(c) Skyhound

SkyTools 3 Standard and Pro Edition Updates

Latest version: SkyTools 3.2l

This update fixes various bugs and user interface issues .  This update includes all previous fixes.

Support for SkyTools 3 Has Ended as of January 2022
Your software will continue to work as before, but there will be no more software updates. The current comets, minor planets, and novae/supernovae observing lists are no longer being updated on or servers. 

Thank you for your support, and we hope that you will consider upgrading to SkyTools 4. It is the result of many years of work, and we believe it is improved in every way.

Update Manually

If connected to the Internet you will be prompted from within SkyTools to download the latest update automatically and no further action is necessary.  To update manually, close SkyTools, download the update file from the link below and run it.  

Download SkyTools update (10 MB)    For Standard and Pro Editions only!

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2l

  • All DSS image downloads were failing due to changes on the various servers. The STSci server has been restored to working order. 

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2k

  • Observing lists were not properly exporting/importing planetary satellights. 

  • Very long comet labels on the charts were not appearing, the trail function would fail, and it was possible for a crash top occur.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2j

  • The Registration and Feedback functions stopped working because of changes to our web site. They have been updated. Similar changes at the Minor Planet Center (MPC) interfered with downloading comet and minor planet data. This too has been fixed. Fixes could not be made to the MPC downloads for those using Windows XP due to a limitation of that operating system.  

  • A occasional crash in the NightBar for locations near the equator has been fixed

  • The R.A. for the constellation Phoenix has been updated.

  • The R.A. of the telescope should no longer disappear on the Real Time tab

  • Only one axis of an Open Cluster needs to be entered for a supplemental database object

  • Other minor fixes have been made

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2i

  • Fixed a bug in version 3.2h that caused problems when creating a new log entry.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2h

  • If a "current" observing list was displayed in the Nightly Planner, it sometimes would need to be manually refreshed to show the correct data after updating the "current" observing lists from the web

  • After editing an observing list name/description it was no longer possible to set/clear check marks on the Nightly Planner

  • The local altitude of the moon was incorrect for the exact time of each lunar phase

  • The "a" key now initiates the distance measurement tool on the Overhead Sky, Naked Eye, and telescope/binocular Finder charts

  • An error would be generated for some Supplemental Deep Sky objects when both the major and minor axes were not entered, even though only one should have sufficed because the object is round

  • Sorting an observing list on the Alternative Designation column when CD star catalog designations were displayed could cause a crash

  • Entering IC numbers without a space between IC and the the number is now supported

  • Various other minor and very rare bugs were fixed

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2g

  • A change was made to make SkyTools compatible with the latest Celestron ASCOM drivers.

  • It is now possible to add more than one "J" star (e.g. J152830.6-180217) to an observing list.

  • Using the +/- buttons on a simulation chart to alter the Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude no longer resets the seeing and daylight saving time selection.

  • Various other minor bugs were fixed.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2f

  • A bug was fixed in the Sync feature. Each time a Sync was performed, duplicates were being created in the eyepiece pool and saved chart schemes. This could slow down the Sync process, and if Sync was used enough times, an error would occur. This update fixes the Sync bugs and removes duplicates from the eyepiece pool and saved chart schemes. 

  • A bug that could cause a crash when Syncing observing lists was fixed. 

  • In some cases on the Object Info dialog for double stars, the star component selection would display the incorrect star after a component star was selected.

  • On the Nightly Planner, in Imaging Mode, the observing list was not properly being filtered after the telescope or camera were changed. 

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2d

  • The DSS image downloads from the Skyview server are now working again.

  • Searching on some WDS identifiers were not returning the proper component star.

  • The double-star splittability rating now works for binoculars as well as telescopes.

  • The cross hairs for reference points (NGP, Zenith, etc) are now sized with respect to the label font, which keeps them from printing too small.

  • A bug in the update installer has been fixed for standard user accounts.

  • Various minor issues have been resolved and small improvements made.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2c

  • The observation status filter on the Nightly Planner and Real Time tools was not always working properly, allowing objects to be displayed that should have been filtered out.

  • Certain diffuse nebulae were producing an error when displayed on charts or in the results of the Database Power Search.

