Release Notes

[Fix] = Bug fix, [Chg] = Feature change or interface revision, [New] = New feature

V1.4.7 B (26 August 2005)

[Fix] Fixes crashing problem with Observation–>Transfer Local Observations.

V1.4.7A (25 August 2005)

[Fix] Fixes crashing problem with Object–>Sort Objects...

V1.4.7 (24 August 2005)

New Features

[New] Observation–>Update Global Observation Fields... will update empty Name, Type, RA and/or Dec columns by looking up entries in catalogues.
[New] Object–>Add User Image... allows you to add your own JPEG images to be associated with an object, along with any DSS images. Those images will be treated like DSS images and can be displayed on the Observing tab, in a window, on observing forms, etc. They are stored in the "User" subfolder of the "DSS Image Cache" folder.
[New] The Lookup ID dialog now has a Double Star IDs button. This will present a list of WDS double-star observers, their associated IDs and availability of stars in the WDS catalogue.
[New] Zoom in and Zoom out buttons on FOV chart.
[New] Preferences–>General–>Accurate planets will use much more accurate methods to compute planet positions (generally good to within a fraction of an arcsecond). Be warned: this might slow things down a little and will use additional memory, but will probably not be noticeable to most users.
[New] Ability to show proper motion on the FOV, via the Proper Motion checkbox. The length and orientation of the grey line emanating from a star represents the direction and velocity. If the line is red (e.g. Barnard's star) then the proper motion velocity is too large to display. This data is useful to help determine if a cluster of stars is a true cluster, or just an asterism (For 3 points, is M45 a true cluster or an asterism?).
[New] File–>Export–>Excel File... allows export of some lists as native Excel-format (XLS) files.

Changed Features

[Chg] File–>Export–>Generic Text File... is now File–>Export–>Generic Text or Excel File... and allows export of Plan object/observation lists to an Excel spreadsheet file.
[Chg] Improved the "user experience" on the Global Observation window, and allowed for expansion of the number of fields, etc.
[Chg] Global observations now include Name, RA and Dec fields. Note that these will be blank for existing observations (but the data can be manually edited).
[Chg] The separate (somewhat redundant) slider for limiting USNO magnitudes has been removed from the FOV tab. The slider for stars now controls USNO/UCAC2 stars as well.
[Chg] Stellar catalogues can now contain proper motion data. Currently the ASCC (All-Sky Compiled Catalogue), Hipparcos Catalogue, Tycho II Catalogue, and Bright Star Catalogue are the only catalogues containing this data (please don't download these big catalogues unless you really have to, otherwise my low-bandwidth pipe will get clogged. Wait a few days between downloading the three big ones - esp. ASCC).
[Chg] File–>Download/Upload Plans now has separate tabs for plans derived from articles in Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines.
[Chg] Generic Text Import and Export dialogs now have a Sample Data Line display, to give you an idea of the data you'll be importing/exporting. Useful as a sanity check.
[Chg] (Windows) The Cartes du Ciel application is launched by AstroPlanner when required. Previously you had to launch this manually.
[Chg] Preferences–>FOV–>Object Labelling–>Use dbl star discoverer ID will give preference to double star discoverer IDs (e.g. STF232), wherever possible, when labelling double stars in the FOV.
[Opt] Various changes to make zooming in and moving the FOV at high magnification possible.
[Chg] Double/multiple stars now show their components as separate stars (where possible), with the correct separation, magnitude and position angle. The components are also identified (A, B, C, etc.).
[Chg] Global observations now include object Type field. Note that this will be blank for existing observations (but the data can be manually edited).
[Chg] Global observation window can now be restricted to a range (e.g. between two dates).
[Chg] When exporting global observations (tab-separated text or Excel format), you can now specify that you wish to "summarise" observations based on (say) ID, and find the mean/median/max/min of ratings and/or the user-defined fields.
[Chg] Printed image from DSS window now includes data set source information.
[Chg] Printed FOV chart legend now shows magnitude limits.
[Chg] Telescope resources can now override the limiting magnitude, which is probably too optimistic for most cases.
[Chg] When using Select from Catalogue... you can select a telescope from a popup and it will set the limiting magnitude for that scope for you. Convenient for selecting only objects that you are likely to see visually.
[Chg] DSS windows now remember their setting between runs.

[Chg] Can now CC AAVSO E-mail submissions to two additional email addresses, if required.
[Chg] Stop/Go button next to FOV disables/enables FOV chart updates. Useful for disabling the annoying chart updates while you set up all the catalogues and myriad other options.
[Chg] Use of grey text in lists, rather than italics, for readability on some computers.
[Chg] Catalogue display window now flags objects that have cached DSS images. When one of these is selected, you can choose Object–>Display DSS/User Images to show images.
[Chg] Observation and Planning lists (and some others) now have a Font... setting in the contextual menu (Ctrl- or right-click on the list). This allows you to select the font and size, as well as row height. This takes the place of Preferences–>General–>Observing/Planning Lists–>Use larger font size.

[Chg] Can now duplicate global observations from the Observing tab (previously only local observations could be duplicated).
[Chg] Sorting the global observations by Rating, when non-numeric values are in use, will sort in Rating order rather than alphabetic order.
[Chg] The Catalogue Manager now does more sanity checks on downloaded catalogue files to make sure they weren't corrupted/truncated on download.
[Chg] Added extra slew timeout values (up to 5 minutes).
[Chg] Added code to make sure your cold, shivering mouse finger doesn't create multiple observations when you only wanted one.
[Chg] (Mac OS X) Major cosmetic makeover of every window and dialog to bring the application more in line with other Mac OS X apps.
[Chg] Check all file paths on startup to make sure they are still valid. Issue an alert if not.

[Chg] Several cosmetic tweaks and fixes.
[Chg] Added calendar widget to Date/Time dialog.
[Chg] Telescope list in Edit–>Resources–>Telescopes now has a lot more information (and columns will sort properly).

Fixes

[Fix] Changing Global Observation window columns, such that Notes is not the last column, no longer causes a crash.
[Fix] Alt/Az rotation should now rotate in the correct direction.
[Fix] (Windows) The Cartes du Ciel code has been completely rewritten. The feature (see Preferences–>External) should now work correctly. Note that this feature, if used, will install a DLL file in the AstroPlanner folder (VBAstro.dll), if it isn't available elsewhere on disk.
[Fix] Fix for crash when enhancing DSS image contrast, caused if your monitor is set to a pixel depth of less than 24-bits, or if your screen saver kicks in and changes the pixel depth to 8- or 16-bits. Workaround: set the pixel depth to 24- or 32- bits via your display preferences/properties/control panel. Disable the screen saver while downloading a lot of DSS images.
[Fix] Correction for moon position. The position of the moon was incorrectly reported if the moon was an object in the plan, and also on the Sky chart.
[Fix] (Windows) Editing items in the Transparency popup menu should now work correctly.
[Fix] Fixed a bug where the number of observations was always 1 for objects with more than one observation, when the plan document was opened.

