Hi Bill,

if you bring out Guide 9, may I ask you something - despite all the work you have done ? I am in the unfortunate situation, that I need to observe to the North, because in the South of where I live, there is a town which is very much illuminated. That's why I am often observing Galaxies in Draco and Camelopardalis (incredibly rich) and so. But there is one thing that drives me crazy. (I have Guide since version 4): I set my chart with North to the bottom (because that is how I find things) and when I am preparing my observations, I am oriented by Polaris (logic no?). When I am clicking a bit below Polaris, on the compass (North and East is still in the good direction compared to the direct view), and when I am clicking a bit above Polaris, the compass is inverted, while the constellations are still oriented in the same direction (just a bit more up or down, sometimes also a bit turned right or left ... but nothing important has changed). I got used to that, because I understand why it is.

But now comes the very irritating thing. When I go a bit more up in the chart (please remind my orientation to the North), suddenly the chart switches, as if I was looking in the southern direction. I also understand that this is necessary, because most of the observers are looking into the southern direction (on the northern half of the globe), but would it be possible to allow for a an overlay that draws the borderline when the chart is switching. Because this really drives me crazy.

Rudi

(sorry, I know that my principal observing position ... to the North ... is bizarre).

--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com, Bill J Gray <pluto@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Joe,
>
> Yes, and in fact, Guide 9.0 is just about ready.
>
> Progress has been glacial, obviously, for various reasons.
> However, my wife and daughter went on a week-long vacation,
> and I've had a week free of interruptions, allowing me to make
> absurd amounts of progress. I'm now waiting for a proof copy of
> the user manual; a week or so after I approve it, a whole lot
> of boxes ought to arrive on my doorstep. I am reasonably confident
> that the DVD is ready to get replicated; I spent some time yesterday
> looking at offers for DVD replication, and need to figure out
> the cover art specs. The on-line ordering system is just about
> working, aside from an oddity in how shipping is computed for
> non-US/Canada orders that I need to fix.
>
> Once all this is done, I'll put a few links on my Web site
> for ordering/upgrading and describing all the changes that have
> been made.
>
> Incidentally, it _will_ be DVD-only. This lets me go well
> beyond the 1.3 GByte limit, which is a good thing; even compressed,
> the UCAC-3 catalog is pretty darn big. I also wanted to add some
> other large files, such as the current DE-422 ephemeris (over
> half a gigabyte).
>
> There were also many issues with the two-CD solution, the
> biggest being that a lot of people installed only the first CD.
> Therefore, they missed out on a lot of interesting things, such
> as the deep-sky objects appearing as you zoom in and the high-res
> Clementine lunar image. This way, you can just pop in the DVD
> and be ready to go. (One can copy the entire DVD to a four-GByte
> memory stick and run from that, if desired.)
>
> -- Bill
>