  • Starfield downloads (Standard Edition) were no longer working due to server changes.

  • Various minor issues have been resolved.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2b

  • The tool tips are back. Tool tips appear when you hover your mouse over a control. Changes to later versions of Windows caused them to become unreliable.

  • Under certain conditions the observing list filters sometimes behaved inconsistently when they were changed.

  • The optimum eyepiece for visual detection has been improved for comets.

  • The treatment of airmass, dip, and refraction near the horizon has been improved.

  • The visual difficulty reported for certain bright nebulae has been improved.

  • The eyepiece selected for printed finder charts, when opened from the Nightly Planner, is now the most recent eyepiece used for the chart.

  • The exposure opportunity "blocks" of time were sometimes blank on both the planner and the exposure calculator for stellar objects.

  • Pressing the "k" key on the Nightly Planner will now bring up the observing list keyboard shortcuts.

  • The Thumbnail Viewer now properly redraws when a DSS image is downloaded.

  • When a telescope was set to have an unusual view orientation, the mount alignment tool could display the wrong direction to move the mount.

  • Mouse wheel zoom has been added to the Context Viewer.

  • Editing telescope data when the finder/telescope chart was open could result in corrupted data. The finder chart will now close when the telescope data is edited.

  • Two-part genitive constellation names were not being properly recognized by the Object Requestor.

  • NGC designations with appended letters, such as "NGC 7320C" were not being properly resolved by the Object Requestor.

  • The optimum eyepiece description in the Object Information synopsis was dropping the Barlow magnification.

  • The proper icon (showing an orbit) for long period binary stars was not appearing.

  • The Nightly Optimum Ephemeris "Vis" and "Difficulty" columns were not sorting properly.

  • A change in recent versions of Windows was causing the status text for the position of the mouse on the chart windows to flicker.

  • A change in recent versions of Windows was causing the mouse pointer to change/blink while dragging FOV indicators or views in the chart windows. 

  • The "Force target to be visible" option on the Eyepiece view, View Controls now forces planets, comets, and minor planets to be visible when they are otherwise too faint to be drawn.

  • A maximum font size has been established for the on-screen Events Calendar to avoid overly large text on very high resolution monitors.

  • Various minor issues have been resolved.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2a

  • The visual difficulty estimated for naked eye comets has been improved.

  • RA values were not being properly formatted when displayed in decimal degrees.

  • Changing the air temperature units on the Exposure Calculator and/or entering negative vales for C could result in spurious results.

  • The camera label on the Nightly Planner now displays the magnification of the selected focal extender/reducer to three decimal places.

  • In some cases the size of of a large extended object in pixels, as it appears on an image, was being miscalculated.

  • A crash could occur when entering long file names for observing list export files.

  • A crash could occur when sorting an observing list via the alternative designation column when the "DC" dark nebula designation was displayed there.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.2

  • Support has been added for delivery via download.

  • The help system has been expanded and various corrections have been made.

  • A new Upgrade tab has been added to the SkyTools Standard Edition Preferences dialog that can be used to streamline upgrading to the Professional Edition. The Professional Edition upgrade is now available as an optional download.

  • The icon for the SkyTools Preferences dialog on the Planner tool bar has been changed in order to help it stand out better.

  • A group selection has been added to the Edit Image Link and Description dialog for the purpose of moving an image link from one group to another.

  • A bug has been fixed that was adding a copy of each eyepiece added to a telescope to the bottom of the eyepiece pool.

  • A bug was fixed that would sometimes lead to duplicate Chart Schemes; existing charts schemes weren't always being properly indicated as the current selection.

  • Motion Trace on charts: the time interval now uses the minutes selection properly.

  • Deleting "All Objects" from the Supplemental Stellar Database no longer deletes unused objects from other supplemental databases.

  • The Class and Constellation filters were inadvertently disabled in the last update on the Real Time tool in imaging mode. They have been re-enabled.

  • The Esc key now closes the Download DSS Image dialogs.

  • The Image group on the Object Information dialog now defaults to the last group that was selected.

