-
The
URL to the current SOHO Sun image has been changed once
again due to changes in availability of this image on the
web. The latest sun image is downloaded when you target it
on a chart or manually via the Object Information window for
the Sun. The sun image is displayed on the charts. Note that
the sun image isn't drawn on charts with white backgrounds.
The orange sun image color choice is no longer available as
the downloaded image is now tinted yellow.
-
The
telescope selected in the planner now appears as the default
when the Print Chart dialog is opened via Print
Chart and Print Chart for Each checked Entry when
in visual mode.
-
When
printing a telescope simulation chart via the Nightly
Planner or Real Time tools the last eyepiece selected for
that chart is used on the printed chart.
-
The
longitude of the Great Red Spot (GRS) on Jupiter has been
updated to the most recent value with this update (166
degrees).
-
Deleting
the image link to a downloaded DSS image was resulting in an
inadvertent error message. Note that deleting the image link
to a DSS image will not delete the DSS image file. To do
that, use the "Plottable Images" functions.
-
The
"show all" option on the Context Viewer was
not working properly for printed Context Viewer charts.
-
(Pro)
Sub exposure times on the Exposure Calculator are now
forced to never be less than the minimum sub exposure set on
the dialog.
-
(Pro)
A crash could occur on the Planner in imaging mode for very
dark sites when a standard UBVRI "B" filter
selected.
-
(Pro)
A bug in the exposure time calculated to achieve a given SNR
has been fixed where an incorrect total exposure time was
displayed for sub exposure times shorter than the selected
minimum sub exposure time.
-
The
altitude column of the optimum ephemeris was displaying
incorrect altitudes.
-
Object
Information window: resizing the window after changing one
of the tabs resulted in the tab area no longer properly
resizing along with the rest of the window.
-
The Object
Requestor was sometimes returning comets from the
supplemental database while browsing the historical
database.
-
The
Copy to clipboard function was not always working properly
for multi-view telescope simulation charts.
-
Current
Events: changes to the lon/lat of an existing observing
site weren't being reflected in the event results.
-
Minor
Planets were not properly being forced to be visible via the
"Always display objects of target type" and the
"Force Target to be Visible" options on the View
Controls.
-
In
some cases the 30-day visual difficulty displayed on the Synopsis
was inconsistent with the current difficulty (and
incorrect).
-
Various
other minor issues have been resolved.
-
The
camera FOV displayed on the Interactive Atlas didn't rotate
correctly with some combinations of coordinate systems and
flip/mirror states. This also affected the position that the
off-axis guider was drawn at.
-
Certain
minor planets were disappearing from the charts on rare
dates.
-
The
FOV circles / camera rectangles on the Atlas are now drawn
with the line style attributes on the charts (except when
they are actively being dragged or rotated).
-
The
longitude of the Great Red Spot (GRS) on Jupiter has been
updated to the most recent value with this update (160
degrees).
-
The
latest sun image download source on the web changed its
format again causing the download of the latest sun image to
fail. This has been fixed.
-
The
latest sun image is now automatically downloaded (silently)
whenever the sun is a chart target (unless the latest image
is already displayed).
-
A
designation label hierarchy issue involving diffuse nebulae
was fixed on the charts.
-
The
tab selection area did not resize properly on the Object
Information window the first time the window was resized.
-
Atmospheric
extinction was not working properly for the telescope
simulation charts; when positioned very close to the horizon
stars that could be seen were missing from the chart. The
simple sky background was also being drawn inaccurately near
the horizon, again leading to some missing stars.
-
Planetary
nebulae with no size data were being drawn on charts without
the proper magnitude limit tests.
-
The
Mount Alignment Tool is now disabled in the case where there
is no eyepiece for the telescope, or the scope is not
mounted equatorially, or binoculars are selected.
-
The
column scheme was resetting to the simple mode columns when
SkyTools was restarted after being closed with the Real Time
tab and visual observing mode selected.
-
The
paper orientation was not being properly saved for printed
observing lists.