[Fix] Fixed problems with downloading DSS files to the wrong place and into non-existent folders.
[Fix] Computing SB (Surface Brightness) in the observing list no longer requires a telescope to be selected, or the ODM column to be visible.
[Fix] If downloaded plan files contain bogus pointers to catalogue entries, they will be fixed.
[Fix] Fixed cosmetic problem affecting minor-planet import dialog.
[Fix] Greatly improved image quality when drawing scaled down images (e.g. AAVSO charts). (Especially for Mac users).
[Fix] (Windows) Better control of night vision mode in AAVSO charts.
[Fix] Delete key should now work more consistently on the Observing list.
[Fix] Fixed a memory leak bug that would cause AstroPlanner to consume memory and slow down if lots of complex FOVs were charted.
[Fix] FOV not as aggressive at redrawing/recomputing.

V1.4.6 (26 June 2005)

New Features

[New] Telescope->Download Plan to Sky Commander enables you to download your plan (or at least the first 59 objects) into your Sky Commander controller. Should also work for Sky Tracker (which incorporates a Sky Commander).
[New] It is now possible to add/remove individual objects to/from the highlighted state by using the contextual menu in the Observing and Planning lists. e.g. if you wish to add an object that isn't currently visible to the set of highlighted visible objects, you would ctrl- or right-click the object and use Force Highlighted, etc. There are also entries to unhighlight objects, and to remove all forced highlighting/unhighlighting. This mode is temporary: when you close the plan document, all such "forced" status is forgotten.
[New] Clicking the digital setting circle graphic opens a larger version in a separate window to aid zeroing the telescope from a distance.
[New] Telescope–>1-star Polar Alignment (for polar-mounted Meade Go-to telescopes only). This feature allows you to select a star that you've pointed your telescope at when you fire it up, and do a sync on that star, effectively aligning the telescope.
[New] The Telescope–>Sync To command allows syncing of the telescope to arbitrary coordinates. For polar-mounted Meade telescopes only.

Changed Features

[Chg] The telescope emulator window now has widgets to fine-control the RA/Dec/Alt/Az slider values by fractions of a degree.
[Chg] Resources->Telescope now has checkboxes to specify orientation of the finder scope. The FOV chart will use these to determine its orientation if the Finder is chosen in the Field popup menu.
[Chg] Can now add a Sequence number (1, 2, 3,... or 0, 1, 2,...) to objects when the Observing or Planning lists are printed. The sequence will be the same as the ordering of the printed objects.
[Chg] Custom highlighting can now flag objects based on the last observation date (e.g. highlight objects that have not been observed in the past 30 days).
[Chg] Option in Preferences->Sky allows display of either ID or Name or both next to objects plotted in the sky chart.
[Chg] Support for Celestron AS and CGE alignment stars, via an extra setting in Preferences–>Telescope/GPS. (Note: requires Version 21 or later of the AstroPlanner Data file)
[Chg] The Object–>Cross-Reference Objects to ID feature now allows matching by ID as well as by coordinates. You can also optionally replace RA/Dec and/or Magnitude/s. This allows you, for example, to replace the RA/Dec coords of all NGC objects in your plan with RA/Dec from the NGC Accurate catalogue.
[Chg] The Download and Cache DSS Images dialog now has a Select image size from object, if possible checkbox. When checked, the size of the downloaded image will be selected to match the size of the object (e.g. if the object is a 4'x3' galaxy, then a 5'x5' image will be selected).
[Chg] AstroPlanner Data file now included within the application and will be automatically updated/created if necessary. This is invisible to you. The application file will be bigger, but there will no longer be hassles with installation, etc.
[Chg] Base catalogues included within the application, and will be installed if necessary. Also invisible to you.
[Chg] Autostar tour dialog now has a setting to determine what appears in the top display line of your Autostar handbox (ID and/or Name).
[Chg] The DSS images displayed on the Observing tab (not elsewhere at present) now have a contextual menu item that allows you to mark all catalogue items found in the field with a red ring drawn around them. If you want to know what they are, hover the cursor over them (as before). Note that this will only be effective for DSS images downloaded via this and future releases of AstroPlanner.
[Chg] When selecting catalogues by type, the number of objects now reflects the actual number of objects of the specified type, rather than total objects in the catalogue.
[Chg] The "select from catalogue" dialog now shows the number of objects available in the selected catalogue/s. Note: This and the previous change require that the catalogues are re-indexed by Type. The first time you use a feature that requires this, you'll be prompted to allow the indexing to happen. It is recommended that you do so.
[Chg] DSS Cache Manager dialog now shows ID corresponding to each image, if that ID exists in an open plan document.
[Chg] The DSS images displayed on the Observing tab now have a contextual menu item to delete the displayed image. Similarly, the Display DSS Image window has a similar contextual menu item to delete the displayed image.
[Chg] Preferences–>Printing now has options to convert DSS images to grey scale and/or invert them (to black-on-white) for printing.
[Chg] DSS Cache Manager dialog now has a button for enhancing the sky contrast of black-and-white DSS images. Images can be saved if required. This is for those who prefer black (or white) skies over the ability to see every little plate imperfection and bad pixels.
[Chg] The DSS Options dialog now has an option to enhance the image contrast of new DSS images automatically.
[Chg] The standard wait cursor should now appear for various functions that take more than a second or two (e.g. opening prefs, computing best-pair, etc.).

Fixes

[Fix] Now gets declination correctly when connected to a telescope (for Meade-protocol scopes).
[Fix] Delete CONDITIONALLY on Type should now work.
[Fix] Improved opening time for Preferences window if one or more plan document is open.
[Fix] Sorting by Date/Time in the Global Observation window now works more reliably. Editing the observation will also cause a resort where necessary.
[Fix] Fix for memory leak caused by compiler library bug.
[Opt] Improved opening times for large plan documents (particularly if Global Observations are in use).
[Fix] The catalogue indexing process now gives more feedback to avoid giving the impression that the process has stalled.

V1.4.5 (1 May 2005)

Changed Features

[Chg] When you drag in the FOV, an indication is shown of where the target will end up.
[Chg] Preferences->FOV has a Mouse Dragging option that specifies whether you are effectively dragging the sky (default) or the telescope when you drag the mouse in the FOV.
[Chg] Tweak to enable proper processing of Tycho II catalogue ID (catalogue update coming soon).
[Chg] RA default precision now HH:MM.M rather than HH:MM.
[Chg] Support for ACL-compatible mounts added (e.g. DFM mounts). Currently untested. Anyone with such a mount that would care to test this, please contact us.
[Chg] Added scripting support for global observations, etc.
[Chg] Telescope Control Palette is now a "global" floating window, which will help a bit with using it with third-party apps, although clicking on it still brings AstroPlanner to the front (at least on Windows).
[Chg] (Mac OS) Multiple monitor support for night vision mode.
[Chg] When File->Check Software Versions... is used to download files, those files will be decompressed by AstroPlanner. This is a consequence of the new AstroPlanner Updater app, shortly to be released, and should remove most downloading problems and confusions.

