Stellarium Updates

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi to all you Stellarium users

I have arranged with Mike who has kindly allowed me to put some useful add ons to Stelarium and patches to keep the latest release of Stellarium 0.10.4-win32.exe up to date with the development in the uploads section of the iceinspace site.

The files are:-

www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP)
build 5998
www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/Stellariumnebulae-1.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/Stellariumnebulae-1.ZIP)
some extra nebula textures
www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumtexture-1.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumtexture-1.ZIP)
some more and better textures
www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/wiruna.zip (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/wiruna.zip)
A landscape of the house at the ASNSW site Wiruna
www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/Wiruna-2a.zip (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/Wiruna-2a.zip)
A landscape of the telescope viewing field SPSP 2008 at Wiruna
It is about 44MB all up so may take a while to down load.

Installation instructions are included in a readme file in each download.

If there is any problems get back to me. Otherwise enjoy!

Barry

[mithrandir]

Barry, was I too quick? The nebula, textures and wiruna-2 files aren't there.

[Barrykgerdes]

I don't know I will need to check. did you get the others. I am pretty good at making typos so I had better check

Barry

[mithrandir]

I got these ones:

07/03/2010 01:10 PM 5,546,932 stellariumpatch.ZIP
07/03/2010 01:14 PM 12,836,615 wiruna.zip

Nowhere near as big as the ESO TIFF:
07/03/2010 01:47 PM 33,324,900 heic1004a_H2.tif

[Barrykgerdes]

Yes Typos
case of letters, and some missing or extra letters.
Try it now

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

I see the number of viewings of this post are steadily climbing. Is anyone downloading and installing the files. If so I assume they work as there has been no feed back.

Barry

[mithrandir]

It hasn't screwed up on me - yet. :) You'll soon hear if it does.

When are we likely to see a smarter method of producing alignment info for our own images than trial and terror? Will we need to plate solve them first?

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Andrew
The json display method needs to know the coords of the corners of the picture. This information is included in the headers of the fts images from the DSS that Stellarium can download and display. The DSS display is not yet activated in stellarium but it is in the Virgo version that is available on the internet.

Converting images to this form will be a problem for most because at the moment you must know the exact centre, size and offset angle in order to calculate the corner coords.

The way I find the centre is by locating an identifiable star as close to the centre as possible and which direction north is. I then rotate the image in photoshop to make north squarely up (within a degree or two) and crop the image so that the size is 512 x 512 pixels using the known star as the centre of the image. This gives me a basic texture that is much easier to manipulate.

I next locate two more stars with known coords to calculate the separation. Stellarium has a way to do this easily. From this I can calculate the size of the texture quite accurately using maths.

I then apply these details to another program I wrote in Qbasic that calculates all the necessary coords and writes the data to a file in the format required for an insert into the textures.json file. I am reworking this program to include the size and angle calculations but it is not finished yet.

Because the photos are linear applying them to a spherical display requires quite a bit of trigonometry to find their corners depending on how far they are from the poles. At the moment my program works pretty well for textures under 1 degree square and within 30 degrees of the celestial equator but outside this errors start to creep in. I think this is mostly due to the precision of the calculations. In any case the textures are close enough for fine tuning by hand. See the mosaic I made of the Eta Carinae area.

Also take a look at the two textures IC1805 and IC1848. These are very large areas that took me quite some time to locate the necessary stars, size and angle because I had no information at all other than the names. Once I found this information I used it to fine tune my program but it still needed some manual manipulation for the final display.

Barry

[bird]

Barry, not sure if this is a known issue or not, but Stellarium 0.10.4 does not run on my desktop machine - a quad-core windows 7 64 bit system.

I get lots and lots of screen flickering unless I run in a window, and then the stellarium clock does not work properly when trying to go at speeds other than real time, so using J/K/L does not work to speed up or slow down. What I see is that the clock will run for a second or two and then stop. If I wriggle the mouse then the clock wakes up and runs a bit more but when I stop moving the mouse then the clock will stop.