-
The
"P" in periodic comet designations is no longer
case sensitive.
-
Database
Power Search Tool: the visual observing difficulty filter
"modifier" was not working properly in all cases.
-
The
entry field for the time zone on the Observing Sites dialog
was no longer long enough to enter decimal hours (after the
recent font change).
-
A
rare issue was fixed that affected the calculation of
optimum times for an observing list for locations with very
high elevations.
-
The
galactic coordinate grid labels displayed on the atlas near
longitudes of 0 and 180 were off by 180 degrees.
-
Some
STF double star IDs were failing to select on the Browse tab
of the Object Requestor.
-
If
the equinox was left blank in the coordinate entry for
Supplemental Deep Sky Objects the epoch was not properly
defaulting to J2000. This cloud lead to scrambled
coordinates.
-
The
elevation entry field has been removed from the
"Edit" dialog which appears when you click
"Edit" on the Observing Sites dialog. It was not
saving properly and this can be edited on the main dialog
anyhow.
-
Multiple
target lists were not being transferred from one chart to
another when you changed the chart type.
-
Various
other minor issues have been resolved.
-
The
F5 to F8 keys that were used to change the observing status
of an object in the observing list have been remapped to
Alt-F5 to Alt-F8 to free up the F5 key to refresh the list.
-
In
some cases the Sync of SkyTools 2 logs was failing without
an error message. The logs should now import properly
in all cases.
-
The
keyboard focus on the Log Dialog was being lost immediately
after opening the dialog from the Observing List.
-
The MPC
New and Unusual and MPC Distant minor planet
downloads are now working properly again via the new MPC web
site. Note that the MPC Critical list is still unavailable
due to their server problems.
-
Deleting
a DSS image while it was displayed in the Image Viewer
failed to fully delete the image from the database.
-
A
resource leak in the Thumbnail Viewer was causing the
program to crash after the Thumbnail Viewer was used
repeatedly.
-
An
issue was fixed that may have led to a program crash
immediately after an update, requiring a reset of the user
settings to fix.
-
Some
deep sky objects were not showing the proper size on the
Optimum Ephemeris.
-
The
tooltips for the buttons on the Thumbnail Viewer were
displaying the wrong tip.
-
Very
long telescope names were not displaying properly in the
telescope selection in the planner.
-
The Reset
Filters menu item on the Observing List menu now resets
the observation status filters too.
-
The
"Auto Target ID" label at the top of a printed
chart was not employing the user's customized global
designation hierarchy.
-
The
"Select date in planner" menu item on the Events
Calendar now works properly.
-
The
F5 key now refreshes the observing list.
-
The
cursor could disappear on a chart of both mouse buttons were
pressed simultaneously.
-
Right-clicking
on the drift direction indicator in the eyepiece view of a
chart (used to rotate the field of view) now allows you to
reset the view to the default rotation angle.
-
A
crash could occur on the Real Time tool in imaging mode in
rare instances where the selected observing list included
bright stars.
-
The
View Control dialog was not opening via a right-click on a
thumbnail in the Thumbnail Viewer.
-
The
Reflex Sight was not always being properly initialized for
use on Telescope Simulation charts for new telescopes
without a magnifying finder, causing the user to have to
enable it manually.
-
Various
stability issues have been resolved with regard to the
Context Viewer, printed charts, observing lists and the
Designation Search tool.
-
Faint
"stars" representing the bright cores of galaxies
no longer interfere with using the mouse-over identification
feature on the charts for identifying the galaxy.
-
The
appearance/readability of the font used throughout the
program has been improved.
-
The
mouse-rectangle-zoom on the charts can now be disabled via a
switch located on the Preferences tab of the SkyTools
Preferences dialog.
-
Importing
supplemental comets and minor planets from the IAU now
automatically creates a corresponding observing list in the
"Auto Generated Lists" group, such as the "IAU
Distant Minor planets" or "IAU Critical Minor
planets" lists.
