The first series of video tutorials for Deep-Sky Planner have been posted in the video library at the Knightware website and on the Knightware channel at YouTube. The videos are short (~5 minutes each) and can be watched online from either location. Enjoy!
The first series demonstrates using Deep-Sky Planner's Show Chart function with planetarium programs TheSky6, Redshift 7 and Starry Night 6. The latter is posted below as an example. Please stay tuned as more videos will be added to the library over the summer.
Thanks for watching!
18 June 2009
11 May 2009
Now Playing on YouTube
Customers have requested tutorial videos for our software products, so we have created a channel on YouTube for these videos. You can access the channel at http://www.youtube.com/knightwareontube.
The first series of videos covers the new SQM Reader Pro product. You can watch these either on the Knightware website (http://knightware.biz/sqm/readerpro_video.htm) or on Knightware's YouTube channel. For those new to YouTube, you don't need an account to watch, just visit either web page and click play on the video player.
Your comments on the videos are welcome. You can send them via e-mail, post a comment at YouTube, or post to the product's Yahoo Group.
More videos will be published soon so please stay tuned. Thanks for watching!
The first series of videos covers the new SQM Reader Pro product. You can watch these either on the Knightware website (http://knightware.biz/sqm/readerpro_video.htm) or on Knightware's YouTube channel. For those new to YouTube, you don't need an account to watch, just visit either web page and click play on the video player.
Your comments on the videos are welcome. You can send them via e-mail, post a comment at YouTube, or post to the product's Yahoo Group.
More videos will be published soon so please stay tuned. Thanks for watching!
07 May 2009
SQM Reader Pro Introductory Price Expires Soon
SQM Reader Pro has been on the market now for a few months. The introductory price for digital download and CD versions will increase on June 15, but the prices will remain extremely reasonable. SQM Reader will remain available by digital delivery at no charge.
Why the increase in a soft economy? As you might expect, there are many reasons. First, there were investments in several software products used to develop and support the new product. Those expenses need to be recovered to make way for further product development at Knightware. Furthermore, and very fortunately, demand has exceeded expectations. The product is already in use on every continent except Africa and Antarctica. Users' feedback on functionality and ease of use has been very positive.
Many of the new technologies used in SQM Reader Pro are finding their way into Deep-Sky Planner. This includes more than just reading the meter. Look for more on this in future posts. In the meantime, if you're thinking about getting a copy of SQM Reader Pro, you may want to grab one before the increase takes effect.
Why the increase in a soft economy? As you might expect, there are many reasons. First, there were investments in several software products used to develop and support the new product. Those expenses need to be recovered to make way for further product development at Knightware. Furthermore, and very fortunately, demand has exceeded expectations. The product is already in use on every continent except Africa and Antarctica. Users' feedback on functionality and ease of use has been very positive.
Many of the new technologies used in SQM Reader Pro are finding their way into Deep-Sky Planner. This includes more than just reading the meter. Look for more on this in future posts. In the meantime, if you're thinking about getting a copy of SQM Reader Pro, you may want to grab one before the increase takes effect.
19 March 2009
A Record Month for Software Releases
It has been a busy 4 weeks for releases at Knightware. A new product, SQM Reader Pro, was released in mid-February followed by the release of updates to SQM Reader and Deep-Sky Planner. SQM Reader Pro introduces a new capability for Knightware - digital delivery of purchased software. It will be interesting to see how digital delivery compares to delivery of physical media (CD.)
The early March update to Deep-Sky Planner addressed a problem with using TheSky6 to control a telescope while using the 'Slew To' feature in a Deep-Sky Planner report. This problem was critical for users of Software Bisque's Paramount ME because it can only be controlled by TheSky. With this update, users of TheSky6 should be squared away.
That brings us to mid-March and the second update to Deep-Sky Planner in 4 weeks time - a record for the product. The need for a second update came out of the blue, but was nonetheless worthwhile.
A new version of Redshift was released recently (Redshift 7 Premium) and Deep-Sky Planner needed a minor change to support interoperation with it. Deep-Sky Planner 4 has supported Redshift 6 Premium since Oct 2007.
Redshift 7 Premium is already available (starting in December in Europe and in January in the US market where version 6 was never officially sold), and it is an 'IYA2009 Official Product' - see http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/products/redshift/ Furthermore, Redshift 7 Premium and Deep-Sky Planner 4 will be demonstrated working together at a star party hosted by United Soft Media (publishers of Redshift) and Baader Planetarium in Munich in early April. Catch that if you can - the event is a part of the worldwide "100 Hours of Astronomy".
And finally, an apology for update madness...
As a customer of many software products, I might find updating my product twice in one month to be excessive, but this has been an unusual situation that I believe merited quick attention. It's too bad that release timing wasn't a little different: testing updates is very time consuming and ranks high in tedium. Hopefully this will be it for a while!
The early March update to Deep-Sky Planner addressed a problem with using TheSky6 to control a telescope while using the 'Slew To' feature in a Deep-Sky Planner report. This problem was critical for users of Software Bisque's Paramount ME because it can only be controlled by TheSky. With this update, users of TheSky6 should be squared away.
That brings us to mid-March and the second update to Deep-Sky Planner in 4 weeks time - a record for the product. The need for a second update came out of the blue, but was nonetheless worthwhile.