  • Printed finder charts now correctly display the star size key for the Eyepiece view, rather than for the naked eye view.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1h

  • New feature: the Observing List menu now has a Export Observing List selection. This function exports the objects in your observing list, as displayed on the screen, to a file. This file is meant to be read by other programs. Formats supported are a simple text file or the SkySafari format. Note that this feature only exports objects, not the object data, nor any of the calculations. SkySafari users should consult their manual for import instructions. Some exported objects may not be recognized by SkySafari. In some cases this may cause all of your observing lists to disappear in SkySafari. Should this happen, remove the SkyTools file from the SkySafari folder.

  • The View Control settings for the currently defined binoculars were being reset each time a new telescope was added.

  • Moving the object class column to another position was scrambling the column display on printed observing lists.

  • Various enhancements and minor bug fixes have been made to the observing list filtering. 

  • The Telescope Report now suggests eyepieces by focal length rather than magnification.

  • Constellations now have a magnitude attached to them that is used to more reliably estimate their naked eye visibility; the constellation  synopses have been enhanced.

  • The constellation identification displayed in the status area for the position of the mouse cursor could sometimes be incorrect near a border.

  • Supernovae and Novae magnitudes were not always being updated correctly when new data became available via the Current List.

  • The stars would sometimes disappear when the chart was changed to another that used a different style of stars. 

  • Special Events tool, search for minor planet oppositions: some minor planets that were brighter than the selected magnitude limit were not being listed in the results.

  • The prompt to back up your data now waits for 30 days when set to remind you to back up every month. Previously it would remind you on the first of each month, no matter how many days had passed. 

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1g

  • A memory issue was fixed that could potentially lead to instability and crashing while using the Overhead Sky, Naked Eye, or Telescope/Binocular Simulation charts.

  • The Synopsis for Jupiter was sometimes showing events from the next night as if they were for the current night.

  •  A bug was fixed that affected the target of a chart opened from a planetary phenomenon event.

  • Sometimes when the files for download from within SkyTools were updated it would take up to 24 hours before the change became available.

  •  Some planetary nebula PK numbers were being displayed with the wrong sign in in some parts of the program. E.g.  PK 144-6.1 rather than the correct PK 144+6.1.

  • Some Bayer designations were not showing up in the designation search. Examples were Alpha Cap or Beta Cep -- anything with a constellation abbreviation that ended in a "p".

  • Skymarks were not printing on some charts.

  • Open clusters from the Supplemental Database were not using the correct fill color.

  • When the Context Viewer was printed for a camera FOV the dimensions of the field of view did not always match the true area of the sky.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1f

  • The URL to the current SOHO Sun image has been changed once again due to changes in availability of this image on the web. The latest sun image is downloaded when you target it on a chart or manually via the Object Information window for the Sun. The sun image is displayed on the charts. Note that the sun image isn't drawn on charts with white backgrounds. The orange sun image color choice is no longer available as the downloaded image is now tinted yellow.

  • The telescope selected in the planner now appears as the default when the Print Chart dialog is opened via Print Chart and Print Chart for Each checked Entry when in visual mode.

  • When printing a telescope simulation chart via the Nightly Planner or Real Time tools the last eyepiece selected for that chart is used on the printed chart.

  • The longitude of the Great Red Spot (GRS) on Jupiter has been updated to the most recent value with this update (166 degrees).

  • Deleting the image link to a downloaded DSS image was resulting in an inadvertent error message. Note that deleting the image link to a DSS image will not delete the DSS image file. To do that, use the "Plottable Images" functions.

  • The "show all" option on the Context Viewer was not working properly for printed Context Viewer charts.

  • (Pro) Sub exposure times on the Exposure Calculator are now forced to never be less than the minimum sub exposure set on the dialog.

  • (Pro) A crash could occur on the Planner in imaging mode for very dark sites when a standard UBVRI "B" filter selected.

  • (Pro) A bug in the exposure time calculated to achieve a given SNR has been fixed where an incorrect total exposure time was displayed for sub exposure times shorter than the selected minimum sub exposure time.

  • The altitude column of the optimum ephemeris was displaying incorrect altitudes.

  • Object Information window: resizing the window after changing one of the tabs resulted in the tab area no longer properly resizing along with the rest of the window.