This only happens with trying to run a time speeds different to real time.

ps this is all still happening with the patch available above.

cheers, Bird

[erick]

Wiruna landscape worked well, thanks!

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Bird
I have no trouble with my desktop. I am on a 64 bit machine at the moment that runs XP in 32 bits or Windows 7 ultimate in 64 bits (dual boot). Both systems run without any bother

In the Windows 7. Stellarium needs to be put into program files (x86).
If you try to run it on XP in the Microsoft virtual machine you will probably have trouble with stellarium. It has an archaeic screen driver for XP and it has trouble with full screen mode, can't stand the window being smaller than virtual window and runs awful slow.

I use the VMware program which runs stellarium great in the virtual machine under XP installed from my dist disk.

The flickery screen bug has been fixed in the patch I put onto iceinspace. I have heard about the time freeze but not seen it so I can't comment. Also there may still be problems with the ATI video cards. What is your frame rate it may be too high.

Barry

[bird]

Hi Barry. Stellarium is installed into the right place - Program Files (x86), and the flickering screen is still there when I run it full screen, even with this patched version.

My video card is an ATI 4850, but stellaroim ran fine on my old windows XP system until I replaced it with the current Win7 x64 install. I've tried the windows XP compatibility mode, that didn't help.

cheers, Bird

[mithrandir]

Anthony, is it the same box with just an O/S "upgrade"? OpenGL and ATI do not play together well. You might have to hunt for newer drivers.

Or just get an NVidia card.

Andrew

[rider]

looks good Barry.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi bird
Andrew most likely has the answer. ATI video is quite unfriendly towards Opengl. Guess I am lucky none of my computers have These cards but then that means I can't test them. If stellarium ran OK in XP it means there was a suitable driver for XP. Maybe ATI will soon have a suitable driver for the Windows 7 64 bit system.

In the mean time the VMware virtual system should be able to run your original XP with its video driver and you will have stellarium there.

Barry

[michaellxv]

Works here.

Instructions for Wiruna-2 are missing but I worked it out.

[Barrykgerdes]

Sorry about that. I will add instructions for the next time I upload.
The two landscapes were uploaded at a different time.

All that is required is to place each file package ino a folder Wiruna or Wiruna-2 in the \stellarium\landscapes folder. Stellarium will find them OK.

Barry

[Jules76]

Try the latest Catalyst 10.2 drivers:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=win7/windows-7-64bit

I'm running Windows 7 64 bit with an ATi 5770 and I'm having absolutely no issues whatsoever running Stellarium.

[mercedes_sl1970]

The Mac version works well on my Macbook. Well done for providing such a good product!

Andrew

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,
10.3 worked fine. Uninstalled it and installed 10.4 and on starting I get
"stellarium.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."
Any ideas?
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

That could be anything. Did you remove the old config.ini file first.
have a look for the log.txt file in the you user area ( same place as the config.ini file). If the program did any loading up to that point it will tell me where it stopprd.

Also download that patch mentioned in a previous post. The later version may be better.

Barry

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,
Confirmed all config (and default-config) files removed. Uninstalled and re-installed vers. 10.4. Installed patches.
Config.ini still says vers. 0.10.3!
Program still won't run!
Sorry message contains the following:
AppName: stellarium.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: atioglxx.dll
ModVer: 6.14.10.5150 Offset: 001e9e7b

Where to next????

Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

Your Error message refers to an ati driver dll. You may need to look for a different driver. Some ATI cards work OK others still seem to have problems.

You may still have a problem with the config.ini file. The one you are using is not the latest. I will attach the latest to this post. Remove the one you are using and install this one and see what happens.

