Hello Bill,

thanks for your consideration.

> > 1.) I'm working very much with marks. I have more than 100 for specific
> > telescope/camera/location/orientation/object/time combinations. When
> > loading a
> > mark, the list is shown where I can choose one from. That's good and ok.
> > But when
> > saving a mark, only the name of the last loaded mark is shown. At this
> > point it
> > would be nice to have the list of marks too and choose one from it and
> > eventually
> > replace only few parts of the (sometimes comlex) name.
>
> Hmmm... which would also argue for being able to sort out the marks
> a bit into different groups.

Yes, that would be really nice. I have at least 20 mark files for minor planets
eclipsing stars.

> (On a similar point, I'd really like to
> have the user-added datasets split into groups... maybe "deep-sky",
> "stellar", "clusters/globulars", etc. Problem here would be coming
> up with suitable classifications. But it would help when rummaging
> through a huge number of datasets.)

Another classification could be the wavelength of catalogs (e.g radio sources) or
plate boundaries of catalog "pages".

> > 2.) I'm working with custum horizons for different observing locations.
> > To change
> > them, I have to open the Guide8 folder in windows explorer, delete
> > HORIZON.DAT,
> > copy the wanted horizon file and rename it to HORIZON.DAT. It would be
> > nice to
> > choose from a list of horizon files like the mark files. A bonus could
> > be that
> > one can draw a horizon line from within Guide and save it too.
>
> Only problem here is that most people are sticking with one horizon
> file (or at most, one per planet... and there is already a provision
> for this, which is why the moon shows a lunar-like horizon, with data
> stored in 'horizo10.dat'.)
>
> That might, I'll admit, change if Guide had a few horizons built
> into it (so one could select "mountain horizon" vs. "urban horizon"
> vs. "rural horizon").
>
> > PS: I'm a surveying engineer and have measured many horizon / visibility
> > profiles
> > not only for my own observing places but also for other public
> > observatories.
>
> And if people could enter their own horizons, possibly by pointing
> their GoTo scope at a variety of points around the horizon ("the horizon
> goes from here to here, to here, to here... add a tree at this point...
> bigger one, please... and a building here...") Well, something for me
> to think about, anyway!

I have done this kind of "measuring" with my old C8 mounted on its original wedge
on a balcony, where access to the sky was rather limited and parallax a big
problem, when the ceiling is only 1 m away (you can find an old picture of this
horizon here:
<http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Bernd.A.Brinkmann/me.html>
I red the setting circles RA and decl. and looked in Guide for the corresponding
height and elevation

> I've also pondered the idea of allowing people to add in pictures
> (.jpgs) of their horizons. Take a few pictures around your horizon,
> have some feature in Guide to place them at correct positions and
> orientations and scales... it'd be nice, but I've yet to figure out a
> reasonable way of doing it.

I think that users who wants there own photgraphic horizon should be able to
create a panorama picture beforehand with 3rd party (free) software. Then you
have to get the information of the orientation (eg. where is north, pixel column
x) and where is the mathematical horizon (zenith distance 90 deg, pixel row y).
Then your task (that of Guide) would be to transform the image pixels to the
screen pixels of the Guide window. One more thing is the priority of drawing. For
example shouldn't the panorama be visible in the legend area. What's with objects
(stars, planets and so on) below the horizon line? Should they be drawn? How will
the horizon line be determined? Once by digitizing it within Guide? Must the
panorama image have a transparent alpha channel for areas above the horizon line?
I don't know.

Clear skies
Bernd

Bernd Brinkmann

Sternwarte Herne, MPC code A18
Herne, Germany

e-mail: info@...
http://www.sternwarte-herne.de