A new version of Redshift was released recently (Redshift 7 Premium) and Deep-Sky Planner needed a minor change to support interoperation with it. Deep-Sky Planner 4 has supported Redshift 6 Premium since Oct 2007.
Redshift 7 Premium is already available (starting in December in Europe and in January in the US market where version 6 was never officially sold), and it is an 'IYA2009 Official Product' - see http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/products/redshift/ Furthermore, Redshift 7 Premium and Deep-Sky Planner 4 will be demonstrated working together at a star party hosted by United Soft Media (publishers of Redshift) and Baader Planetarium in Munich in early April. Catch that if you can - the event is a part of the worldwide "100 Hours of Astronomy".
And finally, an apology for update madness...
As a customer of many software products, I might find updating my product twice in one month to be excessive, but this has been an unusual situation that I believe merited quick attention. It's too bad that release timing wasn't a little different: testing updates is very time consuming and ranks high in tedium. Hopefully this will be it for a while!
17 February 2009
SQM Reader Pro 1.0 is released
SQM Reader Pro has been released, giving owners of the Sky Quality Meter with Lens and Ethernet a new tool to read their meter. If you own an SQM-LE and use Windows, this software really can do a lot for you. You can check it out at http://knightware.biz/sqm/readerpro.htm
This project has been one of the most efficient in my 27 years of software engineering. The beta test went extremely well thanks to responsive, thorough team members. Even the resource and memory leak testing went without a hitch.
This has been a special project as it has brought together 18 years of experience in reading and managing data from meters, and the opportunity to empower people to argue the light pollution point with hard facts. It's also intriguing to be able to know how dark the sky is at any location in real-time - a boon for astrophotographers working remotely.
This project has been one of the most efficient in my 27 years of software engineering. The beta test went extremely well thanks to responsive, thorough team members. Even the resource and memory leak testing went without a hitch.
This has been a special project as it has brought together 18 years of experience in reading and managing data from meters, and the opportunity to empower people to argue the light pollution point with hard facts. It's also intriguing to be able to know how dark the sky is at any location in real-time - a boon for astrophotographers working remotely.
02 February 2009
SQM Reader Pro entering beta test
Over the past few months I have received a number of requests for enhancements to SQM-LE Reader (released Sep 2008.) As a result, I have added these enhancements to a new product that will be called SQM Reader Pro. SQM-LE Reader will continue to be available for free, although the title will be changed to SQM Reader.
SQM Reader Pro will most likely be available in March. Details of the product's features will be announced on knightware.biz after the beta test is complete, but generally you can look for a Windows program that reads an SQM-LE device, displays the latest reading, a graph of recent readings and some elementary statistics (min, max, mean and standard deviation.) The product will include the ability to send an image of the latest reading or the latest graph as a JPEG file to a web site using FTP, or to a processing program, script or batch file.
This project has married together my years of experience in developing software for the electrical power metering industry and my interest in quantifying the darkness of our night sky.
SQM Reader Pro will most likely be available in March. Details of the product's features will be announced on knightware.biz after the beta test is complete, but generally you can look for a Windows program that reads an SQM-LE device, displays the latest reading, a graph of recent readings and some elementary statistics (min, max, mean and standard deviation.) The product will include the ability to send an image of the latest reading or the latest graph as a JPEG file to a web site using FTP, or to a processing program, script or batch file.
This project has married together my years of experience in developing software for the electrical power metering industry and my interest in quantifying the darkness of our night sky.
30 January 2009
Logging Standard Update
In my last few posts, I've talked about logging standards and a promising project under development that may bring a common observation exchange format to the astronomical community. This project has moved forward and has undergone some changes recently. The project described on this blog and formerly known as COMAST has been renamed to OpenAstronomyLog - or <OAL> for short - and it has a new home on the Web at http://groups.google.com/group/openastronomylog . Although the website is under construction now, it is a repository for developer information and discussion among users and developers.
There are a number of participants in the project that are working toward an upcoming release of the standard that will encompass several enhancements to the previous release (COMAST v1.7) and will, of course, sport the new project name <OAL>. Deep-Sky Planner does not yet support <OAL> but will do so in a future release. Considerable R&D time has been spent over the past months preparing to support the standard and making minor contributions to it. In-house tools have been developed for converting existing DSP4 observations to and from the standard format, so the concept is proven.
Hopefully the issues that arose for this developer can be addressed in material on the OpenAstronomyLog website so that other developers can adopt the standard easily. I invite you to visit the website and consider how saving your observations in an open exchange format might benefit you and the astronomical community at large.
There are a number of participants in the project that are working toward an upcoming release of the standard that will encompass several enhancements to the previous release (COMAST v1.7) and will, of course, sport the new project name <OAL>. Deep-Sky Planner does not yet support <OAL> but will do so in a future release. Considerable R&D time has been spent over the past months preparing to support the standard and making minor contributions to it. In-house tools have been developed for converting existing DSP4 observations to and from the standard format, so the concept is proven.
Hopefully the issues that arose for this developer can be addressed in material on the OpenAstronomyLog website so that other developers can adopt the standard easily. I invite you to visit the website and consider how saving your observations in an open exchange format might benefit you and the astronomical community at large.
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