Fixes

[Fix] Dragging in the FOV should now move the stars in a more consistent fashion, esp. when the FOV is inverted horizontally and/or vertically.
[Fix] Selecting binoculars in the FOV should now function more consistently.

[Fix] Fix for various spurious inaccuracies caused when RA/Dec are displayed in shortened form.
[Fix] Improvements to stability on Mac OS X.
[Fix] Improvements to document saving and quit time.

[Fix] Fixed some scripting problems.
[Fix] Dates in Global Observation window now obey the Preferences–>Observations–>Display observation data as setting.
[Fix] Improved reliability when using large plan documents on slower computers.

[Fix] Fixes to SkyTracker control code. Adds Delay after Slew option in Preferences for Sky Tracker users.
[Fix] (Windows) Fixed "toggle mode" on direction buttons on Telescope Control Palette.
[Fix] Fixed plan upload problem for larger plans.
[Fix] Fixed a crashing problem that can occur when quitting or closing a document while a telescope is still connected.
[Fix] AstroPlanner now checks catalogue files at startup. Bad files are reported and not used. Previously this would cause a crash.
[Fix] Fix text export problem when fields are exported in DDMMSS formats.

V1.4.4 (5 March 2005)

New Features

[New] Can now print cached DSS images on plan observing forms (print dialog has option).
[New] Observation->Change Observation Date/Time... allows you to change the date and time of the selected observation.
[New] File->Export->Image... is available wherever a chart or image is displayed. You can save the graphic in JPEG, PNG, BMP (Windows) or PICT (Mac) formats.
[New] (Paid users only) File->DSS Cache Manager allows inspection of your DSS image cache and delete files where necessary.
[New] (Paid users only) Support for UCAC2 catalogue display. This works in the same fashion as the USNO A2.0 and SA2.0 support. Uses the UCAC2 48+ million star catalogue (on three CD-ROMs), available (in theory free!) from USNO.
[New] Moving the cursor around on a DSS image (sorry, not SDSS at present) reveals the RA/Dec at the cursor position. Also, a contextual menu item Find Catalogue Objects will search the catalogues for objects in the field. Then if you point at them, the ID/s and magnitude/separation of the objects will be revealed. Note: This will not work for any DSS images you may have already have cached. You will need to download them again for this feature to work.

Changed Features

[Chg] When a plan document is opened, AstroPlanner now does some "sanity checks" on the data. If problems are present, they are fixed. This is invisible to the user.
[Chg] Delete Conditionally dialog now has a "case-sensitive" option. Before it was always case-sensitive.
[Chg] AAVSO Submit dialog now has a "just mark selected observations as submitted". Useful if you, say, enter previously-submitted AAVSO observations.
[Chg] Plan Creation Wizard now allows you to specify date and time for proposed plan. This affects which constellations are visible.
[Chg] Plan Creation Wizard now allow you to select which catalogues to search (so you can avoid some of the larger or more obscure ones).
[Chg] Some extra scripting support added (details in forthcoming Scipting manual update)
[Chg] Select from Catalogue dialog now has the ability to search by Name (useful for, say, sucking out all those STF double stars, etc.).
[Chg] The Show catalogue... and Select from catalogue... popup menus in the Planning tab have been replaced by pushbuttons and now display a dialog that lets you choose a catalogue in various ways (by name, by object type, by ID). This should be more convenient than the popup menus and also reduces some restrictions on number of open plan documents on the Mac.
[Chg] Selected Object button in Print dialog allows printing of the selected object in the observing/planning list only.

Fixes

[Fix] Moons of Saturn no longer inverted North-South.
[Fix] Fix for Plan Creation Wizard bug when more than one object type is selected.
[Fix] Resolved problem with application freezes when connected to telescope.
[Fix] Fixed problem with global observations not being recognised or counted properly if their ID has a lower-case letter in it (e.g. Cr399).
[Fix] Can now opt to continue searching for more objects (up to 10 000) if maximum reached. Previously this didn't work.
[Chg/Fix] A new method of saving JPEG images (e.g. DSS images) to disk is now being used - this does not use QuickTime. Hopefully it will resolve the image corruption features seen with the previous method.
[Fix] Fixed some minor bugs in scripting support.
[Fix] Fix to avoid freezes caused by recomputing the FOV for large diameters when huge catalogues are selected.
[Fix] Fixed a problem where a dialog called from a contextual menu still thought the contextual menu button/key was down.
[Fix] Fixed a problem where Windows nightvision colours were being used on Macs, causing dark rows in the Observing and Planning lists when night vision mode was activated.
[Fix] Fixed a problem that can cause crashes if an open cluster is drawn in the FOV and is partially outside the FOV chart limits (this might be Mac OS only).
[Fix] Fixed a bug that would cause the ordering of the observing/planning lists to be lost if there are more than about 30 objects in the plan.

V1.4.3 (22 January 2005)

New Features

[New] (Paid-up users only) File->Export->Planetarium Objects... allows export of objects to files suitable for import as memos into the Planetarium PDA application. This replaces the functionality previously available in the separate AstroPlanetarium application.
[New] (Paid-up users only) File->Import->Planetarium Observations... allows import of observations from memos from the Planetarium PDA application. This replaces the functionality previously available in the separate AstroPlanetarium application.
[New] Period field for objects. Useful for, say, variable stars. This can be changed on the planning tab, imported, exported, highlighted, etc.

