Hi folks,
Some comments on the DSS-2 jukebox trouble, improving Charon,
extrasolar planets, and Arne Henden's photometry data:
BUSY DSS-2 JUKEBOX:
SebastiĆ Torrell Vila wrote: "...CD-ROM Jukebox is Busy..."
I got that message last night, and again a few times today. At
other times, it worked just fine. I've never had this problem
before. It's obviously a result of everyone trying out the new
feature in Guide, driving the CD-ROM jukebox usage up. Well,
maybe not...
CHARON IMPROVEMENTS:
Claudio, I've done very little with Charon for a _long_
time. I consider it to be mostly obsolete now, in view of the
accomplishments of folks such as Herbert Raab (_Astrometrica_)
and Bob Denny (_PinPoint_). However, I'm less concerned with
Charon's appearance than with its functionality and ease of use.
These wouldn't necessarily improve much with a port to Windows,
except in the sense that I'd take the opportunity to redesign
the program quite a bit in the process of porting it.
I am occasionally tempted to port it to Windows, possibly using
a cross-platform tool such as Qt. That would get me a Mac and
Linux version at the same time as the Windows version, and it
would be a large enough project to be interesting, while small
enough to not be too frustrating. The Qt licencing terms are
heavily slanted toward open source projects, and Charon happens
to already be open source. However... "so many projects, so
little time."
NEW EXTRASOLAR PLANETS:
Oliver Kloes has just sent in an update to his dataset of
extra-solar planets. As he wrote: "...some planets were
added, some were retracted by the 'planet hunters', others got
doubtful and will not be included in my file until they are
confirmed again." The files are available at
http://www.projectpluto.com/extras.htm#planet_systems
NEW HENDEN PHOTOMETRY AREAS:
I've just posted a small dataset that lets you see the areas
covered by Arne Henden's photometry files:
http://www.projectpluto.com/extras.htm#henden_areas
-- Bill