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WinStars Changelog

What's new in WinStars 3.0.301 (28/12/2023)

Dec 29, 2023
  • Various corrections and improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.293 (10/20/2023) (Oct 20, 2023)

  • All compilations use Qt 6.5 (except the Windows x86 version, which remains at Qt 5.11 for compatibility reasons).
  • Better support for artificial satellites.
  • The program now manages 40,000 asteroids.

New in WinStars 3.0.292 (2023/09/13) (Sep 13, 2023)

  • WinStars 3 is now free!

New in WinStars 3.0.287 (06/17/2023) (Jun 17, 2023)

  • Rayleigh scattering for a more realistic representation of the atmosphere.
  • Visualization of the orbits of the planets in planetary mode.
  • Manual adjustment of the brightness of the sky background.
  • Qt 5.15.9 on all platforms.

New in WinStars 3.0.286 (06/05/2023) (Jun 5, 2023)

  • Android: test all W3 features during 24h!
  • Android: Qt 5.15.9

New in WinStars 3.0.286 (04/16/2023) (Apr 16, 2023)

  • The Hubble telescope recovers its orientation in real time in W3.

New in WinStars 3.0.281 (2023/26/03) (Mar 26, 2023)

  • Improved appearance of stars in “3D Navigation” mode (activate “star3d” module).
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.278 (2023/03/03) (Mar 4, 2023)

  • Reorganization of the scientific news in the “Presentation” box.

New in WinStars 3.0.276 (03/02/2023) (Mar 2, 2023)

  • Reorganization of the scientific news in the “Presentation” box.

New in WinStars 3.0.270 (12/15/2022) (Dec 15, 2022)

  • Access the astronomical news by clicking on the i symbols that now appear on the maps.
  • Fixes a problem affecting the download of GaiaEDR3 data.

New in WinStars 3.0.269 (11/23/2022) (Nov 23, 2022)

  • First 3D landscapes (you can move around using SHIFT + directional arrows).
  • Updating of the trajectory of Artemis I.

New in WinStars 3.0.268 (11/18/2022) (Nov 18, 2022)

  • Introduction of all known exoplanets (only visible in the planetarium mode for the moment. It is possible to get the complete list by typing list exo in the search box).
  • Mission Artemis 1.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.263(10/25/2022) (Oct 25, 2022)

  • Upgraded to Qt 6.4.
  • Bug fixes.

New in WinStars 3.0.261 (07/02/2022) (Jul 3, 2022)

  • Milky Way a little brighter. More stars visible at the same time (Android or iOS: reset the settings for best results).

New in WinStars 3.0.258 (2022/06/24) (Jun 25, 2022)

  • Added a thread to load textures faster.

New in WinStars 3.0.254 (2022/06/14) (Jun 15, 2022)

  • Added new deep sky catalogs (more than 100000 additional objects).
  • Possibility to find a deep sky object by entering in the search box – these are examples – Messier 1, M 13, NGC 1305, C 875, B 123, LDN 165, LBN 132, PGC 123343…

New in WinStars 3.0.253 (2022/06/03) (Jun 3, 2022)

  • Enhanced calculations of object positions.
  • New optimizations

New in WinStars 3.0.251 (2022/05/30) (May 31, 2022)

  • It is now possible to walk on the surface of Mars, Moon and Earth.

New in WinStars 3.0.251 (05/30/2022) (May 31, 2022)

  • It is now possible to walk on the surface of Mars, Moon and Earth.

New in WinStars 3.0.248 (2022/05/14) (May 15, 2022)

  • Better integration of the 280b and GaiaEDR3 catalogs.
  • Updated OpenNGC catalog.
  • Qt version 5.15.4
  • New labels available for stars (HD or HIP numbers).
  • Many improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.244 (04/30/2022) (May 1, 2022)

  • Significant improvement of the DSS (Digitized Sky Survey) function.
  • Creation of a cache server to speed up the downloading of DSS images and stars from the Gaia EDR3 catalog.

New in WinStars 3.0.243 (03/23/2022) (Mar 23, 2022)

  • Improved accuracy of the positions of the satellites of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
  • Addition of the small satellites Calypso, Helene and Telesto around Saturn.

New in WinStars 3.0.241 (03/09/2022) (Mar 9, 2022)

  • Optimization of the program.
  • Improvement of the camera movements.

