SkyChart Changelog

What's new in SkyChart 4.2.1

Aug 17, 2020

New functions:
Add telescope handpad for ASCOM and INDI
Change Neighbour button to obey Object list setting, increase search radius to show at least 10 objects
Add object to the Observing list from the Object list
The old Encoder driver can be installed from: https://github.com/pchev/alpaca_encoder/releases
Bug fix:
Planet in line mode must be really transparent
Fix “Show Mark” option for comet and asteroid simulation
Fix launching Edge browser
Show a clear error message when trying to run on 8 or 16 bit display
Fix disconnection from Alpaca telescope

New in SkyChart 4.2 (Aug 17, 2020)

New functions:
New default interface with only two button bar.
New icon for the buttons, better suited for night vision filters. Use larger image for big buttons and high resolution screen.
Add direct connection to Alpaca telescope. It is now possible to use a telescope connected to a remote ASCOM Windows computer from Skychart running on Linux or macOS.
Support for the new GAIA DR2 star catalog.
Allow to use HNSKY star catalog using the “290” format.
New mosaic tool to prepare mosaic for image capture application.
Show the object rise and set time relative to the local horizon if a horizon file is loaded. This can be disabled in Setup/Observatory. Calendar rise/set are always given to the astronomical horizon.
Set observatory coordinates from the telescope GPS, this set a “Telescope” observatory name and not override other settings.
New button to Park/Unpark the ASCOM telescope.
Allow per chart observatory horizon profile.
Add update menu for Delta T and Jupiter GRS.
Add orange night vision mode.
Separate label setting for Asteroid and Comet.
Option to show only the celestial equator line.
Option to not filter the bright nebula by magnitude, only by size.
Option to set the drawing line width. Beware this not work with dash line when printing on Windows because of API limitation.
Allow to lock at the position set from the menu View/Position.
Fix and improvement:
Default comet element download is now from http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl
INDI server and driver selection is now in the telescope connection box. Option to launch indistarter is removed.
Improve double star display.
Improve magnitude filter for small FOV.
The resolution of the background image is now be limited to improve the performance if the screen is big or if there is not enough cpu core for processing.
Improve download progress display.
Show a warning in window title if running as administrator. Skychart never need to run as administrator but this can break the configuration.
Many bug fix.
Incompatibility with previous version:
Beware the update of asteroid and comet from the main menu now delete all the old elements data from the database!
If you need to keep this old elements or cumulate data from many source you must use the function from the menu Setup/Solar system.
Remove obsolete/unmaintainable LX200 and Encoder direct drivers. Please use the corresponding ASCOM or INDI drivers.
https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm
https://www.indilib.org/devices/mounts.html
Depreciate the use of Mysql database and suggest to move to Sqlite if currently in use. Mysql support will be removed in the next version.
Client/server communication can now use J2000 coordinates instead of the current chart setting. You can change this option in Setup/General/Server.
Saved circle file (.cdcc) include the coordinate equinox on the first row and more information for use with the mosaic tool.

New in SkyChart 4.0 (Mar 25, 2019)

New functions:
Set the tool bar button arangement, size and text in Setup / Toolbar editor. Increase default button size.
The tool bar editor allow you to edit the button bar layout. The function is available from the menu Setup / Tool bar editor.
New performance options from menu File/Reset chart and options…
New tool box function you can activate with the keys F1 to F8.
Scripting functions and custom tool box capabilities.
New representation for the Milky Way. This can be activated from the menu Setup / Display / Lines by unchecking “Milky Way - Line mode”.
Updated Solar system information window with more functionallity
Plot images for the main planetary satellites
More color and label options
Update the artificial satellites TLE files automatically.
Option to add a crosshair to the chart center.
Option to add the meridian line with any projection.
Show comet and asteroid hourly motion in the detail window.
Update download URL for asteroids and comets
New observing list Tour function
Add cursor or telescope position to observing list
Add Tcp/Ip connection to the LX200 telescope interface.
Use INDIstarter to manage the INDI server.
New INDI control panel.
Catalog:
OpenNGC replace NGC2000, it is now include with the base version
Use official IAU star name
The following catalog change require to install the new version with 4.0 in the file name from the catalog download section:
New version of GCVS and WDS catalog
New version of PGC/LEDA with 5 million galaxies
Add index to search planetary nebula by name
Add Sh2 and Barnard catalog
Update the pictures using better coordinates from OpenNGC
Corrections:
Performance improvement with image display
Artificial satellites TLE files can use .txt extension.
Move some menu from File to View and Chart.
Now the program scale the window correctly on high resolution screen. You can set the old behavior in Setup/General.
No more store the program data location in the configuration file. If you need a non-standard location use the new command line option ”–datadir=”.

New in SkyChart 3.11 Beta (Nov 10, 2014)

New in SkyChart 3.10 (Nov 10, 2014)

NEW FUNCTIONS:
Add the capability to display a picture for the horizon panorama. The image must be a PNG or BMP file of any size representing the full 360° panorama with an equirectangular projection. The horizon must be exactly at the middle height of the picture. The sky area must be set transparent (#FF00FF for BMP). The left side of the picture is the East direction. If you use another orientation you must also give the offset angle.
VO SAMP interoperability, allow to send and receive position click, FITS images, VO tables, VO tables row selections from other application like Aladin or Topcat.
Add support for JPL DE430 and DE431, you can now display the planet location between 13000BC and 17000AD.
New computation for the planetary satellites, add Phoebe, Triton, Nereid, Charon and 33 faint satellites.
Color option for Catgen nebula catalog.
Update URL option for Catgen text catalog.
Archive downloaded DSS images.
Display images with WCS from FITS archive.
Add a labels with FITS image name.
Calendar Twilight panel also show moonless night information.
Add a button in Calendar to display the brightest comets first.
Add Ctrl+L and Ctrl+Shift+L shortcuts to switch the chart legend.
Add a button to change the left mouse click behavior from zoom to move.
Add Observing list functions.
New option to mask the chart outside of the wider eyepiece.
New header/footer in the printout.
Capability to define more than 10 eyepieces or ccd fields.
More options to select column of VO catalog
Documentation is now available in PDF format.
CORRECTIONS:
Better picture/map transparency.
More options for picture tone mapping.
Full 16bit processing for pictures.
Multithread for fits mapping.
Add orientation in compass.
New simplified pointer instead of compass.
Galaxy symbol depend on luminosity also in line mode.
DSO label size depend on magnitude.
Fix varobs_lpv_bulletin to use the new csv bulletin format.
Search in local VO catalog data.
Planet deformation due to the refraction near the horizon.
Tell Xplanet to use the same JPL ephemeris than CdC.