  • The Object Requestor was sometimes returning comets from the supplemental database while browsing the historical database.

  • The Copy to clipboard function was not always working properly for multi-view telescope simulation charts.

  • Current Events: changes to the lon/lat of an existing observing site weren't being reflected in the event results.

  • Minor Planets were not properly being forced to be visible via the "Always display objects of target type" and the "Force Target to be Visible" options on the View Controls. 

  • In some cases the 30-day visual difficulty displayed on the Synopsis was inconsistent with the current difficulty (and incorrect).

  • Various other minor issues have been resolved.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1e

  • The camera FOV displayed on the Interactive Atlas didn't rotate correctly with some combinations of coordinate systems and flip/mirror states. This also affected the position that the off-axis guider was drawn at.

  • Certain minor planets were disappearing from the charts on rare dates.

  • The FOV circles / camera rectangles on the Atlas are now drawn with the line style attributes on the charts (except when they are actively being dragged or rotated).

  • The longitude of the Great Red Spot (GRS) on Jupiter has been updated to the most recent value with this update (160 degrees).

  • The latest sun image download source on the web changed its format again causing the download of the latest sun image to fail. This has been fixed.

  • The latest sun image is now automatically downloaded (silently) whenever the sun is a chart target (unless the latest image is already displayed).

  • A designation label hierarchy issue involving diffuse nebulae was fixed on the charts.

  • The tab selection area did not resize properly on the Object Information window the first time the window was resized.

  • Atmospheric extinction was not working properly for the telescope simulation charts; when positioned very close to the horizon stars that could be seen were missing from the chart. The simple sky background was also being drawn inaccurately near the horizon, again leading to some missing stars.

  • Planetary nebulae with no size data were being drawn on charts without the proper magnitude limit tests.

  • The Mount Alignment Tool is now disabled in the case where there is no eyepiece for the telescope, or the scope is not mounted equatorially, or binoculars are selected.

  • The column scheme was resetting to the simple mode columns when SkyTools was restarted after being closed with the Real Time tab and visual observing mode selected.

  • The paper orientation was not being properly saved for printed observing lists.

  • The "P" in periodic comet designations is no longer case sensitive.

  • Database Power Search Tool: the visual observing difficulty filter "modifier" was not working properly in all cases.

  • The entry field for the time zone on the Observing Sites dialog was no longer long enough to enter decimal hours (after the recent font change).

  • A rare issue was fixed that affected the calculation of optimum times for an observing list for locations with very high elevations.

  • The galactic coordinate grid labels displayed on the atlas near longitudes of 0 and 180 were off by 180 degrees.

  • Some STF double star IDs were failing to select on the Browse tab of the Object Requestor.

  • If the equinox was left blank in the coordinate entry for Supplemental Deep Sky Objects the epoch was not properly defaulting to J2000. This cloud lead to scrambled coordinates.

  • The elevation entry field has been removed from the "Edit" dialog which appears when you click "Edit" on the Observing Sites dialog. It was not saving properly and this can be edited on the main dialog anyhow.

  • Multiple target lists were not being transferred from one chart to another when you changed the chart type.

  • Various other minor issues have been resolved.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1d

  • The F5 to F8 keys that were used to change the observing status of an object in the observing list have been remapped to Alt-F5 to Alt-F8 to free up the F5 key to refresh the list.

  • In some cases the Sync of SkyTools 2 logs was failing without an error message.  The logs should now import properly in all cases.

  • The keyboard focus on the Log Dialog was being lost immediately after opening the dialog from the Observing List.

  • The MPC New and Unusual and MPC Distant minor planet downloads are now working properly again via the new MPC web site.  Note that the MPC Critical list is still unavailable due to their server problems.

  • Deleting a DSS image while it was displayed in the Image Viewer failed to fully delete the image from the database.

  • A resource leak in the Thumbnail Viewer was causing the program to crash after the Thumbnail Viewer was used repeatedly.

  • An issue was fixed that may have led to a program crash immediately after an update, requiring a reset of the user settings to fix.

  • Some deep sky objects were not showing the proper size on the Optimum Ephemeris.

