Aciqra

An update has been released for Aciqra 2.1 which fixes the minor planets feature which did not work properly in the original release. Also, the "stars" button has been moved out the deep space menu and into the secondary menu. Disabling deep space ... [More] objects did not and should not disable stars as would be expected by the button's placement. Its new location makes this issue irrelevant.As always, downloads are available both on SourceForge and on Caglow Central. [Less]

It's about time! Originally slated for release in December of 2009, the long overdue initial release of Aciqra 2 is finally here! So what great new features have been added since Milestone 5? Actually, not very much. Support for minor planets, an ... [More] angle indicator, display of Earth's shadow and an updater are the only additions since the last milestone. On the other hand, an unthinkable amount of change has occurred since Aciqra 1.A rather long release statement has been published on Caglow Central detailing this new release. Most of the newer screenshots in the development gallery still apply. The only difference is that the background was slightly (but noticeably) brightened to allow for Earth's shadow to stand out more clearly. Images can be found on Aciqra's SourceForge page.While downloads available in Aciqra's Download Archive, they are also available from SourceForge which is reliable and stable (and avoids consuming our bandwidth as some of the files are huge).Downloadson SourceForgeon Caglow Central [Less]

Development is winding down on Aciqra 2.1 as it approaches release. Most, if not all of the major bugs have been resolved and only minor additions are left to be added. Development lagged far behind schedule in the last two months and Milestones 6 ... [More] and 7 never materialized. As previously planned, these missing features are being pushed back to the feature list for Aciqra 2.2 which is expected for June.Currently, all that remains to be done is the update system which will allow for updates to be downloaded directly from the internet. This has been mostly completed and will likely be ready in the next 12 hours. With this in mind, a final release is possible a few hours afterwards to allow for final testing and last-minute fixes. Therefore, if all goes as expected, the long-awaited Aciqra 2.1 will finally make its debut in under 24 hours. [Less]

DownloadWindows Installer (56.78 MB)Windows Archive (57.61 MB)Windows Installer - Bright Star Edition (2.56 MB)Windows Archive - Bright Star Edition (2.25 MB)Source Archive (Revision 76 from Subversion)After just ten days of development, Milestone 5 ... [More] is now complete and has been released. This release now adds support for the phases of the moon and planets as well as the 2.5 million star Tycho-2 catalog. In addition, coordinate grids are supported and will be drawn when enabled. For a complete list of changes, see the release statement on Caglow Central.The 2.5 million stars of the Tycho-2 catalog inflate the installer size to 57 MB which extracts to 184 MB. Obviously, not everyone can or wants to download such a large file and use up so much disk space, especially if it will be installed on a portable drive. Therefore, we have created the Aciqra 2 Milestone 5 (Bright Star Edition) which ships with the 9000-star Bright Star Catalog rather than Tycho-2 reducing the download to just 2.6 MB which extracts to 6.4 MB, perfectly suitable for space-limited portable drives. All downloads are available from the Aciqra downloads archive.Who is this for?Milestone 5 is now at the point where it can be used by anyone — with a catch of course. The Aciqra 2 series has developed into one that requires a lot of computational power and so may not be appropriate for extremely low-end computers. The Bright Star Edition is recommended for systems with less than 1.5 GB of RAM and should run with as little as 0.5 GB. The Tycho-2 (standard) version requires 1.5 GB to run smoothly. More importantly, it requires a processor with a speed of at least 4 GFlops (~1.5 GHz) and optimally 8 GFlops (~3 GHz) per core (if more than one).Anyone who's computer supports Milestone 5 is strongly recommended to try it. [Less]

DownloadWindows Installer (56.78 MB)Windows Archive (57.61 MB)Windows Installer - Bright Star Edition (2.56 MB)Windows Archive - Bright Star Edition (2.25 MB)Source Archive (Revision 76 from Subversion)After just ten days of development, Milestone 5 ... [More] is now complete and has been released. This release now adds support for the phases of the moon and planets as well as the 2.5 million star Tycho-2 catalog. In addition, coordinate grids are supported and will be drawn when enabled. For a complete list of changes, see the release statement on Caglow Central.The 2.5 million stars of the Tycho-2 catalog inflate the installer size to 57 MB which extracts to 184 MB. Obviously, not everyone can or wants to download such a large file and use up so much disk space, especially if it will be installed on a portable drive. Therefore, we have created the Aciqra 2 Milestone 5 (Bright Star Edition) which ships with the 9000-star Bright Star Catalog rather than Tycho-2 reducing the download to just 2.6 MB which extracts to 6.4 MB, perfectly suitable for space-limited portable drives. All downloads are available from the Aciqra downloads archive.Who is this for?Milestone 5 is now at the point where it can be used by anyone — with a catch of course. The Aciqra 2 series has developed into one that requires a lot of computational power and so may not be appropriate for extremely low-end computers. The Bright Star Edition is recommended for systems with less than 1.5 GB of RAM and should run with as little as 0.5 GB. The Tycho-2 (standard) version requires 1.5 GB to run smoothly. More importantly, it requires a processor with a speed of at least 4 GFlops (~1.5 GHz) and optimally 8 GFlops (~3 GHz) per core (if more than one).Anyone who's computer supports Milestone 5 is strongly recommended to try it. [Less]

