published by David on Mon, 2014-11-24 02:56
The HYG catalog is now in version 3. I've also created a catalog of over 200,000 deep-sky objects that I'm currently using on starcharts elsewhere on the site. As always, grab the latest versions from Github.
published by David on Sun, 2014-07-27 17:44
There is now a navigation tool for star charts. It's in the upper left part of the chart display. With it, you can retarget the current chart, choose different zoom levels for many charts, and return to a "Home" view if you've been viewing from remote locations.

Additional details after the break:
published by David on Sun, 2014-06-29 19:48
A few changes to the interface:
published by David on Sat, 2014-05-17 22:39
A few changes to Endeavour recently:
First, I've rearranged the "Chart Labels" into a more compact arrangement. Related options (like those for chart-level settings, or star labels, or deep-sky object labels) are in the same columns. This should make it a little easier to keep track of option settings with similar functions.
published by David on Mon, 2014-05-12 05:47
Endeavour now has stellar motion markers, allowing you to see where the stars were far in the past, or will be far in the future. Here's an example, showing where the stars will be 10,000 years in the future:

published by David on Mon, 2014-03-10 01:21
published by David on Sun, 2014-03-09 03:53
I've just completed a monster rewrite of the old Distant Worlds star charting application. It now has a bunch of new features:
published by David on Sat, 2013-09-07 19:22
Yes, I know this site has been pretty dead lately. Interstate moves can do that. Fortunately, that's been over for a while, giving me some time to make updates.
The Star Mapper has gotten a big -- and long overdue -- update. New features include:
- When you hover over a star to get its information, the information appears next to the star instead of in the upper right. The star itself gets highlighted as well.
published by David on Mon, 2011-09-19 22:45
I am hosting some of the larger downloads on this site on GitHub now. The most current version of the HYG database will always be posted there. Any publicly available code relevant to the site will go there as well.
published by David on Tue, 2010-12-21 17:13
It was clear for just long enough here in Colorado to get a good view of the eclipse. I got a number of decent shots with just a compact camera (Panasonic Lumix FZ-28, most at the max zoom level of 18x). As I've told a friend once, since the albedo of the Moon is similar to that of fresh asphalt, getting the right exposure settings for the full Moon is about as hard as getting them for a sunlit street. With an eclipse going on, it's a little tougher, but aggressive exposure bracketing solves many ills, and is very simple with almost any digital camera.
Here's one of my favorite shots (click to embiggen):

More images below the break:
Pages