Re: [guide-user] mag display

Laren Dart Sep 21, 2002

At 07:34 PM 9/21/02 +0000, you wrote:
>Guide can display star mags *down* to the level set on the Display,
>star, menu. I would like to display mags between two limits - eg., 16
>to 18. Can this be done? Its for star checking purposes - comparing
>CCD fields with Guide. Right-clicking each star is a little tedious.
>
>TIA
>
>Lawrence Harris

I asked Bill about this long ago, for a different purpose. I wanted to be
able to "browse" down, looking for very wide clusters which showed a
common proper motion. The only program I found that would set upper and
lower limits was Stargaze. This was my very first astronomy program, years
ago. My idea worked beautifully. I found a really large unrecorded
cluster in Triangulum, and was quite excited...

Until I discovered that Stargaze was probably the worst astronomy program
ever done. (They went belly up, but not until after I had spent over $200
US on additional catalogs, etc.) Most of the stars in what I dubbed "The
Stargaze Cluster" did not exist.

I later also found that there was not a single star in decl. 0 to -1.
Black holes? Heck, I was the discoverer of the "Stargaze Equatorial Black
Band!" (c'est la vie, fame is fleeting.) The program was so incredibly
bad, it was almost unbelievable. Anyone here remember it?

Bill, if this magnitude "slicing" feature wouldn't be too hard to add, some
people might think of other uses for it besides the two mentioned here. I
still think the idea itself was a good one, even if I did find non-existent
stars! >;->

TIA,
Larry Dart

http://www.got.net/~ldart
writing and photography