6 replies to this topic

[conor]

Hi All,

 

Long time astronomer but first time poster to CN here. Long story short, I've upgrade to Starry Night 8 on my Macbook Pro 16" with OSX Catalina 10.15.3 and I'm running SN 8 Pro v8.0.6.1978.

 

I'm going to list a few issues I've seen with the software here, and I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing similar problems as I haven't gotten a response from Simulation Curriculum. I should point out that I can replicate these issues on my other  work Macbook Pro 15" from 2019.

 

1. The quality of the graphics for objects such as M42 look off. As an example, here is what I'm seeing.

 

 

2. And here is what happens when I flip the view, both horizontally and vertically. Note where the objects are on the screen. They've moved!

 

 

 

3.If after I've flipped the view horizontally and vertically, some objects like M42 sit above the sky image. If I pan around, the sky pans underneath the objects, effectively moving them around in the sky. See the two below images. Note the position of objects within the 5 degree FOV in both images

 

 

And the second image where the angular separation between the object on the left and right has increased.

 

 

So, this is the major issue I'm seeing and it's driving me nuts. Another issue that I'm seeing is in Spaceship mode. Most of the controls work, but not accelerate (A) and decelerate (Z). I cannot change my velocity at all; I'm stuck at 0m/s. I'm not much have much of head for speed, but this is taking it to the extreme. I am however not ruling out that I'm doing something wrong, but I can't seem to find my error if it is me that is in error.

 

As I wrote earlier, I'd like to hear if anyone else has seen these errors and if anyone knows why they are happening. So far I'm very disappointed with SN8, and I've forked out a fair bit of cash in order to upgrade form SN7.

 

Cheers,

Conor

[dongallo]

Surprised those are the only bugs you are seeing. There are a lot more than that. FOV indicators won't sync and unable to search logs. There has been no response from Simulation Curriculum. 

[conor]

To be honest Dongallo, I've not bothered to use it more than I have because it's just too bug riddled. Very disappointing and if I don't hear from Simulation Curriculum soon I'll ask for a refund and happily just use Stellarium and consider TheSkyX if I'm daft enough to to start astrophotography again (I hope I'm not!)

[ordep]

So, this is the major issue I'm seeing and it's driving me nuts. Another issue that I'm seeing is in Spaceship mode. Most of the controls work, but not accelerate (A) and decelerate (Z). I cannot change my velocity at all; I'm stuck at 0m/s. I'm not much have much of head for speed, but this is taking it to the extreme. I am however not ruling out that I'm doing something wrong, but I can't seem to find my error if it is me that is in error.

 

As I wrote earlier, I'd like to hear if anyone else has seen these errors and if anyone knows why they are happening. So far I'm very disappointed with SN8, and I've forked out a fair bit of cash in order to upgrade form SN7.

 

Cheers,

Conor

Hi Conor,

 

Thank you for your feedback.  Part of what is happening is that you have two different image layers turned on.  You have the AllSky CCD mosaic (which is a photo of the entire night sky) and you also have another data layer turned on that includes a collection of separate deep sky images.  I would turn one layer off and then select "Options-Save Current Options as Default".

 

 

You can turn off the AllSky image under the Stars layer and the other layer by selecting "Show Images" in the DeepSky layer.

 

I am able to accelerate in spaceship mode on Catalina.  Can you let me know which version of Starry Night you are running (About Starry Night).  Press S to bring up the list of available controls.  I suggest you disable the AllSky image in spaceship mode.  

 

We will be releasing an update to Starry Night in the very near future and are logging all the reports.  There are a few items we want to tackle including syncing with Livesky as reported in the other comment. We're trying.

 

Thank you.

 

Pedro

[conor]

Hi Pedro,

 

Thank you for getting back to me. I can confirm that with the All-Sky Image off, I can change orientations without problem. Thank you!

 

Can I ask however if the first image in my post depicts M42 as it should appear in SN8? Now that I've disabled All-Sky, it lacks the purple and white centre, and is just a single shade of brown surrounded by a light nebulosity It looks washed out with brown when I compared it with SN7 on my other mac.

 

Here is M42 without All-Sky Image

 

 

The details of my system and SN8 are: OSX Catalina 10.15.3 running on a 2019 Macbook pro 16". I'm running SN 8 Pro v8.0.6.1978.

 

After some playing around, I managed to get my spaceship moving by pressing a preset, 1- 9. Once I did that, I could accelerate, but if I pressed stop, then A, I could not accelerate. So in short, I always had to use a preset to get started.

 

After I had some fun flying around Saturn I returned to Earth. This is when things got a bit weird. Sometimes after returning to viewing from Earth, I'll pan around and suddenly spaceship mode is back on. Return to Earth, pan around, and Spaceship comes back. Ok, so I restarted SN8 and tried again, couldn't reproduce that, so I flew off to the Sombrero Galaxy. I came back to Earth, panned out and then SN8 froze. This happens quite a lot and I can reproduce.

 

Here is an example of something happens quite a lot after flying around: time goes a bit funny and changing it doesn't affect the sky's position or rotate the earth. Here's an example from Minneapolis I took just now. Note the time and date

 

 

In summary, these are some of the issues I've noticed whilst playing with SN8 in the last couple of days. I understand that software is a tricky business but I would like to know if the SN team is aware of issues like these and addressing them in upcoming releases of SN8?

 

Cheers,

Conor

[ordep]

Hi Conor, thanks for the followup.  

 

In SN8 we incorporated the cross-indexed deepsky database (including images) from SkySafari (our mobile device product).  I agree some of the images (such as M42) could be improved and it's something we hope to work on soon.  Of course, SN8 does give you the ability to add your own images (via the built in Image Editor).  

 

I've saved your comments and created a ticket so that our developers can look into your report.  The tricky part is being able to replicate an issue, but once we're able, it can be addressed.  We are indeed planning on releasing an update to SN8 - work on that should begin right after we release a minor update for SkySafari that we are working on.

 

Thanks.

 

Pedro

 

Can I ask however if the first image in my post depicts M42 as it should appear in SN8? Now that I've disabled All-Sky, it lacks the purple and white centre, and is just a single shade of brown surrounded by a light nebulosity It looks washed out with brown when I compared it with SN7 on my other mac.

 

In summary, these are some of the issues I've noticed whilst playing with SN8 in the last couple of days. I understand that software is a tricky business but I would like to know if the SN team is aware of issues like these and addressing them in upcoming releases of SN8?

 

Cheers,

Conor

Edited by ordep, 26 March 2020 - 08:39 PM.

[conor]

Hi Pedro,

 

Thank you for the getting back to me. Good luck with release.

 

Cheers,

 

Conor