New in WinStars 3.0.239 (12/20/2021) (Dec 20, 2021)

  • JWST (available after launch), TESS and Kepler missions.

New in WinStars 3.0.238 (11/29/2021) (Nov 30, 2021)

  • More detailed information boxes.

New in WinStars 3.0.236 (11/20/2021) (Nov 21, 2021)

  • Updated images of the most important deep sky objects.
  • Local copy of the W3 database to limit the access of the program to the Internet.

New in WinStars 3.0.234 (05/11/2021) (Nov 5, 2021)

  • Improved rendering of planetary surfaces.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.230 (24/10/2021) (Oct 25, 2021)

  • Relief rendering of some satellites of Jupiter and Saturn.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.227 (10/04/2021) (Oct 4, 2021)

  • Objects are no longer locked by default.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.225 (09/29/2021) (Sep 29, 2021)

  • Rosetta mission.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.223 (09/17/2021) (Sep 17, 2021)

  • Much cleaner fonts.
  • 35000 new asteroids.
  • Faster program on some configurations.

New in WinStars 3.0.222 (09/15/2021) (Sep 15, 2021)

  • Optimisation of the 3d representation of the surface of the Earth, Mars and the Moon.
  • Android (paid version) : the 3d display of surfaces is now possible, but you need a device compatible with the standard openGL ES 3.2 or more.

New in WinStars 3.0.220 (09/11/2021) (Sep 12, 2021)

  • In the paid version, asteroids and comets are represented individually in 3D using different methods: space imagery, radar imagery or light curves (limited to identification numbers < 100 for the moment).

New in WinStars 3.0.219 (08/28/2021) (Aug 28, 2021)

  • More efficient zooming

New in WinStars 3.0.218 (07/15/2021) (Jul 15, 2021)

  • Fixed a problem affecting the display of planets in planetarium mode.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.207 (05/21/2021) (Jun 7, 2021)

  • Bugs fixed.

New in WinStars 3.0.204 (04/22/2021) (Apr 22, 2021)

  • Improved appearance of the stars (in particular, it is now possible to adjust the color saturation).

New in WinStars 3.0.203 (04/16/2021) (Apr 16, 2021)

  • WinStars 3 is now compatible with the Rapsberry Pi 4 & 400 nanocomputers.
  • Improved interface.

New in WinStars 3.0.199 (04/06/2021) (Apr 6, 2021)

  • DSS in color
  • Improved interface

New in WinStars 3.0.196 (2021/04/01) (Apr 2, 2021)

  • New settings available in Display/Options.

New in WinStars 3.0.194 (2021/03/29) (Mar 29, 2021)

  • Improved font and color settings box.

New in WinStars 3.0.192 (2021/03/21) (Mar 22, 2021)

  • Improved font and color settings box

New in WinStars 3.0.191 (2021/03/15) (Mar 15, 2021)

  • New presentation of the dialog boxes.

New in WinStars 3.0.189 (2021/02/13) (Feb 13, 2021)

  • New menu (classic) to remove icons.
  • Improvement of the interface.

New in WinStars 3.0.188 (2021/01/30) (Jan 31, 2021)

  • Updated Gaia catalogue (EDR3

New in WinStars 3.0.187 (2021/01/21) (Jan 22, 2021)

  • Translation into Bulgarian

New in WinStars 3.0.183 (01/13/2021) (Jan 13, 2021)

  • Faster text display.
  • The program regularly consults a weather website to automatically collect the pressure and temperature of the observation site.
  • Correction of a bug affecting the entry of negative numbers in dialog boxes.
  • New shortcuts.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.182 (01/06/2021) (Jan 6, 2021)

  • It is now possible to select an object by keeping a long press on it.
  • Improved 3D visualisation of the stars when moving among them.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.181 (30/12/2020) (Dec 30, 2020)

  • Very significant improvement of graphics performance. W3 now works on the smallest Android devices.
  • Bug fixes.
  • Various enhancements.

New in WinStars 3.0.180 (22/12/2020) (Dec 22, 2020)

  • New optimizations.

New in WinStars 3.0.179 (20/12/2020) (Dec 20, 2020)

  • New optimizations.

New in WinStars 3.0.176 (16/12/2020) (Dec 16, 2020)

  • Performance improvements.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.175 (14/12/2020) (Dec 14, 2020)

  • Performance improvements.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.173 (12/03/2020) (Dec 6, 2020)

  • Improvement of the Search box (you can now type a name without diacritical signs).
  • Performance improvements.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.172 (11/28/2020) (Nov 28, 2020)

  • What is the origin of the names of the stars? (learning module).

