Hi Roger,

Re the animation problem: I'd try using "proper motion" animation.
It sounds as if you're using the "RA/dec" animation, which has some
problems with bitmapped planets. (And some other problems, too;
I am strongly inclined to remove it from the program. It was very
useful back when machines were much slower than they are today,
but now, it just causes trouble.)

"...Also, using the AL bright doubles catalog, I was comparing
Castor with Antares to see how the doubles compare. I am confused by
the additional info screen for the AL double star list. It gives
component A as mag. 6175, B as 1.9, C as 4.9, and D as 8.9. What
does the 6175 mean?"

Castor is ADS 6175, and Antares 10074. That was the clue I
needed. Seems we have two different version of the AL bright
doubles catalog floating around: one that you perhaps downloaded
from the Web site, and a newer one built into the Guide CDs. At
some point, the file names really ought to have been changed...
I knew the new data had more stars, but didn't realize that the
format had changed, too. (Both more stars and more data in the
new version. The ADS numbers were a "new datum", and landed
right where the magnitude for the A component used to be.)

Fortunately, they're at least named differently. If you go into
Toggle User Datasets and shut off "Double stars: AL 100 list", and
turn on "Double stars for small telescopes", you'll be in business.

-- Bill