  • The tooltips for the buttons on the Thumbnail Viewer were displaying the wrong tip.

  • Very long telescope names were not displaying properly in the telescope selection in the planner.

  • The Reset Filters menu item on the Observing List menu now resets the observation status filters too.

  • The "Auto Target ID" label at the top of a printed chart was not employing the user's customized global designation hierarchy.

  • The "Select date in planner" menu item on the Events Calendar now works properly.

  • The F5 key now refreshes the observing list.

  • The cursor could disappear on a chart of both mouse buttons were pressed simultaneously.

  • Right-clicking on the drift direction indicator in the eyepiece view of a chart (used to rotate the field of view) now allows you to reset the view to the default rotation angle.

  • A crash could occur on the Real Time tool in imaging mode in rare instances where the selected observing list included bright stars.

  • The View Control dialog was not opening via a right-click on a thumbnail in the Thumbnail Viewer.

  • The Reflex Sight was not always being properly initialized for use on Telescope Simulation charts for new telescopes without a magnifying finder, causing the user to have to enable it manually.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1c

  • Various tweaks were made to the Real Time imaging session planner and how it works with the Exposure Calculator.

  • Various dialogs were modified that had input fields that were still a bit too small due to the change in font introduced in version 3.1.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1b

  • When displaying a simulation chart for a telescope without a magnifying finding device math errors were appearing.  In some cases the program might also crash.

  • Clicking the Sky Report button for the Finder view of a simulation chart for a telescope without a magnifying finding could cause an error.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1a

  • A crash was occurring on the Import Shared Data tab of the Data Manager when browsing local/network files.  This was due to an incompatibility with an update to an external library in version 3.1.

  • The function to automatically display a DSS image after download again works properly.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.1

  • Various stability issues have been resolved with regard to the Context Viewer, printed charts, observing lists and the Designation Search tool.

  • Faint "stars" representing the bright cores of galaxies no longer interfere with using the mouse-over identification feature on the charts for identifying the galaxy.

  • The appearance/readability of the font used throughout the program has been improved.

  • The mouse-rectangle-zoom on the charts can now be disabled via a switch located on the Preferences tab of the SkyTools Preferences dialog.

  • Importing supplemental comets and minor planets from the IAU now automatically creates a corresponding observing list in the "Auto Generated Lists" group, such as the "IAU Distant Minor planets" or "IAU Critical Minor planets" lists.

  • A new "Observing Lists from Handbooks" category has been added on our web site, as browsed via the Import Shared Data tab of the Data Manager..  This category contains observing lists derived from various handbooks such as Burnhams and NSOG.  Note: for the time being some of these lists will also remain in the "Deep Sky" category until most users have updated to version 3.1.

  • Several cameras have been added to the camera data "pool" and the cameras in the pool are now forced to display in alphabetical order.

  • Sorting has been improved for the Alternative Designation Column of the observing list.

  • Multiple target labels on the charts are now positioned properly.

  • Moving a newly created telescope up the list of telescopes immediately after creating it no longer loses the new telescope's data.

  • The altitude column of the observing list in imaging mode is now computed for the proper time.

  • The quick year dropdown selection on the Event Calendar has been updated to display recent and near future years.

  • The Twilight, Sunset, and Sunrise buttons on the Local Date/Time dialog are now relative to the selected date rather than the current date (as read from the computer clock).  

  • The Append to list function of the Nightly Observing List Generator sometimes appended the new objects to the wrong observing list.

  • The Open button has been removed from the Chart Preferences Scheme selection.  The new schemes is now immediately opened when selected, which is more intuitive.

  • Repositioning the Event Calendar window no longer causes a complete redraw of the window.

  • The Triton and Charon check boxes on the Satellight Elongation dialog of the Current Events tool no longer cause changes in other variables.

  • Blank lines are now properly skipped when reading a horizon from a file, and an error message is now generated that shows the offending line in the file if an error is encountered reading the data.

  • The Simulation charts / Context Viewer now use the actual magnification (for the selected eyepiece) when computing visibility rather than a fictional optimum magnification. 

  • Visibility limits for magnifying finders have been improved on the simulation charts.