New in WinStars 3.0.167 (11/15/2020) (Nov 15, 2020)

  • A new feature “Tonight” has been added (under development)
  • Various improvements

New in WinStars 3.0.166 (10/31/2020) (Oct 31, 2020)

  • Improvement of the representation of the constellations
  • Update of the OpenNGC catalogue

New in WinStars 3.0.165 (Oct 27, 2020)

  • Star names in Russian (thank you Sergey!)
  • Various fixes…

New in WinStars 3.0.162 (Oct 27, 2020)

  • Icons to locate deep sky objects more easily.
  • The new ” learning astronomy ” function is developing rapidly.
  • The program speaks!

New in WinStars 3.0.159 (10/11/2020) (Oct 11, 2020)

  • Integration of users’ suggestions.

New in WinStars 3.0.157 (10/08/2020) (Oct 8, 2020)

  • Implementation of an astronomy education module (under development)
  • Asteroids and comets will gradually be represented with their real form.
  • Correction of defects in the interface.

New in WinStars 3.0.151 (09/10/2020) (Sep 10, 2020)

  • Introduction of a new option to reduce the amount of text displayed on the starry sky. This option is useful for small configurations (phones, tablets).

New in WinStars 3.0.148 (09/04/2020) (Sep 7, 2020)

  • Planetarium mode: corrected many defects that appear when using a high magnification (imprecise pointer coordinates, misalignment of DSS plates, difficulties in selecting an object).
  • Planetarium mode: the Moon is represented with better resolution if textures are available.
  • Planetarium mode: the planet surface is rendered faster.

New in WinStars 3.0.147 (2020/09/02) (Sep 2, 2020)

  • WinStars uses Indi (https://indilib.org/) for controlling telescopes under macOS.

New in WinStars 3.0.146 (2020/09/01) (Sep 1, 2020)

  • WinStars uses Indi (https://indilib.org/) for controlling telescopes under Linux.
  • Bugs correction.

New in WinStars 3.0.145 (2020/08/24) (Aug 24, 2020)

  • The interface and 3d visualization now work at the same speed. By clicking on a window and moving it to the left, it is now possible to close it.

New in WinStars 3.0.144 (2020/08/22) (Aug 22, 2020)

  • Correction of the interface
  • First iOS tests

New in WinStars 3.0.141 (2020/08/02) (Aug 2, 2020)

  • Faster rendering
  • Preparation of an iOS version

New in WinStars 3.0.136 (2020/05/12) (May 12, 2020)

  • Better stability

New in WinStars 3.0.134 (2020/05/05) (May 5, 2020)

  • Improved font display.

New in WinStars 3.0.132 (2020/04/30) (May 1, 2020)

  • Geologic map of the Moon (US Geological Survey).

New in WinStars 3.0.131 (04/28/2020) (Apr 28, 2020)

  • Improved orbits representation.

New in WinStars 3.0.129 (04/19/2020) (Apr 19, 2020)

  • Android: Interface improvement.

New in WinStars 3.0.128 (04/12/2020) (Apr 12, 2020)

  • Integration of the DE438 planetary model from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
  • Code refactoring of the source code.
  • Bug fixes.

New in WinStars 3.0.121 (03/06/2020) (Mar 8, 2020)

  • Displaying the Starlink megaconstellation.

New in WinStars 3.0.118 (02/24/2020) (Feb 25, 2020)

  • Introduction of tessellation: the surface of planets in 3D.

New in WinStars 3.0.115 (02/11/2020) (Feb 11, 2020)

  • New “Search” dialog box
  • Improved video mode.
  • Windows, Linux: reduction in the amount of data to download during an update.

New in WinStars 3.0.113 (02/07/2020) (Feb 7, 2020)

  • Better sky color according to the time of day.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.110 (01/25/2020) (Jan 25, 2020)

  • Switching to OpenGL 3.3 graphics standards for desktop versions and OpenGL ES 3.0 for mobile versions.
  • Use of Vertex Array Objects to speed up the display of the stars.
  • Improvement of the Saturn representation.
  • Fixed a bug affecting the search of the objects.
  • Android: dialog boxes never accepted text input from the virtual keyboard !
  • Fixed a bug that caused stars with magnitude greater than 13 to be displayed several times and slowed down the program considerably.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.106 (01/15/2020) (Jan 16, 2020)

  • Fixed bugs affecting the fullscreen mode.