You can do this by either renaming the attached file default_config.ini and overwriting the default_config.ini in the data folder or renaming the attached file config.ini and copy it over the config.ini file in your windows user area. (documemts and settings\yourname\application data\stellarium)

Barry

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,
Replaced the config file - thanks. Still no joy! Log shows that program gets as far as loading star data. Checked my ATI X600 driver for updates - latest is installed. Maybe I'll just have to stick with version 10.3 which worked fine.
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

High Robert

Did the log.txt show that the stars loaded. Where did it actually stop.
If it stopped after the star load. The next item loaded is the ngc2000.dat
Check the size of the ngc2000.dat file. If it is over 1MB it is the wrong file. you need the binary file not the ASCII.

Barry

[Robert9]

Low Barry,

Log shows nothing beyond "loading star data". These are the last three lines of the log:
Loading Solar System data ...
Loaded 38 / 38 planet orbits
Loading star data ...

NGC2000.dat is 254Kb so would appear to be correct version??

Cheers,
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

That would indicate that the star catalogues are not loading. There may be an error in the defaultstarConfig.json.
Temporally remove the stars folder and see if you can get past this stage. Without the star catalogues present the program should still load
but show no stars.

Barry

[Robert9]

Hi again Barry,
Got the same message "sorry, needs to close etc."
and log said:
Loading star data ...
"Warning: could not find star catalog stars/default/stars_0_0v0_1.cat"
"Warning: could not find star catalog stars/default/stars_1_0v0_1.cat"
"Warning: could not find star catalog stars/default/stars_2_0v0_1.cat"
"Warning: could not find star catalog stars/default/stars_3_1v0_0.cat"

Hmmm. Where to next? Many thanks for your time and patience.

Robert

PS. I reset the stars folder and tried running the program again. Prog. still didn't run but this time the log read:
Loading star data ...
Found file "./stars/default/stars_0_0v0_1.cat" , checking md5sum..
Error checking file "stars/default/stars_0_0v0_1.cat" : file is corrupted. MD5 sums don't match: found "d797213403c7aebfc8f82b380dbb8e30" expected ""
Found file "./stars/default/stars_1_0v0_1.cat" , checking md5sum..
Error checking file "stars/default/stars_1_0v0_1.cat" : file is corrupted. MD5 sums don't match: found "7e725d6e00a32aff7861de9e784c5597" expected ""
Found file "./stars/default/stars_2_0v0_1.cat" , checking md5sum..
Error checking file "stars/default/stars_2_0v0_1.cat" : file is corrupted. MD5 sums don't match: found "22db6a46fe4a31d18d86fb61d23a6c6d" expected ""
Found file "./stars/default/stars_3_1v0_0.cat" , checking md5sum..
Error checking file "stars/default/stars_3_1v0_0.cat" : file is corrupted. MD5 sums don't match: found "0974455c3f5c82a560795b76b4e4e38e" expected ""

From where can I download the catalogues again if that's really the trouble.
Incidentally, I don't see the splash screen at start-up either.
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert
It looks like your computer set up is not going to work with stellarium. It could still be something in your confg.ini

Send me a copy of your config.ini and I will try it on my system. I will try to make some changes that may work for you.

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

Check the star/default folder in your user area and delete the starsconfig.json file.

Re install stellarium 0.10.4 and see what happens. This will fix the problem of erased star catalogues.

Barry

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,

strange things are indeed happening.
1. Stellarium doesn't like a file named config.ini . It says the file doesn't exist and generates a new file config without a suffix, totally ignoring the existing config.ini. What is more, the new config file says vers.10.3!
2. I erased the starsconfig.json file as suggested and re-installed the program inlcluding the patch - no joy.
3. I tried resetting my display to 1024 x 768. This took a while with my machine refusing to cooperate until I set it to a very high res. and then back to lo-res. Suggests that maybe the card doesn't want to play ball. But then, why does version 10.3 work???
4. I have attached my most recent log file (the vers. 10.4). The config file refuses to attach!!!! I tried renaming it to .TXT or .INI. Upload doesn't want to touch it! Anyway, the config file is the one I downloaded from you earlier.

