. At the time I added this system, my only real thought was
that I needed something to allow alignment and control of encoder
systems; I figured there wasn't much point in attempting to adjust
the LX-200's alignment. This turned out to be doubly unfortunate.

If I'd created the system to handle all types of scopes, I would
have wound up with a _simpler_ telescope control architecture within
Guide. It is entirely possible that I will revise the code to work
in that manner. As happens all too often, I only figured out how to
design and build a really good system after I had designed and built
a somewhat mediocre system.

MEGASTAR:

Megastar did indeed come out just before Guide 1.0 did, with the
GSC on something like 40 floppies (5 1/2 inch ones, no less). Both
programs were first advertised in the May 1993 _Sky & Telescope_,
pages 85 and 86. Emil Bonanno, the author of Megastar, and I
learned of each other's programs when we got our advertising proofs
from S&T; we turned them over, and there on the opposite side was
the other guy's ad.

Emil's choice of floppies was not a bad idea; CD-ROMs were rare
in 1993, and I got a lot of "is Guide available on floppy" requests.

-- Bill