Mike Loffland
Web Guru (Astronomics)
Reged: 09/03/04
Posts: 2080
Loc: Norman, Oklahoma
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StarCalc – Still Around and Still Useful
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Whenever I’m about to do something...I think "would an idiot do that?" and if they would... I do not do that thing.
- Dwight Schrute, The Office
Meade Telescopes
Celestron Telescopes
Telescopes
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hudson_yak
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 1106
Loc: Hyde Park, NY, USA
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Nice review. This program remains my favorite for its lightweight feel and the very handy animation features. I didn't know there was an optional plugin for the ecliptic so thanks for showing a picture with that on it, off to download that now.
Mike
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Meade 8" LX10
Orion ED100 + Losmandy GM-8 + Berlebach UNI 24
Meade 12" LightBridge
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stevecoe
"Astronomical Tourist"
Reged: 04/24/04
Posts: 2648
Loc: Arizona, USA
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I use StarCalc for a completely different purpose. I use it to tell me the overall view of the sky from my location. I don't want to start up Sky Map Pro just to tell me if the bright object I see in the morning sky is Venus or Jupiter. I also use it often to set up a wide field image of a planetary conjunction. I can set the field of view and determine which lens I need to use for the gathering of the planets.
When I taught astronomy, I always told my students about it and used it to show lunar movement and other useful applications. A great program at a great price.
Thanks;
Steve Coe
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TeleVue 102 refractor on CGEM mount
10 inch f/4.7 Newtonian
Author "Deep Sky Observing" Springer-Verlag
Author "Nebulae and How to Observe Them" Springer
Canon Xt astrocamera with Hutech modification
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Coen
member
Reged: 08/11/08
Posts: 43
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I have found StarCalc an excellent programme over the years for, as the reviewer says, its simple intuitive interface. It does what it needs to do, easily, fast and in a manner that conveys the information well to the user. It has been great for quick looks at what to expect when with regards to viewing aiding planning. As an introduction to the night sky. As a teaching tool for example mapping the paths of objects over time. From a teaching point of view, I'd love to see an orrery but not many programmes out there do that anyway.
There are a number of plugins available some of which are not translated into English yet and not listed on the StarCalc site. You'll find them with a search on CN.
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Pierre Stromberg
super member
Reged: 02/07/08
Posts: 184
Loc: Woodinville, WA
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No problem. I thought it was worthwhile to review because it's a program that's easily overshadowed by others.
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1978 orange tube Celestron C8
1990's Celestron C90
Astro-Tech AT66
Atlas EQG with EQMOD
Nikon D50
Homepage: Explore the outer limits of human belief
http://www.paranormalamerika.blogspot.com
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epee
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/30/06
Posts: 697
Loc: Suh-van-nuh, Jaw-juh
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I used to use StarCalc and really liked it; disdaining the "eyecandy" of more advanced programs and appreciating the "whole sky at a glance" view it gave. However I have not been able to get a stable installation of it since switching computers. Neither laptops or desktops seem to want to save the location setting and it often crashes after a few minutes use. I'm using Windows XP patched to the full and if anyone can help I'd appreciate it very much.
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Jim Girardeau
Orion XT12 Intelliscope
Celestron 11X80mm binoculars
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hudson_yak
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 1106
Loc: Hyde Park, NY, USA
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When I went to XP I had trouble with it crashing whenever displaying deepsky objects and waving the mouse pointer over one of them. My solution has been to just not do that, basically.
After reading this review I decided that must not be a universal problem, so I tried a few things. One that seems to have helped is to go into Properties for starcalc.exe and in the Compatibility tab tell it to run in Win98/ME mode. That has kept it from crashing, so far, once in awhile it'll put up a "access violation" error when waving the pointer over closely-spaced DSOs but at least it keeps running. Much better now.
Mike
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Meade 8" LX10
Orion ED100 + Losmandy GM-8 + Berlebach UNI 24
Meade 12" LightBridge
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Pierre Stromberg
super member
Reged: 02/07/08
Posts: 184
Loc: Woodinville, WA
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Yeah I run it on Windows XP and Vista 64 with no problems. Not sure what's going on with other folks' systems.
Pierre
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1978 orange tube Celestron C8
1990's Celestron C90
Astro-Tech AT66
Atlas EQG with EQMOD
Nikon D50
Homepage: Explore the outer limits of human belief
http://www.paranormalamerika.blogspot.com
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Coen
member
Reged: 08/11/08
Posts: 43
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I have never had a problem with it running on a number of different laptops over the years, all windows XP or 2000. Laptops have been various varieties of Dells and Toshibas.
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hudson_yak
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 1106
Loc: Hyde Park, NY, USA
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Computers are fun. The problem I described above occurs on two quite different types of hardware, one a cheapo desktop and the other an IBM laptop, and has consistently over the years as XP has evolved on them. The XP editions are different between the two, though I do have them configured quite similarly as to appearance and fonts, etc. It was such a rock-solid failure I assumed it must happen for everyone. Guess not.
It apparently has something to do with the little pop-up description windows that come up when waving the mouse pointer over a DSO symbol.
Mike
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Meade 8" LX10
Orion ED100 + Losmandy GM-8 + Berlebach UNI 24
Meade 12" LightBridge
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Pierre Stromberg
super member
Reged: 02/07/08
Posts: 184
Loc: Woodinville, WA
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Have you applied the same patches to both systems and have you tried using StarCalc on either piece of hardware before you've patched them?
Also, what kind of display device driver are you using with them? Are they the same chipset? Are you using any system video display programs on both systems that rely on the display driver?
P
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1978 orange tube Celestron C8
1990's Celestron C90
Astro-Tech AT66
Atlas EQG with EQMOD
Nikon D50
Homepage: Explore the outer limits of human belief
http://www.paranormalamerika.blogspot.com
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hudson_yak
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/15/07
Posts: 1106
Loc: Hyde Park, NY, USA
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Probably the two systems are similar in XP patch levels now though they certainly haven't always been that way. The laptop got SP2 long before the desktop, for example. It doesn't belong to me, I just use it. And as I stated above they are not similar from a hardware perspective at all. This Starcalc problem has always happened on both of them.
The Compatibility workaround I mentioned before has had the same good effect on both machines.
I'd guess at this point there's something about how I set the two machines up from an appearance or font standpoint that causes the issue to happen. Anyway, it isn't worth spending any more time on, the Compatibility workaround is entirely adequate. Hopefully Jim will have similar luck with his Starcalc problems if he tries it.
Mike
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Meade 8" LX10
Orion ED100 + Losmandy GM-8 + Berlebach UNI 24
Meade 12" LightBridge
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