Good luck,
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

You can't attach a file with the extension ini. Change it to txt or put the files in a zip file.

Barry

[Robert9]

That was quick!

[Robert9]

Try again.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[Barrykgerdes]

I made a small change
rename config.txt to config.ini
place it in documents and settings\<your name>\application data\stellarim

I am assuming you are using Windows XP on a PC

Barry

[rider]

Hi Barry,

I've been using the new version for a week on two computers.
The previous open source versions hated my ATI cards - this version runs like a clock.

It also seem less resource hungry than the old pre- open source version.
(I've just put it on a little acer netbook with all the star catalogues loaded and I can run it at the same time as setting up astroplanner lists.

Thanks for all the continuing effort you and the rest of the Stellarium team put in to the product.

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,

Isn't it odd. Rider, you lucky chap, your ATI card works with 10.4, mine won't - but it has worked with all previous versions. As Charlie Brown once said "Aaagghhhh!"

Barry, the new config file caused the program to open in a smaller window which sadly stayed blank until the "sorry I have to close" sign came up.

Sorry Barry I should have said earlier but yes Barry, I am running XP Pro 32 bit OS. Its an HP machine based on a 2.67MHz Intel Centrino CPU and 1 GB RAM.

Just been baby sitting my grandson, now off to bed.
Cheers,
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

I don't know what else can be done except I will be upgrading the stellarium patch next week with a later version that may work.

The reason for the smaller display was that I set the [video] fullscreen = false and set the window size to 720 x 1020 to make sure you would have the full display on a 11024 x 768 screen and also to ensure your program read the right config.ini file. You reply proves that!

That computer should work great. I have two HP's (intel displays) that work great. keep your eyes open for a nvidia card that should work OK.

Barry

[Robert9]

Goodmorning Barry,

Many thanks for all your help. I'll await the next update.

Yes, I had a look at your config file and realized what had been done. I think I was effectively trying to do the same thing by adjusting my screen resolution. What puzzles me mostly though is that all the previous versions have worked without a hitch. That's computers I guess.
Thanks again,
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

I just thought of something that may work for you. Have a look at your 0.10.3 version and give me a list of the *.dll files in the stellarium folder.

Barry

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,

You do make things difficult for an old guy! After trying to find a printing method I finally just rewrote the names into the reply panel.

Robert

libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
libiconv2.dll
libintl3.dll
libstelmain.dll
mingwm10.dll
phonon4.dll
QtConcurrent.dll
QtCore4.dll
QtGui4.dll
QtNetwork4.dll
QtopenGL4.dll
QtScript4.dll
QtSql4.dll
QtSvg4.dll
QtXml4.dll

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert
This may or may not work but it is probably worth a try.
I have a stellarium.exe, libstelmain.dll and two dll files that were built in the old manner. They just may work for you. However you will need to give me an email address to send them to as they are contained in a zip file 5MB long. Too long to attach here.

You will need to save the current versions of the stellarium.exe and libstelmain.dll before you put the others in.
email me at barrygastro at hotmail.com

Barry

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,

Still no joy :shrug:.

When I checked the names of the dlls for you in 10.3, I had to reinstall and yes, it still ran happily. I'm going to download 10.4 again. Perhaps something was corrupted.

Robert

Downloaded, tested, still no-go!:screwy:
Think I'll just reload 10.3 and wait for the next release.
Thanks for all your help. :thanx:
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

The patch for "stellarium-0.10.4-win32.exe"

www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP)

has been updated to build 6042

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

The patch has now been upgraded to version 0.10.5 (beta)
(build 6057)

www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP)
Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

The patch has now been updated to build 6069 (Stellarium 0.10.5)

www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP)

This patch appears to have fixed the problem of not loading all 9
star catalogues in Windows XP

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi All

Version 0.10.5 is about to be released for Windows and Linux 27/5/2010. Mac will follow in a few days as the Mac expert is away for a few days.

