STAR Atlas:PRO™ version release notes

Note: The following notes use [square brackets] to indicate a STAR Atlas:PRO menu command button.

The following example shows three command buttons that need to be selected one after the other. The first command button starts from the main floating menu unless otherwise noted.

[Chart Prefs]►[Catalogue Selection Method]►[Auto Mode] 

STAR Atlas:PRO Version 6.0 Release Notes

New in Version 6 is the 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.

Meridian, Ecliptic, and Horizon now displayed on Polar Charts.

The celestial lines that represent the Meridian, the Ecliptic Line and the local Horizon are now displayed in Polar Charting mode assisting in orientation and horizon limits.

STAR Atlas:PRO Version 5.3 Release Notes

SKY:Lab® Astronomy Software has released Version 5.3 of STAR Atlas:PRO™. a new version with new features and important program improvements. The following release notes use [square brackets] to indicate a within STAR Atlas:PRO menu command button.

[Chart Prefs]►[Catalogue Selection Method]►[Auto Mode] 

This example shows three command buttons that need to be selected one after the other. The first command button starts from the main floating menu unless otherwise noted.

New Celestron Telescope Drivers.

New telescopes drivers for the following Celestron Telescopes are now inbuilt into STAR Atlas:PRO.

STAR Atlas:PRO Driver		Compatible Telescopes
Celestron NexStar 8 / 11 GPS		Celestron NexStar 5i / 8i ( with iComp hand control ) Celestron NexStar 8 / 9.25 / 11 GPS ( firmware V2.2 or later) Celestron CGE Series Celestron AS Advanced Series
Celestron NexStar 5 / 8		Celestron NexStar 5 / 8
Original Celestron GT		Celestron GT Models  60 / 80 / 114 / 4 (manufactured prior to Dec-2001)
Celestron GT		Celestron GT Models 60 / 80 / 114 / 4 / 130  (new/current series)

Telescope Control - Slew below Horizon.

Updated NGC and IC Catalogues.

Improved AUTO MODE charting features.

In version 5.3, when the Magnitude Limit is set to [No Limit], objects with unknown Magnitudes are displayed regardless of the Chart Field of View. This is an improvement over prior versions and allows you to see all deep sky objects on a chart regardless of their brightness level and regardless of the chart's Field Of View size. The display of Stars is still set automatically by STAR Atlas:PRO so that the chart does not become impossibly cluttered with stars. As you Zoom In fainter Stars are displayed. To try out this improvement, use STAR Atlas:PRO to display a chart of say 30 Degrees Field Of View, then choose [Mag. Limit]►[No Limit]. When you return to the chart it should display a large number of deep sky objects.

Alt / Az Grid no longer is automatically set ON.

The Altitude / Azimuth Grid is no longer automatically set on, each time Horizon Mode is selected. Instead the Alt / Az grid is now only displayed when set ON by the user.

Locating a object doesn't always chart the object.

Star Labels.

The huge number of Star Names in STAR Atlas:PRO have resulted in the the All Sky Chart becoming cluttered with Star labels. Star Labels are no longer displayed by default when the All Sky Chart is displayed improving the chart's overall appearance and readability. You may still enable the Star Labels if you desire. Star Names are still easily retrieved when you are displaying the [Sky Chart] just right-click on the star and choose [Identify] from the popup menu.

The Horizon View will still display Star Labels by default.

STAR Atlas:PRO Version 5.2 release notes

The following text uses the square brackets [a button] to represent a button command or a sequence of buttons [button 1] → [button 2]

Contents

New Daylight Colour Scheme
Improved collection of Star Names
Bright Comets now displayed on Sky Chart
Easier access to download Comet Orbital Elements
Improved Argo Navis™ driver
Improved Meade Telescope Driver
High Resolution Postscript Charts
Precessing Telescope Co-ordinates
Minor Corrections and Improvements

New Daylight Colour Scheme Since it's inception STAR Atlas:PRO has maintained it's red and black colour scheme to suit dark adaptation. However with STAR Atlas:PRO being used more and more at the desktop a new colour scheme is introduced in this version. The new Day Mode colour scheme consists of a mixture of grey colours similar to those of typical software applications that run on Windows™.

How to toggle between Night and Day mode colour schemes.
1. Select [Chart Prefs] from the main floating menu.
2. At top right of the Chart Preferences and Program Settings window you will see the two new buttons, [Night] and [Day], select either to suit your preference.