Changed Features

[Chg] Alt-Az grid in Sky view shows azimuth numerically.
[Chg] The popup menu of "pre-defined" transparency values for observations can now be edited (there's an Edit... entry at the bottom).
[Chg] Added support for 2 DVD-ROM version of the USNO A2.0 catalogue (divided into North and South).
[Chg] Rise/Transit/Set graphics now show horizon in the same colour as the horizon in the Sky chart (which is editable via Preferences->Sky).
[Chg] When selecting larger (or smaller) font size for the lists (in Preferences->General), the lists automatically resize the columns to fit the text.
[Chg] Edit->Adjust List Columns to Fit Text does the above at any time.
[Chg] Any time you make a change to the Observer field in a plan, that information is stored and used as the default Observer when opening new plans.
[Chg] Plan Creation Wizard now has an option to select objects for the specified difficulty level and all easier levels. In this case, it will prepend "[Level x]" to the Notes field.
[Chg] Printing observations now has a Print global observations option. This will print all global observations for the selected objects (which should include all local observations by definition).
[Chg] When printing observations, if a resource was not specified, it will have a blank entry printed (e.g. instead of "No observing aids", a blank is printed).
[Chg] Preferences->Observations now has a setting to determine how observation dates will be displayed/printed. The default is mm/dd/yy (or whatever your local variant is). Other options are yyyy/mm/dd or yyyy.ddd where .ddd is the fraction of the year (i.e. dayofyear/daysinyear) with Jan 1 being day 1. This has the interesting property that, say, 31 Dec 2004 is displayed as 2005.000.
[Chg] Ability to export observation dates in the above formats.
[Chg] AAVSO planner now gives a warning if the data dowloaded from AAVSO is more than 7 days old.
[Chg] File->Export->Generic Text File dialog has been revised to be more consistent and less confusing (sic). The Modify button has gone and the Add and Delete buttons have been replaced by the + and – buttons.
[Chg] There is now a "Save as default" checkbox in the Observation->User-Defined Fields dialog. This will save the current changes for use in subsequent new plan documents.
[Chg] The Jupiter satellite view no longer appears under the observing list when a "Jupiter" object is selected. However...
[Chg] (Paid-up users) The DSS image disclosure triangle now displays a graphic showing the 4 main satellites of Jupiter (to scale) if a Jupiter object is selected in the observing list.
[Chg] (Paid-up users) The DSS image disclosure triangle now displays a graphic showing the 8 main satellites of Saturn (to scale) if a Saturn object is selected in the observing list.
[Chg] Lists in File->Catalogue Manager... now have an extra column showing IDs supported by the corresponding catalogues.

Fixes

[Fix] Dragging comet or minor planet object from one plan window to another will now work correctly (previously the elements were not being transferred).
[Fix] Dragging an object from one plan window to another now does so without losing resolution (previously floating-point number were only being transferred with 2 decimal place accuracy).
[Fix] (Windows) Copy/Paste via contextual menu (right-click) in text fields should now function as expected.
[Fix] Importing comet elements from MPC-formatted files (e.g. COMET.DAT) no longer uses the incorrect Epoch.
[Fix] Planning list ordering is restored correctly (if Preferences->General->Keep lists synchronised is set on), when a plan is opened.
[Fix] Intelliscope telescopes should now translate their direction correctly.
[Fix] The File->Check Software Versions... feature should no longer delete and recreate the Download folder every time you click the Download button (effectively destroying previously downloaded stuff).
[Fix] Fix to avoid telescope reconnection problems (esp. on Windows).

V1.4.2 (12 December 2004)

New Features

[New] Orion Intelliscope support. Note: for this to work, your site and date/time information must be correct (since the Intelliscope only supplies Az/Alt information which has to be converted to RA/Dec internally). Currently partially tested.
[New] Telescope "mimic" window. Preferences->Telescope/GPS->Display telescope "mimic" window will display a small floating window that shows the current RA/Dec/Az/Alt graphically when your telescope is connected. Useful, perhaps, for those with remote telescopes that want instant graphical feedback on the position of their scope.

Changed Features

[Chg] The Object->Minimum Slew Order feature now has a few extra options. Consider these experimental. The ordering will differ based on the sort method chosen. For example, chosing "Az+Alt" with Az weighted "High" will attempt to order such that Azimuth moves are minimised.
[Chg] Can now import comet info from the COMET.DAT file (MPC format).
[Chg] Can now edit Epoch of comet elements.
[Chg] Initial Intelliscope azimuth calibration dialog. (i.e. aim the scope at a listed star initially so that AstroPlanner can figure out the correct azimuth).
[Chg] Preferences->Telescope/GPS now has a Coordinate acquisition rate setting. This is the rate at which the telescope asks the telescope controller for an updated RA/Dec coordinate reading. This has been 2 seconds previously, and this is the recommended setting for most telescopes. However, scopes with digital setting circles will benefit from an increased rate, appearing more "responsive".
[Chg] Contextual menu on Annual Rise and Set graphic allows setting of the time of night (rather than going to Preferences->General each time).
[Chg] Moved import and export functions into two submenus: File->Import and File->Export to make things more coherent. Functionality remains the same, although the wording has changed a bit in some instances.
[Chg] The Limit to Visibility option in the Select from catalogue... dialog now has an altitude range (from/to) rather than just altitude "greater than". This gives more flexibility for those who are "altitude challenged" (e.g. binoculars on a tripod, alt/az mounted refractor without a diagonal, etc.).
[Chg] The crashing problem with the Catalogue Manager has been eliminated (hopefully). Unfortunately, to do this, it is necessary to close all plan documents before using it. If any plan documents are open, you will be asked to close them.
[Chg] Added Telescope Mount type to Preferences->Telescope. This is visible only for digital setting circle controllers, and determines whether the scope is positioned by RA/Dec (Polar mount) or Alt/Az (Alt-Azimuth mount).
[Chg] The telescope mimic display and the emulated telescope display (basically the same thing) now displays a red marker showing the target position for the selected object, thus giving an indication of how far and where the telescope would need to slew.
[Chg] File->Download/Upload Plans... now allows multiple plans to be downloaded without closing.
[Chg] File->Check Software Versions... now checks for previously downloaded manual files.
[Chg] Preferences->FOV->FOV Angular Display determines how the FOV angle is displayed in the FOV tab (x.xxx° or x° xx.x').
[Chg] For custom highlighting purposes, times between 0:00 and 6:00 are considered "after" midnight, etc. e.g. if you highlight objects that rise after 20:00, then all objects that rise between 20:00 and 06:00 will be highlighted. Previously only those objects rising before midnight would be highlighted. Similarly for "before".
[Chg] (Windows) Main window remembers its size, position and whether it was maximised between runs.
[Chg] Telescope->Synchronise Telescope to Computer Clock now has an "are you sure?" dialog to prevent accidental use.
[Chg] Date/Time for observations can now be set to "No date/time" via an extra button in the dialog. Handy for entering observations that have no recorded date/time.
[Chg] Select from catalogue... now has the ability to search based on object surface brightness.
[Chg] Various text fields in custom highlighting dialog can now have terms ANDed or ORed together.
[Chg] Preferences->Observations->Global Observations now has an option to cross-reference IDs in the global observation database. This will use your catalogues to find all synonyms of an observation's ID and make sure all those synonymous IDs refer to the same global observations. e.g. if you have object entries for M109, NGC3992, and PGC37617, they will all point to the same global observations (since they are the same object).
[Chg] The Select from Catalogue... dialog now allows Size limits to be added as n (equivalent to n x n) or m x n arcminutes.

