Updated software/'missing' DSOs/contrast

Bill J. Gray Dec 6, 2000

Hi folks,

Once again, several things to write about:

UPDATE POSTED:

I've just posted updated software on the Web site. You'll notice that
it's dated 30 November 2000, rather than today. That's because I got
the new version working, did some testing of it, and then ran into
hardware problems. I fixed these this morning.

The announcement on the Web page discusses three improvements, none
of them especially major. The six new satellites of Saturn are now
displayed; there's a 'generic object' finding capability; and there's
a new toolbar button to help in making movies. Also, most of the
bugs that have been discussed on this list and that have been directed
to me by private mail have been cleaned up.

MISSING DEEP-SKY OBJECTS:

About Robert Klips' comments on missing objects: I think it's likely
you've run into an oddity where Guide would, somewhat arbitrarily,
quash display of most deep-sky objects at levels 5 and above. This
made excellent sense, once upon a time, in terms of speed and evading
clutter. The 'clutter' problem still applies, and of course, most
people find that showing DSOs at wide fields of view is not especially
helpful. However, you can do it (and decide for yourself how
'unhelpful' it is!) with the current software. At the same time, you'll
get much better DSO data than was originally available on the Guide CD.
Gory details (and the new DSO data) are available at...

http://www.projectpluto.com/update7.htm#ngc_ic

DOWNLOADED DSS IMAGES:

Kevin McMillan mentioned that Guide stores the DSS images with a
filename based on an incremented number. At the time, I really was
just working on a tool to grab the DSS images for use in Guide, without
much thinking in terms of its use as a standalone utility for saving
DSS images. I'll give some thought to providing some means of naming
the images as you grab them.

In the meantime, I'd advise against individually deleting images.
Guide maintains additional data on each image in a separate file. Use
the "Extras... Clear RealSky Images" function instead.

IMAGE BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST:

The Alt-arrow hotkeys are indeed the "usual" method for adjusting
brightness/contrast. However, if you look under "Settings... Toolbar",
you'll see that there are four toolbar buttons available. Turn on
all four, and you can use them in place of the hotkeys.

-- Bill