Improved collection of Star Names The number of common Star Names is greatly increased resulting in improved star labelling and a new easy way to lookup and locate Stars by name.

To Locate a Star by name.
1. Choose [Locate] from the main floating menu.
2. Choose menu number [57] Star Names.
3. Choose [Find Star] from the Star Names window that appears.
4. From the quick locator buttons along the top of the window, choose the letter that beginning letter of the Star you are looking for. As an example, if you are looking for the Star called Rigel, click the [R] button and then all star names beginning with the letter 'R' are listed in the window.  You can then double-click to select Rigel from the list, you are returned to the main Star Names window where you can click [MAP] to locate the Star position.

Bright Comets now displayed on Sky Chart STAR Atlas:PRO's Sky Chart now displays Comets brighter than Magnitude 10, making it easy to spot the brightest Comets in the Sky.

Easier access to download Comet Orbital Elements Easier access is now provided to STAR Atlas:PRO's Comet Elements Import screen, which may now be accessed from the On-Line Data menu that appears when you right click on a chart.

How to download Comet Elements
1. Right-click on a chart to display the popup-menu.
2. select On-Line Data from the menu.
3. then select Load Comet Elements from the On-Line Data menu list

the next step depends of which version of STAR Atlas:PRO you have
STAR Atlas:PRO Advanced Edition:
4. Click [SAP/INET Connect]  and STAR Atlas:PRO will automatically download, process the Comet Orbital Elements file and then return to the chart.

STAR Atlas:PRO Standard Edition:
4. click [Connect using Web Browser], this will start your web browser and automatically retrieve the required Comet Orbital Elements file from the Minor Planetary Centre. You must then choose File->Save As from your web browser and save the Comet Orbital Elements file as a text file. Then locate the file with the [...] button that appears on the STAR Atlas:PRO window.
5. Click the [Process Elements file] button to process the new orbital elements.

Improved Argo Navis™ driver (NGC-superMax™) A new feature for the Argo Navis™ displays Internal Unit Temperature, Encoder Step Positions, Internal Date and Time and other information. In addition you may now download celestial objects stored in STAR Atlas:PRO's Observation Planner into the Argo Navis User Catalog memory. Then take the Argo Navis out for observing and have access to all of the objects you've stored in STAR Atlas:PRO's Observation Planner. You can also print a list of the objects downloaded into the Argo Navis.

How to display the Argo Navis Internal Temperature and Encoder Step Positions
1. Choose  [ Scope ] from the the main floating menu.
2. then choose [ Connect ] to make a connection with the Argo Navis.
3. Once connected, select [ Argo Navis Panel ] from the Scope Control Toolbar (menu) that appears after STAR Atlas:PRO makes a successful connection to the Argo Navis. The Argo Navis Panel window that appears automatically displays the Internal Unit Temperature, Altitude and Azimuth Encoder Step Positions and Internal Date and Time. The values display are for the current instant and are updated if you click the [Refresh] button.

How to download Observation Planner Objects into the Argo Navis™.
1. Choose  [ Scope ] from the the main floating menu,
2. then choose [ Connect ] to make a connection with the Argo Navis.
3. Once connected, select [ Argo Navis Panel ] from the Scope Control Toolbar (menu) that appears after STAR Atlas:PRO makes a successful connection to the Argo Navis. The Argo Navis Panel window will then appear and automatically display the current R.A. and DEC. values along with Internal Unit Temperature and other values. Note: the command buttons are disabled whenever communications between STAR Atlas:PRO and the Argo Navis are in progress.
4. Choose the [Export] button to start the download process. Following the instructions that are displayed by STAR Atlas:PRO, which tell you how to setup the Argo Navis so that it is ready to accept the download of objects from STAR Atlas:PRO (the lower part of the STAR Atlas:PRO screen contains the Argo Navis User Catalog command section, each command is explained in the following table ).

User Catalog commands.

[Purge]	Removes all objects from the User Catalog in the Argo Navis.
[Export]	Downloads all objects from the STAR Atlas:PRO Observation Planner into the Argo Navis User Catalog.
[Print]	Prints a list of the objects downloaded to the Argo Navis User Catalog.
[Preview]	Print Preview a list of the objects downloaded into the Argo Navis User Catalog.
[Refresh]	Updates the displayed User Catalog values (see next table).

Displayed User Catalog values.