Fixes

[Fix] (Mac OS X) Fix to stop Equinox app coming to the front every time AstroPlanner sends it something, and various other Equinox anomalies.
[Fix] (Mac) Fix to re-enable the ability to Control-click Observing/Planning list headers without bringing up the contextual menu.
[Fix] Fixed a problem with low-resolution alignment star coordinates. This wouldn't make much differences to the Best Pair algorithm, but slewing to the alignment stars would be inaccurate.
[Fix] Fixed (hopefully) a mystery crash that occured in the Catalogue Manager after downloads complete. This is probably timing-related and probably Win XP-only.
[Fix] Stability improvements to Iterative Polar Alignment feature.
[Fix] Fix to avoid crash when quitting with multiple plan documents open.
[Fix] Removed unnecessary redraws (seen as flicker) on observation list DSS images.
[Fix] Editing global observations no longer causes duplicate observations, or observations to disappear magically.
[Fix] Fixed crash that could occur if certain windows (e.g. global observations) were open when the application quitted.
[Fix] Telescope data flow is now saved to disk in the default system encoding, which will get rid of those funny characters that appear instead of the ° symbol.
[Fix] Stopped a crash that can occur when closing a plan document under certain circumstances, esp. when the visibility update rate in Prefs->General is set to maximum.
[Fix] Crashes while downloading catalogues using the Catalogue Manager should not longer be possible.
[Fix] Fixed a text encoding problem that was causing slewing hang-ups on Windows computers using Meade telescopes. This bug would also cause incoming telescope declination readings to be off by as much as a degree, and consequently confusing the Field of View chart, etc..
[Fix] Restrict Autostar tour title fields in lines to 16-characters, as per Meade.
[Fix] (Mac OS X) Improved connectivity with EquinoX.
[Fix] Serial port no longer needed with emulated telescopes.
[Fix] (Windows) Fixed page setup problem that was causing bogus number of copies on some systems (esp. Windows XP).
[Fix] Improvements to printing of observing list, forms, etc.

V1.4.1 (5 October 2004)

New Features

You can select an Emulated Goto Telescope or an Emulated DSC Telescope (digital setting circles) in Preferences->Telescope/GPS. This feature will emulate the behaviour of such a scope without one being present. Useful for presentations, trying out the features without having a GoTo telescope, or (for me) debugging/documenting various features without needing a physical telescope connected. The emulated scope slews at 5° per second. A small floating window shows the current status of the telescope and allows you to "nudge" it around as if it was a real telescope. Sort of.

Changed Features

File->Download/Upload Plan now allows you to upload your current plan directly to the user-contributed database. (Paid-up users only).
Resources->Visual Aids now have an Orientation option that will adjust the orientation of the FOV chart if they are selected in the Obs.Aids popup. (Note: this is in addition to the FOV orientation checkboxes. e.g. if your visual aid is a diagonal that you have specified to invert the FOV horizontally, then using the Hor checkbox on the FOV tab will negate the effect).
Preferences->FOV->Object Labelling->Use common name. This option will display the common name of bright stars (e.g. Bellatrix, Aldebaran, etc.) in the FOV rather than Bayer or other designations.
Eyepieces, Visual Aids and Filters resources now have a "Default" checkbox (like Sites and Telescope). If such a resource is marked as "default" it will used to populate the observation popups when a new observation is created.
Minimum Slew Order will now start with the selected object (if a line is, in fact, selected and is one of the objects considered).
Contextual menus on Planning list. Observing list, and list of observations (ctrl-click on Mac, right-click on Windows). This provides a convenient basic set of commands.
Contextual menus on text fields (cut, copy, paste, select all, uppercase, lowercase, select font and size (in some cases))
Ability to edit global observations. This is disabled by default. Preferences->Observations->Global Observation Database now has a checkbox to enable this feature. When set and the Global Observation Database window is open, an Edit... button will appear. Clicking this when a suitable observation entry is selected will allow editing via a dialog.
Preferences->Telescope/GPS now has a Don't ask telescope if slew has ended checkbox (enabled for Autostar-powered scopes). If this is set, the application will not ask the telescope if the slew has completed, but will wait until the RA/Dec is within a short angular distance from the target before assuming the slew has completed. This might resolve some slewing inconsistencies and hangups seen by users. Users should wait until the telescope "beeps" before continuing.
Global Observation window now has the ability to hide columns and reorder them (via a Columns tab).
Global Observation window now remembers column width settings.
AAVSO Submission dialog now has a Select Unsubmitted button.
The Fix Date dialog is now a floating window with an Apply button. This allows you to keep the date/time settings visible while you check the effects in the plan document window.
Preferences->Sky->Constellation Figures allows selection of the Traditional "stick" figures or H.A. Rey's figures.
Ability to overlay (and rotate) custom reticles on DSS images (on the DSS Image display window).

Fixes

Fixed a resource leak that might be causing odd problems on Windows if you open and close a lot of plan documents (probably present in V1.3 as well).
The Observation Notes field (Observing tab) is no longer disabled for AAVSO or global observations, but made Read-Only instead. This has the advantage that (a) you can scroll down to see all the text and (b) you can select and Edit->Copy the text if you wish. You still can't change the text for AAVSO and/or global observations though.
Using the Delete key on Observation or Planning lists should now only delete one object, not two.
Plan Creation Wizard now updates total objects if Select All or Select None buttons are used.
Fixed potential crashing problem if the DSS Image Index is corrupted, or DSS image files are deleted.
Iterative polar alignment alignment error cycle now starts from 1 rather than 2. This is a "cosmetic" fix and has no other effect on the process.
The AAVSO Observation Planner no longer requires a number on the Obs.Freq column in order to see observations (magnitudes). Workaround: put a large number (say 1000) in the Obs.Freq column in order to show any observations.
Made the File->Check Software Versions... code more robust, hopefully stopping intermittent crashes.
When you use Object->Show Constellation in FOV..., the Field popup will change to "FOV (above)" if it currently has some other setting, so that the entire constellation will get displayed.
Default colour for user horizon on Sky chart changed from blue to dark green to match other places where the horizon is shown (Note: this can be changed via Preferences->Sky).
FOV default limiting star magnitude changed from 5.0 to 15.0. Labels changed from 15.0 to 5.0.
Argo Navis catalogues will be checked for non-ASCII characters, which apparently cause upload problems.
Putting the AstroPlanner.prefs in the application folder now works again (i.e. takes precedence over the preferences folder).
A more dependable database format is now being used for the DSS Index in the DSS Image Cache. This should not be as prone to corruption as the previous version. Unfortunately, your existing index file will be rebuilt, so if you have a lot of images, leave AstroPlanner running for a while in order to fully recreate the index (approximately 5 images per second). This is all internal and 99% of you won't be impacted at all.
When adding objects to the planning list from (say) a catalogue, the constellation is now computed immediately.
Global Observation window now has a scrolling field to display the Notes field, allowing all of the contents to be seen and selected/copied (but not changed).
Redundant "No xxxxx" entry is no longer appended to Telescope, Eyepiece, Filter, etc. popup menus.
Downloading SDSS images should no longer cause problems if the SDSS server isn't functioning.
Double-clicking a plan document in Windows now works correctly (i.e. the redundant dialog doesn't appear).
Nasty things can happen if the Preferences Window and Catalogue Manager Window are both open. This combination is no longer allowed.

