NIGHTCAL – New Version 0.7.2 available to download.

Oops I'll do that when I get home.

Keep up the good work

Dear Bob and Michael,

This is a great program for those of us who plan our imaging around the end of astro twilight one evening and the onset of astro twilight the following morning and in conjunction with the moon being absent during this interval.

I derive the necessary information (end of astro twilight, start of astro twilight, rise and set time of moon) manually using SkyMap Pro. In using my latest manually extracted stats with those produced by NightCal, there is perfect agreement with all of the stated times.

However, I do have one recommendation/request: please add to the empty box to the right of twilight the onset of twilight the following morning so that the information will be complete. I have checked the options and it does not seem to be available to the user.

Anyway, this is a godsend ... and thank you!

Anthony.

Nifty program, thanks for all the hard work.

Bob and Michael,

well done on all the work that went into this utility. I really like the libration details noted on the Moon graphic as it was something I was seeking in software packages for a long time. Would it be possible to put details in a new release of NightCal of what are the maximum and minimum librations in the period covered? That is, the combined latitude and longitude details as you are doing at the moment for the graphic.

thanks again!

John

Anthony - The 'empty' box is actually used to display conjunction information and will, in the next major release, also be used to tell you about metoer shower maxima. The ability to display whatever combination of twilight and/or sunrise/set info you want is already on the list for future releases!

John - I'll add the request for more advanced libration info onto the long term wish list, but I'm afraid I can't see, at present, how this would be displayed. The problem is a lack of space (excuse the pun). You can get this information from Virtual Lunar Atlas software, but not in a tabulated calendar. One idea which we have thought about is the ability to export selected data to a monthly spreadsheet. The maths is already being done by NightCal so it's a matter of exporting the info, not calcaluting it.

As with all these things, the problem is one of time. Bob does the actual programming and detailed technical support (the clever stuff), whilst I deal with the basic design, specification, installation program, documentation, website and simple technical support (the farty stuff). I'm still recovering from a long term illness and Bob is tied up with other things at the moment, so I wouldn't expect any work on the next version of NightCal now for many months. Hopefully the next version will be out by the end of 2006, but there are no promises. The only reason this new version came out within 4 months of the first release was that most of the work on the options screens had already been done before version 0.6 was released.

Michael Morris

Michael,

This piece of software is a god-send and irrespective if and when there is a future release.

Thanks for your efforts and time!

Anthony.