With our recent announcement on the changes in the versioning system, the Aciqra project was infinitely complicated. That announcement created an overly complex foundation for the project on which all versions are built. Version strings could be four ... [More] numbers long when other projects such as Mozilla Firefox were simplifying their versions to be one number long and in the process, eliminate unnecessary complications. Since the Aciqra project is designed around the way versions are handled, an overly complex versioning system meant an overly complex project — something that's just asking for trouble.With that in mind, the versioning policy was revised again — this time simplifying it. Though the new policies are not yet officially in effect to allow for a transition, they will start to become increasingly common as it guides the Aciqra project into the future. [Less]

With our recent announcement on the changes in the versioning system, the Aciqra project was infinitely complicated. That announcement created an overly complex foundation for the project on which all versions are built. Version strings could be four ... [More] numbers long when other projects such as Mozilla Firefox were simplifying their versions to be one number long and in the process, eliminate unnecessary complications. Since the Aciqra project is designed around the way versions are handled, an overly complex versioning system meant an overly complex project — something that's just asking for trouble.With that in mind, the versioning policy was revised again — this time simplifying it. Though the new policies are not yet officially in effect to allow for a transition, they will start to become increasingly common as it guides the Aciqra project into the future. [Less]

The versioning aspects of this article are now irrelevant due to a policy reversal that changed the project's versioning system.It is still early to discuss what may come after the initial release of Fairweather. However, with 1.0 approaching, basic ... [More] planning is being done on what may be in store for the next release. And yes, that next release will Fairweather 1.2, not 1.1 or 2.0 as previously suggested. The 1.1 series will be a series of milestones like the 0.x series was.Fairweather 1.2 will be a moderate-sized release. There will be some, but not a tremendous number of new features to be added. Currently, the only features planned for the release are those that are completed in time for the release of 1.0. The rest will be improvements and extensions to existing features such as telescope control and appearance as well as extensive optimizations, usability tweaks.The official sub-release name is "Grand Canyon" falling under the Fairweather (Grand) release. A final release will be made no later than June 3, 2012 to be able to be used during the 2012 Transit of Venus. A total of three milestones will be released in February, April and May, 2012 in a similar manner to how the original milestones were released. [Less]

The versioning aspects of this article are now irrelevant due to a policy reversal that changed the project's versioning system.It is still early to discuss what may come after the initial release of Fairweather. However, with 1.0 approaching, basic ... [More] planning is being done on what may be in store for the next release. And yes, that next release will Fairweather 1.2, not 1.1 or 2.0 as previously suggested. The 1.1 series will be a series of milestones like the 0.x series was.Fairweather 1.2 will be a moderate-sized release. There will be some, but not a tremendous number of new features to be added. Currently, the only features planned for the release are those that are completed in time for the release of 1.0. The rest will be improvements and extensions to existing features such as telescope control and appearance as well as extensive optimizations, usability tweaks.The official sub-release name is "Grand Canyon" falling under the Fairweather (Grand) release. A final release will be made no later than June 3, 2012 to be able to be used during the 2012 Transit of Venus. A total of three milestones will be released in February, April and May, 2012 in a similar manner to how the original milestones were released. [Less]

After another month (and a week) of development, Fairweather Milestone 4 is complete. For a full list of changes, see the release statement on Caglow Central. As always, downloads are available through the Aciqra downloads archive and source code is ... [More] available through Subversion.Why Is It Slower?Milestone 4 includes the long-awaited runtime time control feature. A copy of the star database has to be stored in memory to recalculate star positions (for proper motion and precession) after changing the time by many years. This means it will take up a lot more memory which may result in severe runtime slowdowns for those using 1GB of RAM or less. For everyone else, the slowdown will appear at startup due to the need to create that copy of the star database.Who Should Download This?Milestone 4 is a substantial improvement over Milestone 3 and should be usable by the average user. Therefore, it is now recommended as a viable alternative for Snowy despite having major gaps in features which are not yet implemented. Those looking for completeness should stick with Snowy. Those who are fine with not having certain features such as grids may find Fairweather to be a better option.What's Next?After four come five, six and seven (and final release). Each should have its own share of great new features as the push for Fairweather 1.0 continues. Milestone 5 is expected in early September with 6 and 7 being 1 and 2 months after that respectively. The final release is still predicted to be in late December. Keep up to date with the Aciqra 2 Milestones. [Less]