  • Designation search rules have been relaxed for various designations, making it more likely a given designation will be found, even if the format isn't exactly what SkyTools expects.

  • The imaging rectangle on the Interactive Atlas didn't always rotate properly when the atlas orientation was changed from the default.

  • The Context Viewer FOV now prints/copies on the Atlas using the line preferences set in the chart preferences.  Note: because this is an animated element on the screen, the on-screen version remains the inverse of the chart background color.

  • The orientation arrows on the Context Viewer now switch properly from horizon display to equatorial display as set in the View Controls.

  • The telescope report sometimes errantly displayed a second eyepiece with a Barlow magnification of 1.0.

  • Barlow magnifications entered to two decimal places are no longer rounded top one decimal place after closing the eyepiece dialog.

  • Deleting all supplemental minor planets no longer erroneously deletes minor planets that are currently in use by observing lists, log entries, etc.

  • The Sun is no longer filtered out of observing lists errantly via the visual difficulty filter.

  • "View all checked in Overhead Sky" menu selection on the Observing List menu has been restored.  Apparently is was mistakenly deleted in an earlier update.

  • The Argo Navis was being sent the wrong time format when the general time format was set to AM/PM, which caused the function to not work properly.

  • The up/down, page up/page down, ctrl-page up / ctrl-page down keys again function properly for manipulating the designation listing on the Browse tab of the Object Requestor.

  • The equatorial R.A. grid line labels sometimes did not display the proper R.A. near 24h.

  • When a log entry is created from the scrolled observing list, the list no longer scrolls to the top.

  • A Cancel button has been added to the Prompt for Backup dialog that sometimes appears after closing the program as a reminder to back up your user data.

  • The printed observing list columns now always have enough room to display times in the AM/PM format.

  • DSS images from the Skyview server now should have the proper horizontal dimensions (there seems to be a bug in the Skyview server when returning images in the simple cylindrical projection; SkyTools now uses an alternative projection.  This fix will effect new image downloads only.

  • "Starfields" -- faint stars downloaded from the USNO-A2 catalog -- are now disabled in the Pro edition when the extended data is installed.  Not only are these stars superfluous in this case, but problems had been reported with this mix of data.

  • Target labels will now only appear when the target cross hairs are displayed on a chart.  This change is the result of inconsistencies in labeling when switching between regular object labels and target labels for the target object.

  • Some column selections for visual and imaging mode printed observing lists failed to remain turned on after enabling them in the dialog.

  • The position used for the Sun in computing the sky brightness is now properly precessed; this lead to problems in the distant past or future only.

  • On the simulation charts the finder and eyepiece view "insets" (which indicate the size of one view in another) were sometimes drawn the wrong size.  The inset depicting the eyepiece view now rotates with the eyepiece view.

  • The Visual Difficulty tab of the Object Information window failed to report correct values immediately after the NightBar or YearBar tabs had been selected.

  • The uninstaller now properly removes all of the registry entries and database files.  Note that the installer still does not delete user data files by design.

  • The impact spot that appeared last summer on Jupiter has been removed as it is now longer observable.

  • The coordinates of the new location are sent to the telescope, if connected, when the observing location is changed on the Real Time tab.

  • Saturn's rings were sometimes being cut off in the Context Viewer after the eyepiece view was rotated.

  • The Thumbnail Viewer was mistakenly opening when displaying the default telescope simulation chart for all checked entries in an observing list.  This was also causing some stability problems.

  • The more recent values have been updated for Delta-T, the difference between terrestrial time and universal time.  Predicted values into the future have also been updated to be more accurate.

  • When the user switches from one chart to another the Real Time status is now inherited from the previous chart.

  • Plottable images are now drawn on thumbnail plots in the Thumbnail Viewer.

  • When the All button was depressed on the Context Viewer, under some conditions faint objects were displaying the wrong labels.

  •  When the user deletes a downloaded DSS image, the image file is now deleted along with the file association data.

  • The Obstructed Horizon dialog has been shortened vertically so it will fit on 800x600 screens.

  • Grid line labels no longer linger on the charts when the grid lines are turned off.

  • The program now opens more quickly.

  • Various other more minor improvements/fixes have also been made.