V1.4 (25 August 2004)

New Features

Object->Select First Object, Last Object, Next Object, and Previous Object. These commands move to the selected object in the planning list (if you're in the Planning tab) or the observing list (from other Tabs). This gives you a way to move through the lists without clicking on them. e.g. If you want to see the positions of your objects on the Sky chart, you can move through them from that tab and the display will change to show their position (if the Selected object checkbox is set). Similarly for the FOV if the Preferences->FOV->FOV tab shows selected object checkbox is on.
The Edit->Columns... dialog now has a Save as default checkbox. If you set this and click OK, the current column widths, orderings and visibility will also be set as a "global" default. When you then create a new plan document, those settings will be used as the default.
Binoculars can now be entered into the Telescope Resources.
Telescope->Go To... allows entry of arbitrary RA/Dec coordinates to which you can then slew the telescope (without having to create a "dummy" object to do it).
(Paid-up users only) Scripting language support. This will develop with time and user requests. Right now the scripting stuff all resides in the Script menu.
(Paid-up users only) File->Download Plan... will present a dialog with all the current on-line user-contributed plans listed. You can download and create a plan from a selected item. Requires an Internet connection.
Performance Index is now displayed at the top right of the Observing tab. This is the value n = n_d + n_e + n_s as defined in the article describing Christopher Lord's rating for unequal double stars in "Enjoying Unequal Double Stars" in Sky and Telescope, Jan 2002, Page 118-121. Also available in the form of a (somewhat mathematical) monograph on Christopher Lord's web site. The value is based on telescope aperture, central obstruction (if any) and seeing conditions. This performance index is then used in Lord's Rating below.
Lord's Rating ("L Rating") is displayed in a column in the Observation list for double stars. The formulæ used in the above theory to create the nomograms are used to ascertain whether or not you can expect to split a double using the specified telescope under the specified seeing conditions. Also available for Export, AutoStar tours, Highlighting, etc.
Can choose between the Antoniadi or Pickering seeing scales in Preferences->General.
Current Seeing conditions are now selectable at the top of the Observing tab. This rating is used to compute Performance Index and Lord's Rating for double stars (see above)
Telescope resources now have a parameter for Central Obstruction ratio. This information is used to compute Performance Index and Lord's Rating for double stars (see above)
Photometric magnitudes checkbox in Preferences->General. When used, all magnitudes are displayed with three decimal places rather than one.
? button on Catalogue Display window (lower left) displays information pertaining to that catalogue. Currently there's little or no information there, but I will be filling in the gaps as time passes. The data is stored in the AstroPlanner Data file, so the latest version will have the latest information. If the button is disabled, it means there is no information available.
Digital DomeWorks dome synchronisation support for those with domes that support this software. See Preferences->External. When you slew your scope with AstroPlanner, Digital DomeWorks will rotate your dome to follow. While you are tracking, the dome will follow. For paid users only.
Ability to cache DSS images to hard drive. If you check the Cache to disk checkbox in the DSS window then each downloaded image will be cached to the DSS Image Cache folder/directory as JPEG images.
FOV popup menu now has "Fit smallest reticle" and "Fit largest reticle" entries. This will resize the FOV to fit the diagonal size of the smallest/largest enabled custom reticles.
Support for long catalogue notes. The first catalogue to take advantage of this is the revised WDS 2001.0 catalogue.
SkyGX Chart Numbering support. A new option in Preferences->Charts. This is for the upcoming SkyGX Charts - a very impressive looking effort.
AAVSO support. The first of several features (for paid users) that are designed with variable star observers in mind. Observation->AAVSO->Get Charts... will retrieve a list of charts available from the AAVSO by variable star (several thousand). You can scan the list, select a star, select the charts, and AstroPlanner will download and display them. The charts will be cached on disk if you wish (for observing sessions) in the "AAVSO" folder/directory. You can print the charts, copy and paste them, save them as JPEG files. You can also select a variable star from the list and have AstroPlanner create a plan object for you (if it can be found in your catalogues).
(paid-users only) AAVSO observation submission. Observation->AAVSO->Submit Observations to AAVSO... allows you to select any variable star observations you have made and submit them to the AAVSO via e-mail in the approved format (also allows saving to clipboard, text file, etc.).
(paid-users only) AAVSO variable star observations (select the observation and use Observation->AAVSO->Edit Observation..., or just double-click). The resulting dialog allows you to enter and validate all the information the AAVSO needs, and create a AAVSO-formatted text string from the observation, oven-ready for transmission to the AAVSO.
Alt-Az limits (Preferences->Limits) are now shown in red on the Site Horizon display (if applicable)
AAVSO constellation chart support via Observation->AAVSO->Get Charts...
(paid-users only) Object->Display DSS Image will display cached images of the selected object (if they exist) in a window that can be resized, copied, printed or saved. If there's more than one image (e.g. different size, positive/negative, red/blue) then a popup menu contains a list of displayable images of that object.
(paid-users only) Object->Download and cache DSS images... will download DSS images for all objects in the Observing list and cache them on disk (while you drink coffee).
File->Check Software Versions is a revamped replacement for Check for Updates that allows downloads directly from within AstroPlanner (i.e. no browser required).
(paid users only) File->Catalogue Manager... This is a revamped means of checking what catalogues are installed, available online, and revised. It will download the catalogues and install them from within the AstroPlanner application (no browser required). This effectively replaces the catalogue section of the Check for Updates feature. Note: if you have the AstroPlanner CD-ROM, you can still install catalogues from there using the installer.
Information about sun rise/set and twilight information is now displayed in the Observing tab. Between midnight and sunrise the start of morning Astronomical, Nautical and Civil twilight is shown. At other times the setting values are displayed.
Object->Find Closest Object... This command finds the closest object in the selected catalogue to the selected object in the list. Useful for, say, finding the GSC number of a star from another catalogue.
Proxy server support. Preferences->General allows you to enter your proxy server address and port number which will be used when any HTTP internet transfers are attempted (e.g. Check Software Versions, DSS Images, AAVSO Charts, etc.)
(Paid-up users) AAVSO recent data support in Observation->AAVSO->Get Charts and Data... Allows you to download and display recent data in a tabular format. You can also copy or save this data in a tab-separated format.
(Paid-up users) AAVSO light curve chart support in Observation->AAVSO->Get Charts and Data... Allows you to download and display and cache AAVSO light curve charts.
Can now print "compressed" observation lists (i.e. one observation per line). You can select which columns are printed and in what order (a la compressed object list printing). The print selection dialog has been redesigned a bit to allow this.
When printing observation forms, you can add eyepiece drawing templates (circles) for sketching purposes.
AAVSO Observation Planner (Observing->AAVSO->Observation Planner). Shows a "calendar" of observations and future scheduled observations for each object, allowing advanced planning and highlighting of scheduled observations that are impending or overdue. A convenience for those of you that do a lot of variable star observing.
Added chart number support for the Herald-Bobroff AstroAtlas.
Preferences->Observations now has an option that uses UT rather than Local Time for all (new) observations.
The DSS Image retrieval system will now retrieve SDSS images (Sloan Digital Sky Survey). These have the advantage that they are in colour, have higher resolution than the DSS images, download faster (!) and are available in bigger angular sizes (up to 5° x 5°). The disadvantage is that they are only available for a small area of the sky so far (see here for details). Choose "SDSS" from the Dataset popup menu in the DSS window.
Object->Cross-Reference Objects to ID... can be used to cross-reference the objects in your plan document to a given ID in any catalogue by comparing their RA/Dec positions. e.g. Finding SAO numbers for stars from the WDS catalogue (which don't have such a cross-reference).
When entering ID or Name in the Planning tab, a palette of greek symbols and double star IDs is displayed. Clicking on an entry will type the "equivalent" for you.
Support for Sky Tracker with Sky Commander Go-to telescope controller system. (Currently untested).
Preferences->FOV->Remove duplicate objects. If this option is set, and if pairs of objects in the FOV have duplicate coordinates, then one of the conflicting objects will be removed. Solar system objects and objects from smaller catalogues get priority.
Options... button on DSS window allows you to disallow stopping if an error occurs while downloading images. Also, you can specify a secondary data set to try if the primary one has an error, as well as setting SDSS image options.
Added a Transit Date column to the observing list. This gives the date of the next occurrence of the object transiting the meridian at local midnight (00h 00m). Ordering this column might help get the list into a suitable ordering for annual observation.
Rise/Transit/Set graphics now include user site horizon (assuming one has been defined for the current site in use)
(Paid users only) A small disclosure triangle at the top right of the Observation list allows DSS cached images to be directly displayed next to the list.
Duplicate Observation (+/+) button added to observing tab and corresponding Observation->Duplicate Observation menu item added. This duplicates the currently selected observation (and asks for the date/time for the new observation). Convenient if you're making a number of sequential observations of the same object (e.g. a variable star).
Observation chart window now has option to plot phase diagrams (including a slider to adjust the period until a good fit is acheived).
Duplicate Object (+/+) button added to planning tab and corresponding Object->Duplicate Object menu item added. This duplicates the currently selected object.
Popup selector next to Type field on the Planning tab allows you to select "official" object types if you wish. Also appears next to Type field in the Highlighting dialog.
Preferences->FOV now has a Default Magnitude Limits option. If this is set on (for either Stars and/or DSOs), and you change the Telescope setting for the FOV, then the Star and/or DSO limiting magnitude sliders will be defaulted to the theoretical limiting magnitude of the telescope (calculated as 2.7 + 5 log₁₀(d), where d is the aperture in mm).