New in WinStars 3.0.104 (26/12/2019) (Dec 26, 2019)

  • Real-time magnitude of Betelgeuse.
  • Modification of the Animations box.
  • New icon in the menu system used to reverse the time.

New in WinStars 3.0.103 (22/12/2019) (Dec 23, 2019)

  • Fixed a problem with the Presentation box.

New in WinStars 3.0.102 (12/11/2019) (Dec 11, 2019)

  • Fixed a problem with the Presentation box.

New in WinStars 3.0.101 (12/10/2019) (Dec 10, 2019)

  • Introduction of the delta T time correction by Espenak and Meeus (2006).
  • Reverse the double left and right mouse clicks for better use on PCs with touch screens.
  • Updated libraries used by WinStars (Assimp, Quazip, zlib, Freetype).
  • Online documentation.
  • Various improvements.

New in WinStars 3.0.99 (2019/11/15) (Nov 16, 2019)

  • Performance improvements

New in WinStars 3.0.98 (2019/11/13) (Nov 13, 2019)

  • Performance improvements
  • Android: better display of menus

New in WinStars 3.0.97 (2019/11/05) (Nov 5, 2019)

  • Improved interface

New in WinStars 3.0.96 (2019/10/22) (Oct 22, 2019)

  • Better font rendering
  • Best framerate

New in WinStars 3.0.94 (2019/10/19) (Oct 20, 2019)

  • Improved interface (font size and colors, adjustable width of the “Information” box).
  • Improvement of the “Ephemeris” box.
  • Android : improvement of the “virtual reality mode”.

New in WinStars 3.0.90 (2019/07/20) (Jul 20, 2019)

  • Apollo 11 module : A small homage to the first steps on the Moon.
  • Translation of WinStars (website and software) into Russian. Thanks Sergey !

New in WinStars 3.0.88 (2019/07/16) (Jul 16, 2019)

  • Galactic Module: Explore in 3D large clusters of galaxies

New in WinStars 3.0.87 (07/16/2019) (Jul 16, 2019)

  • Galactic Module: Explore in 3D large clusters of galaxies

New in WinStars 3.0.86 (06/17/2019) (Jul 16, 2019)

  • Real time Hubble’s orientation

New in WinStars 3.0.85 (06/10/2019) (Jun 11, 2019)

  • The German version is complete (thank you Pedro!)
  • Preparation of the 3D navigation among the galaxies of the EDD catalogue

New in WinStars 3.0.84 (06/01/2019) (Jun 3, 2019)

  • The AD/Dec and Azi/hau grids finally have labels

New in WinStars 3.0.83 (05/28/2019) (May 28, 2019)

  • New Deep Sky Catalogue (open NGC)

New in WinStars 3.0.81 (05/21/2019) (May 21, 2019)

  • Source code refactoring
  • German translation (thanks Pedro Gomez!)

New in WinStars 3.0.79 (05/02/2019) (May 2, 2019)

  • Improved 3D navigation among stars
  • Optimized module decompression

New in WinStars 3.0.78 (04/27/2019) (Apr 26, 2019)

  • Rotation around objects is now easier with the mouse
  • Bug fixes

New in WinStars 3.0.75 (04/19/2019) (Apr 19, 2019)

  • Addition of the Gaia DR 2 catalogue
  • Update of the SAC catalogue
  • Various improvements

New in WinStars 3.0.74 (03/27/2019) (Mar 27, 2019)

  • Improvement of the rendering of the surface of the planets
  • Enhanced display of 3D objects
  • Bug fixes

New in WinStars 3.0.72 (03/07/2019) (Mar 7, 2019)

  • The satellites are visible in the planetarium mode.
  • Still in planetarium mode, the Moon’s surface is now represented using high resolution textures. Place names are also displayed.
  • 3D object display improved

New in WinStars 3.0.68 (02/14/2019) (Feb 15, 2019)

  • Displays the position of many artificial satellites around the Earth.
  • WinStars will work even in the case of a main server failure.