Free User Catalog Memory (bytes)	The number of bytes of available in the Argo Navis User Catalog Pool.
Argo Navis User Catalog (count)	The number of celestial objects present into the Argo Navis User Catalog.
Observation Planner (count)	The number of celestial objects present in STAR Atlas:PRO's Observation Planner.

New Default BAUD Rate Setting for Argo Navis Driver.
When you select the Argo Navis telescope driver in [Chart Prefs] → [Telescope Setup] → [Select Driver], the Baud Rate now defaults to 38400 (this is the manufacturers default Baud rate setting for each of the Argo Navis Serial Ports).

Improved Meade Telescope Driver STAR Atlas:PRO's inbuilt Meade LX200 driver now supports Meade's High and Low Precision Telescope pointing modes.

For further information on High and Low Precision Telescope pointing modes, consult your Meade Telescope manual.

Low Precision Mode provides Telescope Pointing accuracy to 1/10th of an arc-minute in Right Ascension and to the nearest 1 arc-minute in Declination.
High Precision Mode provides Telescope Pointing accuracy to 1 arc-second in both Right Ascension and Declination.

How to toggle High & Low Precision Telescope Pointing Modes.
1. Choose  [Scope] from the main floating menu
2. Choose [Options] from the Scope Control menu that is displayed after a successful connection is made to the Telescope.
3. Click the [ High / Low Precision Mode ] button to toggle STAR Atlas:PRO and the Telescope between High and Low Precision Pointing modes.

Note: Each time STAR Atlas:PRO is started, it assumes your Telescope is set to Low Precision Mode.

High Resolution Postscript Charts STAR Atlas:PRO's new Postscript feature allows you to output the displayed chart to a Postscript file.
The Postscript star chart may then be imported by a variety of other software applications to produce high resolution Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files for printing, viewing, and easy publication. Applications that can import Postscript files include GSview (see http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/ ), Adobe Distiller and Jaws PDF Creator.

How to generate a Postscript File for the displayed chart
1. Choose [ Print ] from the main floating menu
2. choose [ Postscript File ]
(Note: STAR Atlas:PRO will then generate a postscript output file called "starpro.ps" , you can choose another file name and/or folder to store the file).
3. Use a Postscript compatible software application that can open Postscript files to print, display or export the chart to an Adobe PDF file.

Precessing Telescope Co-ordinates Telescopes and Digital Setting Circles (including the Argo Navis™) may report their pointing co-ordinates for the Epoch of the instant in time when the telescope is being used, which do not match the J2000.0 Epoch of STAR Atlas:PRO charts. This results in some inaccuracy when plotting the pointing position of the telescope on a STAR Atlas:PRO chart.

Applying precession to Telescope Co-ordinates.
1. Choose [Scope] from the main floating menu
2. Choose [Options] from the Scope Control menu
3. Enable [√] Precess Telescope co-ordinates option.

Minor Corrections and Improvements
- Celestial objects with a Magnitude of 0.0 (zero) are no longer erroneously displayed in Sky Chart mode.
- Some Time Zones located West of Greenwich, were miscalculated when selecting the Observer's Location from the list of choices.
- The Planetary database now displays the current actual distance to each Planet in kilometres.
- The Interval between Position Updates setting in [Chart Prefs]→[Telescope Settings] function is improved.

STAR Atlas:PRO Version 5.0

New Charting Modes

STAR Atlas:PRO now moves to a full featured Planetarium program providing the user with correctly oriented Horizon Views and Full-Sky Views of their local Sky. Improvements to the Local Settings also allow the user to select their observing location from hundreds of preset world locations.

Charts may still be displayed in Polar orientation, where Charts are plotted with the observer's Celestial Pole always pointing upward, while the new Horizon Mode displays Star Charts with the observer's Zenith always pointing upward and with charts oriented to the local horizon.

Planetary Data and Ephemerides.

There is now a great deal of calculated Planetary data including distance to planet, phase, elongation, apparent angular diameter, visual magnitude, even atmospheric composition.

Each Planetary Body now includes Planetary Data from JPL/NASA, that describes characteristics of each Planet. The current Phase of the Moon and inferior Planets is also displayed. A Printable Ephemerides of the Planets can also be browsed or printed for any instant in time.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot & Galilean Moons.

For the current instant in time, or for any other date and time you wish to set, STAR Atlas:PRO will display the positions of Jupiter's four brightest moons and the Transit Times of Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

Rise, Set and Transit times.