-
A new
"Observing Lists from Handbooks" category has been
added on our web site, as browsed via the Import Shared
Data tab of the Data Manager.. This category
contains observing lists derived from various handbooks such
as Burnhams and NSOG. Note: for the time being some of
these lists will also remain in the "Deep Sky"
category until most users have updated to version 3.1.
-
Several
cameras have been added to the camera data "pool"
and the cameras in the pool are now forced to display in
alphabetical order.
-
Sorting
has been improved for the Alternative Designation Column of
the observing list.
-
Multiple
target labels on the charts are now positioned properly.
-
Moving
a newly created telescope up the list of telescopes
immediately after creating it no longer loses the new
telescope's data.
-
The
altitude column of the observing list in imaging mode is now
computed for the proper time.
-
The
quick year dropdown selection on the Event Calendar has been
updated to display recent and near future years.
-
The
Twilight, Sunset, and Sunrise buttons on the Local Date/Time
dialog are now relative to the selected date rather than the
current date (as read from the computer clock).
-
The
Append to list function of the Nightly Observing List
Generator sometimes appended the new objects to the
wrong observing list.
-
The
Open button has been removed from the Chart Preferences
Scheme selection. The new schemes is now immediately
opened when selected, which is more intuitive.
-
Repositioning
the Event Calendar window no longer causes a complete
redraw of the window.
-
The
Triton and Charon check boxes on the Satellight Elongation
dialog of the Current Events tool no longer cause changes in
other variables.
-
Blank
lines are now properly skipped when reading a horizon from a
file, and an error message is now generated that shows the
offending line in the file if an error is encountered
reading the data.
-
The
Simulation charts / Context Viewer now use the actual
magnification (for the selected eyepiece) when computing
visibility rather than a fictional optimum
magnification.
-
Visibility
limits for magnifying finders have been improved on the
simulation charts.
-
Designation
search rules have been relaxed for various designations,
making it more likely a given designation will be found,
even if the format isn't exactly what SkyTools expects.
-
The
imaging rectangle on the Interactive Atlas didn't always
rotate properly when the atlas orientation was changed from
the default.
-
The Context
Viewer FOV now prints/copies on the Atlas using the line
preferences set in the chart preferences. Note:
because this is an animated element on the screen, the
on-screen version remains the inverse of the chart
background color.
-
The
orientation arrows on the Context Viewer now switch properly
from horizon display to equatorial display as set in the
View Controls.
-
The
telescope report sometimes errantly displayed a second
eyepiece with a Barlow magnification of 1.0.
-
Barlow
magnifications entered to two decimal places are no longer
rounded top one decimal place after closing the eyepiece
dialog.
-
Deleting
all supplemental minor planets no longer erroneously deletes
minor planets that are currently in use by observing lists,
log entries, etc.
-
The
Sun is no longer filtered out of observing lists errantly
via the visual difficulty filter.
-
"View
all checked in Overhead Sky" menu selection on the
Observing List menu has been restored. Apparently is
was mistakenly deleted in an earlier update.
-
The
Argo Navis was being sent the wrong time format when the
general time format was set to AM/PM, which caused the
function to not work properly.
-
The
up/down, page up/page down, ctrl-page up / ctrl-page down
keys again function properly for manipulating the
designation listing on the Browse tab of the Object
Requestor.
-
The
equatorial R.A. grid line labels sometimes did not display
the proper R.A. near 24h.
-
When
a log entry is created from the scrolled observing list, the
list no longer scrolls to the top.
-
A
Cancel button has been added to the Prompt for Backup dialog
that sometimes appears after closing the program as a
reminder to back up your user data.
-
The
printed observing list columns now always have enough room
to display times in the AM/PM format.
-
DSS
images from the Skyview server now should have the proper
horizontal dimensions (there seems to be a bug in the
Skyview server when returning images in the simple
cylindrical projection; SkyTools now uses an alternative
projection. This fix will effect new image downloads
only.