New in WinStars 3.0.66 (01/25/2019) (Jan 25, 2019)

  • Faster line drawing

New in WinStars 3.0.65 (01/23/2019) (Jan 23, 2019)

  • Faster text display

New in WinStars 3.0.64 (01/21/2019) (Jan 21, 2019)

  • More accurate selection of objects in planetarium mode
  • Improvement of the interface

New in WinStars 3.0.63 (01/18/2019) (Jan 19, 2019)

  • Improvement of the interface

New in WinStars 3.0.61 (01/12/2019) (Jan 12, 2019)

  • New “Geographical position” dialog box

New in WinStars 3.0.60 (01/07/2019) (Jan 7, 2019)

  • New landscapes
  • Interface improvements
  • Fixed a problem with white boxes displayed on Intel HD Graphics

New in WinStars 3.0.58 Build 1282 (Jan 5, 2019)

  • Fixed a problem with textures on 3D objects
  • Improvement of the fisheye effect

New in WinStars 3.0.57 (Jan 2, 2019)

  • New optimisations
  • Bug fixes

New in WinStars 3.0.56 Build 1231 (Dec 24, 2018)

  • This version manages objects in fbx format and improves the 3D rendering speed.

New in WinStars 3.0.52 Build 1186 (Aug 27, 2018)

  • New planetary surface rendering technique
  • New textures
  • Sun reflection in the oceans
  • Displays the names of craters, plains and fissures visible on the surface of planets and satellites
  • Fixed a bug affecting comets and asteroids

New in WinStars 3.0.51 Build 1138 (Aug 10, 2018)

  • New “time and date” dialog box
  • Symbolic representation of deep sky objects
  • Many interface improvements
  • New icon to adjust the sky view according to the device’s sensors
  • Fixed a bug affecting the saving of parameters
  • Spanish Translation

New in WinStars 3.0.31 Build 1055 (Jul 16, 2018)

  • Software performance optimization
  • “news” dialog box
  • Brighter sky for a better usability
  • Bug correction

New in WinStars 3.0.30 Build 1035 (Jun 19, 2018)

  • The “observer position” dialog box has disappeared due to the update to version 5.11 of Qt
  • In planetarium mode, the display disappeared if you searched the Earth

New in WinStars 3.0.29 Build 1028 (May 28, 2018)

  • First stable version of WinStars 3
  • Bugs fixed

New in WinStars 3.0.26 Beta (May 21, 2018)

  • Adding a video module
  • Eyepieces management
  • Changing menus in the Android version

New in WinStars 3.0.24 Build 1004 Beta (Apr 26, 2018)

  • Faster line drawing
  • Display menus faster
  • Correction of errors concerning the precession of equinoxes
  • Calculation optimization
  • New “Ephemeris” dialog box
  • Various adjustments (zoom limitation, ability to copy text from the information box and ephemeris)

New in WinStars 3.0.23 Build 971 Beta (Apr 10, 2018)

  • Better moon surface rendering
  • Faster rendering of the “information” dialog box
  • Adjusting the screen brightness
  • Night mode
  • Fixed an issue with loading fonts

New in WinStars 3.0.22 Build 941 Beta (Apr 3, 2018)

  • New module “Oumuamua”
  • Various improvements

New in WinStars 3.0.21 Beta (Apr 3, 2018)

  • Full screen mode
  • Access to Wikipedia pages for main objects
  • Improved fonts and colors
  • Improved module management
  • Many bugs fixed

New in WinStars 3.0.20 Beta (Apr 3, 2018)

  • Fixed a bug that causes a crash of the program when comets and/or asteroids are activated

New in WinStars 2.0.79 R3 (Apr 18, 2012)

  • The asteroids database grows up to 9000 objects.

New in WinStars 2.0.79 R2 (Apr 18, 2012)

  • Correction of a problem concerning the impossibility to update orbital elements for asteroids

New in WinStars 2.0.79 R1 (Oct 5, 2010)

  • New source of orbital elements. If you have a bad position of the comet 103P/Hartley 2 in the software, just update the program and then update the orbital parameters.

New in WinStars 2.0.79 R0 (Mar 9, 2010)

  • Fix some bugs.

New in WinStars 2.0.78 R9 (Mar 25, 2009)

  • New DSS function.
  • Updated to be compatible with Windows Vista.
  • Several BOINC(Seti@Home) compatibility improvements.
  • Fixed a lot of bugs

New in WinStars 2.074 R2 (Apr 11, 2006)

  • We can add some notes in every "information" windows.
  • Improved rendering in planetarium mode
  • Now compatible with the seti@home BOINC version
  • Some improvements to the ASCOM drivers and the telescopes.