Frankly I do not want to see artificial horizons, tree and house silhouettes, etc.
The main reason that I like Guide is that it is incredibly functional and an
important tool for astronomers of all levels. We know where the horizons are....we
do not need glitz to enlighten our use of a planetarium program to find our way
around the sky.

I have four observatories and every one of them use nothing but Guide for practical
applications and research. IF I have a school group or some other interested party
who wants to see stars coming up over the horizon on a computer I have Starry Night
loaded on several computers just for that demonstration.

But I would not trade the utilitarian practicality of Guide for anything to do with
glamour or intrigue.
As we say here in Arkansas...."if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Dr. Clay
_____
Arkansas Sky Observatories
MPC H45 - Petit Jean Mountain South
MPC H41 - Petit Jean Mountain
MPC H43 - Conway West
http://www.arksky.org/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Gray" <pluto@...>
To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 12:15 PM
Subject: Re: [guide-user] Representations of heaven more attractive in guide 9. For
when will that be?


> On 06/25/2013 10:22 AM, Stephen Tonkin wrote:
>> I concur with Pierre. I would far rather have planetarium software that
>> is clean and extremely functional than that which is pseudo-realistic.
>
> I've added in a little bit of "pseudo-realism", but almost entirely
> in the interest of function. For example, the "realistic" sky (Display,
> Background, Realistic) is something I use to give a quick idea as to
> how dark the sky might be for a particular observation. The objects
> around the horizon (Display, Background, Horizon Objects) helps
> me avoid the blunder of thinking I'm going to see an event that will
> actually happen below the horizon. (And if I see a rocket ship on
> the horizon, I know I'm "observing" from the moon.)
>
> Some people have modified the horizon and horizon objects to show
> what's actually seen from their observing location. This is a bit
> of a pain (you have to figure out what the limiting altitude above
> the horizon is for a series of points around the horizon), but it
> can and has been done. You can then also move/add things around
> ("there's a house to the south-southeast; put a dead tree over
> here, and a live tree here, and a streetlight here.") This is
> documented at the bottom of the file 'horizon.dat'.
>
> -- Bill
>
>
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