Changed features

List of observations (Observing tab) now sorts in descending order by default. When new observations are added the ordering is preserved.
Variable star (AAVSO) observations in the Observations list now have a "V" at the right side of their entry to designate that fact.
If a plan document has one or more variable star (AAVSO) observations, then a "V+" button appears under the observations list. This allows you to create a new AAVSO observation directly, rather than creating a normal (non-AAVSO) observation and then using Observation->AAVSO->Edit AAVSO Observation.
The plan document Save Changes dialog now has the option to save changes automatically whenever the document is closed. Can be disabled later, if you desire, via a checkbox in the File->Get Info... dialog.
Preferences->General->GMT as Julian allows the GMT reading on the observing tab to be shown as the Julian date.
(Windows) OK and Cancel button positions are switched to make dialogs more Windows-like.
Various user alert dialogs now have a "Don't ask this again" checkbox. There's also a Reset Warnings button in Preferences->General in case you get cold feet...
Alert is displayed before deleting an observation.
The Edit->Find... dialog now uses a pulldown combobox that remembers the last 20 search terms you used.
Duplicate... buttons in Resources window replaced by more compact and nifty +/+ buttons.
Observation chart window now remembers settings between uses.
Observation chart window now has option to use coloured points on the chart. (Picture)
Observation chart window can now plot AAVSO observation magnitudes.
(Windows) Quicktime is no longer required to save JPEG files (e.g. with DSS image saving). Note that QuickTime is still required for some AAVSO charts (GIF files).
(Windows) JPEG image quality settings are now functional.
Added FOV Default settings to Preferences->Catalogues. You can now choose if you want the FOV default catalogues applied to new plan documents, existing plan documents, or both. Can also choose whether or not you want labels displayed.
Option- (Alt-) clicking a checkbox in the Use or Label columns of the FOV tab catalogue list will set all the checkboxes on that column to the same status.
Double-clicking the ID entry of the Observation list will open the DSS image display window if images are available (otherwise it reverts to the default behaviour of opening the catalogue for that object).
(Windows) DSS image windows (and other similar windows) no longer move towards the right/bottom of the screen each time one is opened.
Application now remembers your printer setup settings between runs.
Rise/Transit/Set graphics now have dotted lines at 30° and 60° altitude
(Windows) DSS images (at various places) now obey the night vision settings (colouring themselves red or green). This only affects the displayed image, not the saved image.
Removed menu keyboard shortcut from File->Import as it was conflicting with another menu item.
For clarity, circumpolar objects (objects always above the horizon at the observer's site) will now display "Circum" in the Rise and Set columns of the observing and planning lists. Objects that never rise at the observer's site will have Rise = "Never" and Set = "Always".
Added the ability to add prefixes (e.g. catalogue, constellation, etc.) to IDs for export/upload to Argo Navis. This can help with locating the objects on the Argo Navis hand controller.
Print list dialog now remembers its settings (e.g. compressed mode) between uses.
When creating a new observation, the environmental settings of the previous observation (scope, eyepiece, etc.), if one was logged in this run of the application, are used as the default.
Opening a new DSS window remembers the settings of the last DSS window.
New and Delete buttons for lists in various places (e.g. Resources) have been replaced by the more elegant Mac OS X-like +/- buttons.
Various windows (e.g. search results, catalogue, etc.) will now remember their location and size so that if you reopen them they will reappear in the same position on the screen. Note: this is not persistent between runs of the app.
Preferences->General now has a setting to define the "image quality" of saved DSS images (default 90%). The smaller this number, the smaller the DSS image file sizes will be, with a trade-off of image quality.
Added Find/Find Again menu support to Comet/Minor Planet import dialog.
The Global Observation Database can now be located elsewhere via a path setting in Preferences->Observations.
The Select from Catalogue dialog now has All and None buttons for the lists of Types and Constellations to save lots of clicking.
Loading bogus Import and Export settings files will now elicit a warning and the current settings will not be deleted (in case you hit the Load... button instead of the Import... button by mistake.
USNO catalogue plotting from CD-ROM is now more intelligent at asking for CD-ROMs to be inserted when that CD-ROM was the last one used (i.e. it doesn't ask - it just assumes it's there already)
Only one catalogue file is now open at any one time, rather than all of them open all the time. This might improve performance on some systems and reduce the amount of file handle resources used by AstroPlanner. In theory it should cause a small performance hit, but it seems to be imperceptible in practice.
Additional preferences option to retrieve USNO data from a remote folder rather than CD-ROM (note: remote folder can have sub-folders - all will be searched).
A checkbox in Preferences->USNO will optionally flag USNO stars in the FOV with bogus red magnitudes, bogus blue magnitudes and/or the USNO magnitude error flag set.
(Mac) The voice command checkbox and Command button have been relocated to the upper left of the observing tab.
(Paid-up users) Preferences->USNO now has a setting that determines if the USNO catalogue stars get drawn in front of or behind other catalogue objects.
In the Select from Catalogue... dialog, the Limit to Visibility option allows you to specify that an object should have its transit during the specified period.