This is a major bug fix and should have all the reported bugs fixed now. The Script engine is well under way and will now do most of the required script work.

It will be available from stellarium.org as RC1 (release candidate). Please test it and report any problems.

Barry

[fhub]

Hmmm?
Now it's 3 days later and I don't see anything about such a 0.10.5 release (or RC1)?

[Robert9]

Barry,
Do any of the latest mods help ATI Radeon cards to display. I haven't been able to get Stellarium running on my lap-top since 10.2. I have to run it on my desktop machine, which means not in the field.
Robert

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Robert

The latest version will run on most ATI cards. This is done by patching the program via the config.ini file to use OpenGl1 in lieu of OpenGl2 where problems occur. It probably does not work on every computer but very few of the developers have ATI cards to test on.

There is a RC verion of the latest build available
https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+download
This is today's build but it still has some minor bugs that have only been noted today. This is what is holding up the release that was scheduled for last week.

Barry

[mswhin63]

Fortunately for me now the latest ATI cards now have OpenGL. Got it working straight away with my new laptop.

[Barrykgerdes]

That is nice to hear.

Two of the bugs holding up release, telescope control and anglemeasure have been fixed. So I expect the release will go ahead.

There is a Mac version (.dmg) on launchpad if anyone wishes to try it.
https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+download (https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+download)

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Stellarium-0.10.5 has been released-Windows-Mac-Linux(source)
www.stellarium.org (http://www.stellarium.org)

Barry

[kamayok3]

Did you guys found out a bit weird on the stars in this latest release? The stars doesn't seems to twinkle anymore. Any idea?

Regards,

Tommy

[Robert9]

Hi Barry,
Happy to report that the no OpenGL2 version of 10.5 is working on my laptop with the ATI Mobility Radeon X600 video card. Brilliant! :thumbsup: I now have my favorite planetarium program back. :party:
Well done. :thanks:
Robert

[Rhino1980]

Yeah no twinkle on mine either, one of my favourite graphical features too :confused2:

[mithrandir]

Mine twinkle. At least the brighter stars do. You can increase the amount of twinkle in the "Sky" panel of the "Sky and viewing options" window.

[kamayok3]

Will try that, thanks a lot.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

To make the stars twinkle you need to turn the atmosphere on. Why?
Because if we had no atmosphere there would be no twinkle (as well as no us)

Barry:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[kamayok3]

Now I manage to catch your theories. GREAT!!!!

Regards,

Tommy

[kamayok3]

But I also having some weird wording when using the normal version. With no OPENGL version, it displays all correct wording. I am using a notebook with Mobile Intel 945GM express chipset. Any idea?

Regards,

Tommy

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Tommy
I don't quite get what you mean.
Have you started stellarium with no opengl2?
or the text is funny in both methods
My notebook with intel 965 chipset needed a driver update later than 21/1/2009 ver 6.14.10.5029 I think there was a 945 driver update about the same time

Barry

[mithrandir]

I've noticed that there is some text corruption the first time or two I run Stellarium after I upgrade it, then it goes away.

Have you tried a reboot? Windows seems to like them.

[hickny]

What is the situation with the scripting engine in the .10 version of Stellarium. I taught myself the scripting in an earlier version and am reluctant to replace the earlier version until a scripting engine is available.
Also what does "Build Stellarium fron SVN code" mean?

[Barrykgerdes]

The new script engine is still a work in progress. It has to be built from scratch intoducing coding as it is called for to produce a result. At the moment it is quite comprehensive but still does not do everything desired.

The second part of your question is about producing a stellarium program by compiling the source code. This is a reasonably simple exercise once you set your computer up with the tools for compiling. An instruction on how to do this is contained in the stellarium wiki.
http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/CompileWithMSYS
I taught myself how to do this some time ago and the current method is almost foolproof.

