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What's New
This list is intended for experienced users of Deep-Sky Planner. It lists functionality changes from version 8 to version 9.
Responsive UI
Several changes have been made to improve speed and responsiveness of operations. These include:
▪DSS image download and DSS Image Manager view
▪Backup and Restore
▪Orbital Elements download
Data
▪Catalog data have been expanded and updated.
▪There are now over 1.6 million objects in the database and over 1.2 million names and cross references to these objects.
▪IAU star names, Flamsteed numbers and Bayer designations have been updated in the reference database.
▪The following catalogs have been updated: WDS, PGC, SNR, NGC and IC catalogs.
The NGC/IC catalogs are taken from the latest Revised NGC/IC from Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke. This is probably the most updated and corrected edition of the NGC/IC available today. Finally, many corrections have been made to the database.
▪Support for downloading and storing orbital elements has been expanded to include asteroid and comet elements from NASA/JPL Solar System Dynamics group and the Minor Planet Center. Some of these datasets are large; thus, downloading them is multi-threaded.
▪Observing plans and equipment lists have been expanded in the Deep-Sky Planner Community on the Knightware website.
DSS
▪Support for retrieving and showing color DSS images has been added - both SDSS and colorized DSS-2 images
▪Images are saved in JPEG format and require less storage than (deprecated) GIF images.
▪Object designations are stored in JPEG image files. These are also shown as 'Comments' in the Details tab of Windows Explorer's Properties dialog box.
▪Maximum angular image size has been increased to 90 arc seconds.
▪Image downloading is multi-threaded; much faster and more responsive.
▪Image management is multi-threaded; much faster and more responsive.
▪Simple image processing has been added (flip, rotate, invert colors)
Moon
▪An icon has been added to the bottom of the main window that illustrates the phase of the moon on the system date.
▪The angular distance between an object and the moon has been added to the Deep-Sky and Observing Plan reports.
▪A filter has been added to Deep-Sky and Observing Plan documents that limits the angular distance between the object and the moon.
Logging
▪Image display support has been added for FITS and many camera raw image files*.
▪Image info support added for tiff and many camera raw image files.
▪Image file formats supported include *.jpeg, *.fits, *.png, *.bmp, *.tiff.
▪Camera raw file formats are full color images. Formats supported include:
▪Canon (*.cr2, *.cr3, *.crw),
▪Nikon (*.nef),
▪Others - Kodak (*.dcr, *.kdc), Minolta (*.mrw), Olympus (*.orf), Pentax (*.pef), Fuji (*.raf), Leica (*.raw), Sony (*.srf, *.sr2, *.arw) and Sigma (*.x3f).
*Portions of ImageMagick are included in Deep-Sky Planner. ImageMagick Studio LLC, 2023. ImageMagick, Available at: https://imagemagick.org.
Documents
▪Deep-Sky Planner 9 is backward compatible with version 8 documents. That is, all document types created by Deep-Sky Planner version 8.x can be read by version 9.x.
▪Deep-Sky Planner 9 observing plans are compatible with Deep-Sky Planner Mobile Edition via Export to App.
▪Documents opened and saved by Deep-Sky Planner 9 are not compatible with version 8.
▪Observing Log information can be moved from version 8 database into version 9 database by using Backup / Restore. There are more options for moving observations when you use the Export and Import functions in the Observing Project Manager and the Observation Browser.
System
▪Deep-Sky Planner has been tested on both a Full HD (1920×1080) monitor and 4K UHD (3840x2160) monitor
▪The Deep-Sky Planner installer can copy its interoperation plug-in for Stellarium if Stellarium is installed in its default location. The plug-in can also be copied to Stellarium installations manually.
▪The Deep-Sky Planner installer can copy its interoperation plug-in for Starry Night Pro and Pro Plus (versions 6, 7, 8) if Starry Night is installed in its default location. The plug-in can also be copied to Starry Night installations manually.
▪License activation can be done online or by email.
More...
▪The Orbital Elements Manager has been revised extensively. The grouping of elements has been modified, partly due to changes made at the Minor Planet Center.
▪Angular distance between objects and the Moon is included in deep-sky and observing plan reports. A 'Moon avoidance' filter has also been added to observing plan documents.
▪An option has been added to documents that allows the daily altitude graph to show object movement, twilight, etc to begin at midnight (classic scheme) or at noon.
▪Use of Internet Explorer has been replaced with Edge in web functions.
▪ASCOM 7 is now supported. Testing was performed with OmniSimulator in ASCOM 7.1.3.
Notes
1 You must have Maxim DL 5.24 or later and ACP 8 or later to import these files. The ordering of objects is maintained in the export file so you can use Deep-Sky Planner's filtering and sorting capability to control the list. Exposure information is specified during plan export.
2 You must have APT 3.30 or later to import these files. The ordering of objects is maintained in the export file so you can use Deep-Sky Planner's filtering and sorting capability to control the list.
3 You must have SGPro 2.5 or later to import these files. The ordering of objects is maintained in the export file so you can use Deep-Sky Planner's filtering and sorting capability to control the list.
4 These files can be imported using the Observing List function in Cartes du Ciel 3.1 or later.
Help file version 9.3.0.0 ▪ Copyright © 2024-2026 Knightware, LLC
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