STAR Atlas:PRO™ version 6 release notes

New in Version 6 is a feature that tracks the pointing position of your telescope with a reticle that "glides" across the chart in real-time when you move your Telescope, making it very easy to "home in" on deep sky objects. This feature is a vast improvement over prior versions and is particularly useful to telescope owners with Digital Setting Circles and robotic telescope owners alike.

There is a new Telescope Control Panel for Meade Telescopes that provides comprehensive support for Meade telescopes including new commands for the LX200 GPS and Autostar II Telescopes, improved Celestron drivers and many other program improvements such as:- the Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.) position of the mouse pointer are now displayed in the title bar of STAR Atlas:PRO, there is a big improvement to STAR Atlas:PRO's Program Configuration and Settings screens that makes it easier to configure STAR Atlas:PRO.

New Meade Telescope Control Panel

STAR Atlas:PRO's new improved Telescope Control Panel for Meade Telescopes provides comprehensive support for telescope settings and configuration and includes new commands to support the LX200 GPS and Autostar II Telescopes.

To demonstrate this new feature.

1. Start STAR Atlas:PRO.
2. Connect to your Telescope - click [Scope] or press Alt-F2 on keyboard.
3. click [Control Panel] or Alt-F7 on keyboard.
4. the Telescope Control Panel is displayed and gives you complete control over your Meade Telescope settings and adjustments, including Slew Rates, precise Focusing, many other settings.

Animated Reticle follows Telescope Position.

A must have improvement for computerised Telescope owners is STAR Atlas:PRO's new feature that tracks the position of your telescope with a reticle that "glides" across the displayed chart. This improvement makes it possible to monitor your telescope position in real-time and is particularly attractive to telescope owners with Digital Setting Circles.

To demonstrate this new feature.

1. Start STAR Atlas:PRO.
2. Connect to your Telescope - click [Scope].
3. click [Options] and choose the [Cross Hair] reticle.
4. Set the [Interval between Position Updates] to 1 second.
5. click [Close].
6. choose [Track Scope] from the menu.
7. now move your telescope and notice the Cross Hair reticle moves in effective real-time.

Special Note for Meade Telescope owners.

Meade Telescope owners should use STAR Atlas:PRO's new Meade Telescope Control Panel to set their telescopes into High Precision Pointing Mode for best position monitoring results.

To set High Precision Telescope pointing mode.

1. Start STAR Atlas:PRO.
2. Connect to your Telescope - click [Scope].
3. click [Control Panel] from the scope control menu.
4. click Pointing Precision - [Toggle].
5. the current Telescope Precision Mode is displayed to right of the [Toggle] button, you may need to click [Toggle] again to toggle the correct precision mode, make sure "HIGH PRECISION" is selected.

Note: When STAR Atlas:PRO starts it assumes your telescope is set to "LOW PRECISION" mode. 

Another improvement for all Telescope owners with Goto capabilities are the [Slew to Mouse] and [GOTO] commands.

Both these commands now re-position the Reticle without redrawing the chart. Slewing to a location near the edge of the chart or to a location not located on the current chart demands that a new chart is displayed.

To demonstrate the improved [Slew to Mouse] command.

1. Start STAR Atlas:PRO.
2. Connect to your Telescope.
3. choose a location not too close to the the edge of the chart and Right-mouse click.
4. Choose [Slew to Mouse] from the Telescope Menu.

Note STAR Atlas:PRO now moves the Reticle to the location you slewed the telescope without redrawing the star chart.

To demonstrate the improved [GOTO] command.

5. Right-mouse click on an celestial object not to close the the edge of the star chart.
6. Choose [Identify] from the popup menu.
7. Choose [GOTO] (bottom right) from the Astronomical Catalogue Data screen that appears.

STAR Atlas:PRO now moves the Reticle and Telescope to the celestial object you selected without redrawing the chart (except when you slew near the edge of the chart, in which case the chart will re-centre itself).

Mouse Pointer and Telescope R.A. Dec. Position displayed in title bar.

The Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.) of the mouse pointer are now displayed in the STAR Atlas:PRO window title bar. Move your mouse around charts to see the R.A. and Dec. position of the mouse displayed in the title bar.

Telescope owners will also see the the R.A. and Dec. positions of their telescopes reported in the STAR Atlas:PRO title bar, when connected to the 'scope.

Program Settings and Configuration combined into a single screen.

STAR Atlas:PRO's Settings and Configuration section now combines the Program Settings screen and the Telescope Setup screens into one easy to use program window.

To demonstrate this new feature.

1. click [Chart Prefs]
2. click [Program Settings and Configuration]

You will now see that all prior Configuration and Settings screen (including Telescope Setup) have been combined into one simple easy to use screen with a Filing Tab style menu across top.

Rotate CCD Camera Reticle.

This new option permits you to rotate the CCD Camera's Field of View Reticle to match any orientation.

To demonstrate this new feature.

1. Start STAR Atlas:PRO.
2. Connect to your Telescope - click [Scope].
3. click [Options] and choose [CCD Field].
4. click on your Telescope.
5. click on your CCD camera.
5. set the CCD Frame Rotation value to 45 degrees.
6. click [Draw FOV].
7. click [Center on Scope] and note the CCD Frame is rotated at the angle you specified.

Celestron Telescope Drivers.

Improved algorithms now provide better pointing accuracy for STAR Atlas:PRO's Celestron 8/11 GPS driver.

Erase Comet Trails.

Comet Trails may now be erased from a chart. After a Comet Trail is displayed right click on the chart and choose [Erase Comet Trail] from the popup menu.

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