If you can compile stellarium yourself you can activate the option to read and operate most of the old *.sts scipts. This option is not complete yet but I have been able to use all the old scripts I wrote for that system.

Essentially compiling from source means downloading
1.Qt 4.6.2 from Nokia (180MB) and running its installer
2. Gettext
3. libiconv
4. zlib
5. cmake-2.8
6. tortoiseSVN
7. MSYS 1.0.11
These are all very easily installed from their instructions
Adding some environment variables (in control panel-system)
Then following the instructions in the wiki

Barry

[hickny]

Thanks Barry. It looks far too complicated and time consuming at the moment. I think I'll stick with my .9 version.
Cheers

[Barrykgerdes]

If you want to test your old scripts with the new 0.10.5 version of Stellarium. Download and install it from www.stellarium.org (http://www.stellarium.org) and then get
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellarium-patch0105.zip

unzip it and copy the two files to the stellarium folder. This version will read *.sts files to a limited extent and nay be OK for your requirements


Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

Stellarium has not had many changes since the release of version 0.10.5 other than some minor bug fixes. The source is now delivered by bazaar rather than subversion which makes source downloads considerably larger. It also allows many "private" working versions to demonstrate changes without changing the main source code. However I will still supply patches to upgrade the executables to the current stage of development.
These changes will now be available on my web site
http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org/stellarium/uploads/stellarium-patch0105.zip

http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org/stellarium/uploads/stellariumnebulae-1.ZIP

http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org/stellarium/uploads/stellariumtexture-1.zip

The Wiruna Landscapes are available at

http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org/stellarium/uploads/Wiruna-2a.zip

http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org/stellarium/uploads/wiruna.zip

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

Stellarium Version 0.10.6 has been released and is available for download from www.stellarium.org (http://www.stellarium.org)

This version is mainly a bug fix but has many new features.

Barry

[Omaroo]

What features Barry? Do you have a quick list? :thumbsup:

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Chris

Here is a copy of the change list
New feature for installing landscapes from ZIP archives.
New plugin: Solar System editor.
New plugin: Time Zone manual override.
New translatable strings: stars and nebulae.
Selected plugins loaded by default.
Fixed on change of sky culture. (LP: #595914).
Fixed clearing of single constellation selection. (LP: #600889).
Fixed constellation art engine, removing distortion of images. (LP: #629405).
Changed GUI styles (all dialogs now use "Title Bar", the two different tabbed widget implementations are styled consistently).
Changed Solar System engine, allowing "Comets" and "Minor planets" to be handled as classes of objects separate from "Planets".
Translatable plugin names, descriptions and some other strings.
Oculars plugin: now uses a configuration file instead of SQL (LP: #596453).
Oculars plugin: added manual override of keyboard shortcuts (LP: #514530).
Oculars plugin: CCD sensors formula fixed (LP: #604975).
Satellites plugin: added new orbit prediction engine.
Satellites plugin: added trajectory visualization.
Satellites plugin: fixed problems leaving satellite TLEs out of date (LP: #616627).
Satellites plugin: can now update TLEs from a local file.
Satellites plugin: satellite visibility can now be saved from satellites dialog.
Telescope control plugin: fixed bad serial port names on Windows (LP: #596167).
Telescope control plugin: fixed telescopes disappearance on startup (LP: #608533).
Telescope control plugin: added manual equinox/epoch override (LP: #608544).
Various rendering problems resolved (LP: #569701, #596678, #641855, #642990, #666837, #629405, #591971, #615006, #671633).
SQLite dependency dropped. The Qt SQLite driver no longer needs to be packaged with Stellarium.

Barry

[Visionoz]

Barry

Is it necessary to uninstall the current "running" version first before installing the latest version?

Cheers
Bill

[Barrykgerdes]

It depends on what version you have although it is best to uninstall the old version or at least change the name of the folder it is in if you want to keep it.

It may also be advisable to remove the old config.ini and any entries in the satellite folder both in your documents and settings (user area).