In the Select from Catalogue... dialog, the Limit to Visibility option now gives a warning when used (since it can be rather compute-intensive if all catalogues or a large catalogue is chosen).
If AstroPlanner gets an error from the DSS image server, it attempts to display the error message.
Edit->Copy in the search results window will copy the ID or IDs of the selected object/s onto the clipboard as text.
The Edit... button next to the Highlighting popup has been replaced by an extra entry in the Highlighting popup ("Edit Custom Highlighting...")
File->Check for Updates has been removed.
If you have any older catalogue files with names of the form *.cat, then the application will attempt to rename them to the more up-to-date *.apcat format. This is to avoid problems with the Catalogue Manager feature, which doesn't handle the older names very well. If your catalogue files are read-only then this will not work. It's worthwhile checking to see if any of your catalogue files (in the Catalogues directory) still have the .cat extension after running this version. If so, they are probably read-only.
DSS images are now downloaded in compressed format, which means faster downloads.
DSS images for various different surveys are now downloadable (POSS 1st gen red/blue, POSS 2nd gen red/blue/IR, Palomar Quick-V, HST Phase 2).
Preferences->General now has user-selectable locations to store AAVSO and DSS Image caches. Useful if you want to store the files and images on another disk drive.
The delete key (Del) will now delete objects from the Observing list.
Rise, Transit and Set times are now echoed in the Planning list.
Items that are computed in the Planning list (as opposed to being specified by the user) are displayed in italics.
Transferring local observations to the global observation database is now less troublesome.
Added "Only on numeric items" checkbox to the Prefix and Suffix entries in the multiple Lookup ID dialog. This makes it easier to enter a list of IDs by number only, and still add the odd ID with a different prefix. e.g. 123,456,IC551,789 with prefix "NGC" and the Only on numeric items checked, would search for NGC123,NGC456,IC551,NGC789.
Julian date of observations now displayed in Observation Notes title for your convenience.
Custom reticles now take into account the magnification (and effective focal length changing) of visual aids such as focal reducers or Barlow lenses.
Air Mass and Hour Angle columns now disabled by default in Observing list (in new plan documents), since these columns change their displayed values enough to cause a lot of the list flickering and slow down. Those folk who need those columns can re-enable them via Edit->Columns...
The Date/Time printed (optionally) at the bottom of Object/Observation printouts is now the current local time of your plan (might be fixed) rather than the current computer clock setting.
Can now (optionally) print the file name at the bottom of each page when printing object/observation lists.
Comets and minor planets can now be selected in the Import dialog by current declination as well as by magnitude.
Edit->Copy on the OTA Temperature window will copy the chart onto the clipboard.
File->Save as Text on the OTA Temperature window will save the contents of the list to a tab-separated text file.
Character encodings are now used, so you should be able to use weird and wonderful characters in your descriptions, etc. This will also benefit non-English users who should now be able to use all the characters defined in their localised character set. This is mainly applicable to Mac OS X and Win 2K/XP users.

Fixes

Fixed a problem with mouse movement over the FOV chart in systems that use a decimal comma (non-US systems).
Fixed a problem with time sort offset fields.
Replaced all network code to use the newer built-in sockets. This has the effect (at least on the Mac and probably on Windows) of substantially faster Internet connections (e.g. DSS image downloads).
This release should fix the problems with printing to HP and Canon printers under Windows.
When importing comets or minor planets: if you sort the lists by clicking in a column heading, the correct selected object will now get imported.
Planning list no longer has every line highlighted if the custom highlighting includes items that do not exist in the planning list (e.g. visibility, altitude, etc.)
It is no longer possible to have resource names containing apostrophes (e.g. "Bob's Scope"), which causes some problems.
Numeric columns in Comet/Minor Planet dialogs now sort correctly.
[Windows] Search results window no longer opens in a different place each time.
Observation Julian Date value is now correct when printed.
Plan Creation Wizard now checks that catalogues are properly indexed before proceeding. This will greatly enhance speed if the catalogues were not previously indexed.
According to Luis Argüelles the Difficulty Index (DI) is not applicable to double stars with a separation greater than 10". For stars with a separation greater than this, the DI is now reported as "n/a".
(Windows) Opening Preferences while windows are maximised no longer opens Catalogue Display and Results windows.
Fixed a Preferences editing crash caused by a bogus Alternative Catalogue folder.
Fixed the non-display of observation parameters (e.g. telescope, site) if those items had been deleted or renamed in the Resources.
Fixed a problem where the ordering of the objects was not saved correctly under certain circumstances.
If you are displaying USNO stars with a bogus red or blue magnitude, the other (non-bogus) magnitude is used.
Can now import entire JPL minor planet files, and no longer crashes when you attempt to select one or more items. Also it is a little more informative in explaining why it's taking so long to bring up the dialog.
Chart # column in observing list should now sort correctly.
Fixes to the Select from Catalogue... dialog to make sure the OK button isn't clicked if the selected rules imply zero objects will be selected.
Loading bogus Import and Export settings files will now elicit a warning and the current settings will not be deleted (in case you hit the Load... button instead of the Import... button by mistake.
Fixed inability to export in ScopeDriver format.