Rise, Set and Transit times are now displayed for all astronomical objects on their information popup window.

Improved Astronomical Databases and Object Location.

STAR Atlas:PRO's Astronomical Database Manager is unparalleled when it comes to locating astronomical objects.

Astronomical Twilight and Astronomy Clocks.

The time of Astronomical Twilight is now displayed on the new Astronomy Clocks window which also displays Universal Time, Local Time, and also permits you to record an instant in time.

Observer Location Setup.

Now includes the geographical location of hundreds of locations world-wide and also accounts for the Observer's height above sea level when calculating Rise and Set times.

Improved Support for Laptop Computers.

Improved screens for better legibility and an Extensive range of keyboard shortcut commands.

New Instuction Manual.

STAR Atlas:PRO's new Instruction Manual now available in Web Browser format (HTML).

Other Features.

• A new Object Filter is available to only display certain types of Astronomical Objects.

• Astronomical Twilight Time is now calculated and displayed.

• New additions to the Popular Astronomical Objects list.

• Observer's height above sea level accounted for in planetary calculations.

• Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (DEC.) position displayed for pointer position.

• Improved Status display panel with color coded mode and settings indicators.

• The ESC key now exits from all screens, in addition to aborting any chart currently being drawn.

• Chart Panning controls improved.

STAR Atlas:PRO Version 4.0

  ASCOM COMPLIANT TELESCOPE CONTROL STAR Atlas:PRO V4.0 supports the ASCOM standard for Telescope Control.   See the ASCOM web site at http://www.ascom-standards.org for more information. Consequently, STAR Atlas:PRO now supports the following Telescopes.

• ACL-based telescopes 
• Astro-Physics GTO mounts
• Generic LX200 type (including Bartels and FS2)
• Meade LX200 and Autostar
• Celestron NexStar 5 and 8
• Celestron NexStar 11 GPS
• Celestron NexStar 114 GT
• Celestron Ultima 2000
• Vixen SkySensor 2000 PC

TELESCOPE DRIVERS STAR Atlas:PRO retains it's own integrated drivers for the following Telescopes, and introduces new commands for the LX200 16" Telescope.

Meade LX200 and Autostar

Meade LX200 16" (New)

Argo Navis DSC

Sky Commander DSC

IMPROVED TELESCOPE CONTROL PANEL (TCP) STAR Atlas:PRO's TCP for Meade and Autostar Telescopes has been improved and now includes additional controls for the LX200 16" Telescope.

CHARTING IMPROVEMENTS There is now much improvement to Star Colours using the Star's B-V Colour Index. Show me.  The New Pixel Graphics Option provides pin-point Stars on Star Charts. Show me. Chart Background Colour can be set to any colour. Chart may be rotated, Flipped, and Mirrored. Show Me.

DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY (DSS) IMAGE INTERFACE You may now choose from which STScI Deep Sky Survey to extract a DSS Image.

USER INTERFACE IMPROVEMENTS Version 4 presents several new functions and many new keyboard controls to facilitate faster access to STAR Atlas:PRO commands. Charts may now rotated, flipped and mirrored.

MORE DEEP SKY OBJECTS Version 4 includes the following new astronomical catalogues, bringing the total count of objects to 20,299,785 (Advanced Edition) and 1,634,304 objects (Standard Edition).

VII/202 Globular Clusters in the Milky Way

VII/227 Supernova Remnants

VII/5A Star Clusters & Associations Show me a list of all STAR Atlas:PRO catalogues

NEW OBJECT LOOKUP SCREEN STAR Atlas:PRO maintains it's database menu of Astronomical Catalogues, so that you may browse, list, and search individual catalogues. In addition, Version 4 allows you to locate objects by their catalogue designation, making it simple to locate objects where you already know the objects designation.

NEW AUTO-SELECTION MATRIX A new option, enabled by default, allows STAR Atlas:PRO to decide which astronomical objects to display from which catalogue, and what limiting magnitude to apply, based on the chart field of view. This new option complements STAR Atlas:PRO's existing options for manually selecting catalogues to display or displaying catalogue data based on the chart's field of view.

IMPROVED CHART PRINTING Users may now choose to save the current chart to a bitmap file or have the chart printed to the printer. The printer dialog box is displayed when printing charts, allowing users to choose suitable printer settings before the chart is printed.