Hi Alex, Andrea,

I would expect to handle the "symbol" problem as described at

http://www.projectpluto.com/future.htm#symbols

As is described there, one could then tell Guide to use a
larger/smaller symbol, as desired.

As to coloring star dots: the major problem with that, right
now, is that stars can be colored by spectral type or not at all.
A secondary problem is that the stars will still be essentially
superimposed, so it'll still be common for one star to overdraw
another.

The best solution, at present, is to shut off any catalog
not actually in current use. A better solution, in the future,
would be for Guide to recognize situations where a given star is
being drawn from multiple catalogs, and then show it only once.
When you clicked on that star, and then on "more info", you'd
get data from all the catalogs, including user-added ones. Some
parameters would be needed to let the user define which stars
would "match" between catalogs... a somewhat scary process, but
not inconceivable.

-- Bill