-
"Starfields"
-- faint stars downloaded from the USNO-A2 catalog -- are
now disabled in the Pro edition when the extended data DVD
is installed. Not only are these stars superfluous in
this case, but problems had been reported with this mix of
data.
-
Target
labels will now only appear when the target cross hairs are displayed
on a chart. This change is the result of inconsistencies
in labeling when switching between regular object labels and
target labels for the target object.
-
Some
column selections for visual and imaging mode printed
observing lists failed to remain turned on after enabling
them in the dialog.
-
The
position used for the Sun in computing the sky brightness is
now properly precessed; this lead to problems in the distant
past or future only.
-
On
the simulation charts the finder and eyepiece view
"insets" (which indicate the size of one view in
another) were sometimes drawn the wrong size. The
inset depicting the eyepiece view now rotates with the
eyepiece view.
-
The
Visual Difficulty tab of the Object Information window
failed to report correct values immediately after the
NightBar or YearBar tabs had been selected.
-
The uninstaller
now properly removes all of the registry entries and
database files. Note that the installer still does not
delete user data files by design.
-
The
impact spot that appeared last summer on Jupiter has been
removed as it is now longer observable.
-
The
coordinates of the new location are sent to the telescope,
if connected, when the observing location is changed on the
Real Time tab.
-
Saturn's
rings were sometimes being cut off in the Context Viewer
after the eyepiece view was rotated.
-
The
Thumbnail Viewer was mistakenly opening when displaying the
default telescope simulation chart for all checked entries
in an observing list. This was also causing some
stability problems.
-
The
more recent values have been updated for Delta-T, the
difference between terrestrial time and universal
time. Predicted values into the future have also been
updated to be more accurate.
-
When
the user switches from one chart to another the Real Time
status is now inherited from the previous chart.
-
Plottable
images are now drawn on thumbnail plots in the Thumbnail
Viewer.
-
When
the All button was depressed on the Context Viewer,
under some conditions faint objects were displaying the
wrong labels.
-
When
the user deletes a downloaded DSS image, the image file is
now deleted along with the file association data.
-
The Obstructed
Horizon dialog has been shortened vertically so it will
fit on 800x600 screens.
-
Grid
line labels no longer linger on the charts when the grid
lines are turned off.
-
The
program now opens more quickly.
-
Various
other more minor improvements/fixes have also been made.
-
The
"Open" button used to open the selected Chart
Preferences Scheme on the Chart Preferences dialog has been
removed. The selected chart preference scheme will now
open automatically when selected.
-
The
Rise/Transit/Set columns in the observing list were still
being computed using the obstructed horizon when the
obstructed horizon was disabled.
-
The
obstructed horizon was remaining displayed on the charts
after it was turned off in the View Controls until the chart
was refreshed.
-
The
"Night Log" button on the Observing Log dialog was
not properly opening to the correct night in the Log
Browser.
-
In
some cases when non-standard Windows font "DPI
settings" were used the eyepiece selection on the
simulation charts was drawn off the right side of the
screen.
-
Optimum
times were not being displayed in the observing list for
objects deemed to be "not visible." Now all
marginal objects display optimum times. Only those
objects that definitely cannot be observed, such as a galaxy
in daylight, no longer display optimum times.
-
All
Optimum window columns in the observing list now sort blanks
to the bottom of the list regardless of the sort order.
-
The
eyepiece field of view/magnification label on the telescope
simulation charts was not always properly displaying the
field of view/magnification for the selected eyepiece,
particularly when a comet was targeted.
-
Displaying
thumbnails for binoculars could cause the magnification
property of the binoculars to be inadvertently changed.
-
UGC 10822 was
not properly found in the designation search.
-
Some WDS
identifiers, such as "BAL 1530" were not properly
being found in the designation search.
-
The
"After" date selected on the Search tab of the Log
Browser was jumping ahead to the next day.
-
The Log Search
was missing some matching entries when there were more than
one entry for the same objects.