I always install a new version in a new folder but try to keep my old config.ini if possible.

By the way make sure your new version is 0.10.6.1

Barry

[eclipse]

Although obviously the weather is terrible now, tried the new version with simulator EQMOD and cannot get it to work, either with or without stellarium scope software. Otherwise the new version loads very very quickly and seems impressive. Are there any tricks I need to try to enable computer control of my mount? I read in the forum that there does not seem to be any ASCOM direct drivers in the software.
Thanks Barry.

[Barrykgerdes]

There are no drivers for the EQ6 yet but there is an article in "Projects and Articles" software and computers on using stellarium with Heq5 and Heq6. Stellarium can't directly support ASCOM due to GPL rules.

Barry

[eclipse]

Thanks for the information, I will give it a go.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

Here is an update link to get patches to stellarium version 0.10.6.1 to see the latest development version.
http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org/stellarium/uploads/stellarium-patch0106.zip
This link will be regularly updated as the current development continues.

For Fun here is a test patch to see a development version of Stellarium using the DSS plates.
http://sarcasmogerdes.dyndns.org/stellarium/uploads/stellarium-toast-patch.zip

Barry

[OneOfOne]

Just downloaded the new version and installed it on my new computer which I bought on Friday, i7 870 with 8Gb and W7 64bit. It works a treat! Much better than my old single core pentium 2.6GHz. One thing I made sure of was to NOT get an ATI graphics engine...I have enough headaches getting other things running. Stellarium didn't have any.

Great job guys :)

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi all
Stellarium is about to have an update to version 0.11.0. Many things have changed since the last release 12 months ago.

For a preview of version 0.11.0 download

http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/uploads/stellarium-0.11.0-win32.exe

Barry

[ZeroID]

Nice one Barry, thanks for all your hard work. Is there a list of the changesmade ? I notice some screen object identifier changes which is very nice and it seems to load up quickly. Mind you I did it seperately from previous version so no catalog updates.
When is the final release planned for ? I'm running this version on a spare PC. Won't install anywhere else till the final version is out.

[stephenb]

Thanks Barry. I've loaded it onto my new PC build and it runs beautifully.

[Visionoz]

Barry

I did enquire of you in the past about not getting Stellarium to work with my SiTech controlled G11 mount - it's working seamlessly now with Stellarium

Not sure if this is the right place to post this - but since it's related to Stellarium I'd thought it best to post here anyway - hope you don't mind - delete this post if it's inappropriate here

For those interested I've used Stellarium with my now working SiTech Servo controller with my Losmandy G11 mount and the it's the current latest version with Stellarium Scope as well in order to connect to the ASCOM 6 SiTech driver - all running on i7 chipped Win7 64bit 16GB RAM, SSD HD AstroPC and Nvidia hi-end video card

The usual Ctrl-1, Ctrl-3 & Ctrl-5 works as advertised

It's singing along!!:thumbsup:

HTH
Cheers
Bill

[Barrykgerdes]

Version 0.11.1 was released last week. It has many bug fixes and some new features

0.11.1 [2011-11-04]
Bug fix release.
Added:
- new skyculture: Arabic
- new moons and rings (LP: #815484, #834336)
- new translations for landscapes and sky cultures (LP: #849292)
- possibility to observate geo-orbiting satellites (LP: #837274)
- new cities (LP: #856343, #860206)
Fixed:
- misspelling on a star name (LP: #884795)
- location window: map pointer position is updated on longitude/latitude change.
- location window: fixed checking "Use as default" changing the name of the selected location to "New Location" (LP: #881613)
- Solar System Editor plug-in: a bug in the parsing of MPC lists: the epoch's Julian Day value was wrong by 0.5 JD (LP: #836839)
- Solar System Editor plug-in: crash while trying to browse for a local file (LP: #837396)
- Historical Supernovae plug-in: a bug in plug-in name (LP: #803157)
- Historical Supernovae plug-in: a bug in selected instead of nearby stars (LP: #835815)
- doesn't load localised description of skyculture/landscape if applanguage=system_default (LP: #845924)
- add/remove landscapes dialog bug in OSX 10.6.8 (LP: #812008)
- horizon line setting not saved (LP: #811945)
- orbital period totally wrong for Himalia (LP: #806174)
- flag_show_fps = false & flag_show_fov = flase (LP: #728294)
- 0.11.0 will crash if a landscape is selected with misspelled planet name (LP: #835422)
- crash on selecting off-Earth location in the Location window (LP: #834886)
- 0.11.0 crashes when switching language while location window is open (LP: #824936)
- 0.11.0 crashes when trying using custom distortion file (LP: #871313)

