Telescope Reviews: Minimaps II - Vectorial print outputs

Hi everybody,

I have placed the promissed update for downloading, including the databases for comets and minor planets, the full VSOP87 theory, the 1.05.48 exe file, the new handbook, and some other files. So this is the link to a ZIP file containing the update to the built 1.05.48. The folder structure stored in the ZIP file should be preserved, and the old files in your setup should be replaced with the new ones. The new EXE is appreciably faster than the one you will have installed as well, since I have removed some redundancies in the flow. I hope you will like it

!!!.

About the labels, they are placed without paying attention to the background because this would slow down the program to a non-acceptable level. The number of objects is adapted to the magnification and can be altered by the user. My idea was to build a system that allowed an easy way to get the data even in overlapped areas. If you right-click near an object symbol, the program will show a small card with the data. Then, if there is any object overlapped, just click on the [<<] and [>>] buttons in the toolbox to change the focus to those near objects and display their card. It is simple and very effective, even in very clumped areas. Also, the zoom system dragging the mouse down (zoom in) or up (zoom out) is very comfortable: you can quickly expand any crowded area (or use the zoom swap button (exploration/detail zoom). The zoom system is one of the nicest features of the program. The labels, naturally, can also be disabled. Also, they can be expanded to list instead the names, the magnitudes, sizes, classification, etc. It is very flexible.

You can also alter the number of displayed deep sky objects, stars, star size, etc, in both the screen and printed maps. I like for instance writing a magnitude offset of -0.25 to get less stars in my notebook, but in the desktop PC the screen is larger, and I want more stars, so there, the offset is +0.50 instead. Well, all these issues are easy to customise.

About the downloading speed, I have no other place to mirror the files, but I am opened to other possibilities. The current server belongs to my university, whose broadband is extremely wide and the speed, very, very fast (>400 Mb/s).

Glenn Becker had yesterday the initiative of starting a public yahoo forum for CNebulaX. If anyone wishes joining us for betatesting, developing new features, etc, he/she is very welcome. The URL can be found in this link (yahoo forum)

Don, I put the thread here because the program is very oriented -and developed thinking in- deep sky observers (I am an enthusiast of deep sky), and because it is the continuation of the Minimaps thread. It would be a nice idea to put it sticky in the place you mention.

Edited by jr_ (04/28/06 12:18 PM)