Fixes/Changes in Version 3.0d

  • The "Open" button used to open the selected Chart Preferences Scheme on the Chart Preferences dialog has been removed.  The selected chart preference scheme will now open automatically when selected.

  • The Rise/Transit/Set columns in the observing list were still being computed using the obstructed horizon when the obstructed horizon was disabled.

  • The obstructed horizon was remaining displayed on the charts after it was turned off in the View Controls until the chart was refreshed.

  • The "Night Log" button on the Observing Log dialog was not properly opening to the correct night in the Log Browser.

  • In some cases when non-standard Windows font "DPI settings" were used the eyepiece selection on the simulation charts was drawn off the right side of the screen.

  • Optimum times were not being displayed in the observing list for objects deemed to be "not visible."  Now all marginal objects display optimum times.  Only those objects that definitely cannot be observed, such as a galaxy in daylight, no longer display optimum times.

  • All Optimum window columns in the observing list now sort blanks to the bottom of the list regardless of the sort order.

  • The eyepiece field of view/magnification label on the telescope simulation charts was not always properly displaying the field of view/magnification for the selected eyepiece, particularly when a comet was targeted.

  • Displaying thumbnails for binoculars could cause the magnification property of the binoculars to be inadvertently changed.

  • UGC 10822 was not properly found in the designation search.

  • Some WDS identifiers, such as "BAL 1530" were not properly being found in the designation search.

  • The "After" date selected on the Search tab of the Log Browser was jumping ahead to the next day.

  • The Log Search was missing some matching entries when there were more than one entry for the same objects.

Fixes in Version 3.0c

  • The ICX413AQ CCD detector has been added to the SkyTools camera detector database.  Select this detector when adding the Orion Starshoot Pro, Starlight X-Press SXV-M25, and Canon Rebel XT cameras.

  • The "InterfaceVersion Property Missing" error that occurred when connecting to the ASCOM Intelliscope driver (and some others) has been resolved.

  • The Thumbnail Viewer no longer opens when "Create Chart for all selected objects" is used.

  • Some charts were mistakenly opening in Real Time mode from the Nightly Planner.

  • The optimum time column of the observing list now properly sorts the empty "--" entries to the end of the night.

  • The Designation Search tool could crash sometimes when UGC catalog designations were entered.

  • Changing the telescope order in the Add/Modify Telescopes dialog sometimes lead to double entries for telescopes or missing telescopes.

  • A more instructive error message has been added when opening the ASCOM telescope chooser dialog fails because the ASCOM platform has not been installed.

  • Appulses between two solar system objects were not correctly being targeted on the charts when opened from an event list.

  • The "Instructions" button on the obstructed horizon dialog was not opening the intended help page.

  • Changing the eyepiece order for a telescope would lead to incorrect eyepieces listed in the Optimum EP column of the observing list.

Updated Features in Version 3.0b

  • Optimum eyepiece: now considers the Barlow in conjunction with each eyepiece.

  • Telescope Report: now considers the Barlow in conjunction with each eyepiece.

Fixes in Version 3.0b

  • Synchronizing to SkyTools 2 observing logs: logs for major solar system objects and minor planets were not being properly transferred to SkyTools 3. 

  • Double stars: some pairs were erroneously being rated as "not visible" for both the current and best conditions.  This would occur when the pair was unsplittable under current conditions due to insufficient magnification.  This error has been addressed.  In addition, the Barlow lens magnification is now considered in conjunction with each eyepiece.  This allows more pairs to pass the minimum magnification test. 

  • Comet synopses: comet Lulin was causing a program crash.

  • Thumbnail Viewer: opening repeatedly could cause program instability and lead to a crash.

  • Events: generating a chart via a right-click on a Jupiter satellite event in an event list could cause a crash.

  • Object Requestor: typing "ic" alone into the quick search caused a crash.

  • Context Viewer: the "All" button was missing from the button bar when an eyepiece was selected (as opposed to a camera).

  • Solar eclipses on the simulation charts were incorrectly displaying the moon behind the sun, or not at all.

  • The Help button on the Exposure Calculator did nothing.

As always, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to report bugs and make suggestions!