Barry

[ballaratdragons]

I downloaded the new 0.11.1 last night (in the hope that it is better) and I still don't like it.
I have uninstalled it already.

The Southern sky is still really badly represented.

For example (and to be fair I'll use a common large DSO's), Tarantula Nebula.

Can you see it in Stellarium? No.
Is it shown on the map? No.
Does it appear even if I zoom waayyy into it? No.
It has a star marking its location when you bring up NGC2070.

Let's try another even more Massive common DSO, Carina Nebula.

Can you see it in Stellarium? No.
Is it shown on the map? No.
Does it appear even if I zoom waayyy into it? No.
It doesn't show much of anything when you go to NGC3372.

Try a few more popular southern objects. Same results.

I'll stick with Cartes du Ciel. :thumbsup:

[Barrykgerdes]

The nebulae shown in Stellarium are anly superimposed textures. If there are no textures of the object there will not be a display. The particular nebulae you mention are not seen from the northern sky so they are not in the default package.

If you wish to see those two particular nebulae in stellarium down load the auxiliary textures package. Try this and follow the instructions. This package contains textures from some of our IIS members adapted to Stellarium, NGC3372, LMC, SMC, NGC2070, IC2944, IC4628, NGC104, NGC5128, NGC5139, rho ophiuchus, NGC6744 and many others

http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/uploads/stellariumnebulae-1.ZIP


In the future there will be textures of the whole sky from the digital sky survey

If you would like to see what this will be like You can download this patch to version 0.10 and follow the instructions


http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/uploads/stellarium-toast-patch.zip


Barry

[multiweb]

Barry, how do you connect the G11 to stellarium?

[Barrykgerdes]

With a cable

Barry

PS do you have Gemini?

[Barrykgerdes]

Seriously

Stellarium uses the same protocol to drive the Gemini as an LX200. However there is a specific Losmandy G11 driver listed in Stellarium.

It connects to the telescope via a com port (or USB/RS232) and can use any Com port number.

The cable is a 4pin (RJ22)
Pin 1 N/C
Pin 2 Gnd
Pin 3 RxD
Pin 4 TxD

A LX200 cable is not suitable you will need to make your own

Trevor uses GCC but I have tested it with Stellarium. No bother! I also wrote a program in Qbasic to drive it with a different set of catalogues.

Barry

[multiweb]

Cool - I already have a USB to serial plugged into the RS-232 port. That's the way I connect the GCC and the Gemini.net ascom driver on COM4. So setting COM4 in stellarium will work. That simple?

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Marc

If you already have ASCOM you can also use Stellarium scope (Not part of Stellarium). But ASCOM is not necessary for a direct connection Stellarium.

You can use any port up to at least COM16 but depending on the version of stellarium the window may not scroll past COM 4. Just type the number in the window.

Some programs can only use COM 1 or COM 2 so you may need to re-configure the Port to COM 1 or 2

However it looks like you already have the cable connected for GCC using COM 4, so Just run Stellarium and nominate COM 4. Oh! I forgot, Make sure that the Telescope drive module is configured from the plug in window to run at start up.

Barry

[multiweb]

No worries - thanks. Will try next time out. :thumbsup: