v23.3

[alex-w]

The installers are located in the "Assets" section at the end of these release notes!

Release notes

3.3 [2023-09-25]
The Stellarium Team has released version 23.3.

The major changes of this version:

• New plugin: Missing Stars
• Allow semitransparent landscapes
• Added discovery circumstances for Solar system bodies
• Improve orbit drawing for minor bodies
• Show named impact features as ellipses
• Major changes in Navigational Stars plugin
• Observing List fixes
• Unambiguous comet names

Behind the scenes, many more minor issues were fixed.

TELESCOPE USERS

We have identified and fixed some bugs in the TelescopeControl plugin on the Qt6-based releases.

Telescope users, please try whether this solves your problems.
If not, we are looking for those of you with programming skills to help us fixing remaining issues. Reward possible!

What's Changed

Full list of changes:

• Added ability to define directory for observing lists (GH: Observing list export/import path #3165)
• Added new plugin - "Missing Stars" (GH: New plugin "Missing Stars" #3399, Missing star at position 7h 37m 35.s773 -14° 25' 8".11 #2998, Missing stars in Stellarium #1907, many stars missing from orion trapezium cluster #361, Sigma Ori C(mag 8.8) star missed from full star catalog #116)
• Added scriptable method and shortcut for toggle visibility the markers of selected objects
• Added support smooth orbit lines (GH: Smooth orbit lines (esp. for comets) #3371)
• Added support drawing of orbits on open KeplerOrbits (GH: Restore drawing of orbits on open KeplerOrbits. #3359)
• Added patch to use qt.conf on windows via QtCreator (GH: Add qt.conf to the build directory #3345)
• Added scalar versions of sRGB-linear conversions
• Added option to add or exclude moon orbits for planets/selected objects (GH: Fix: orbit details #3348)
• Added another option and StelApp method to allow storing config items immediately (GH: Fix: orbit details #3348)
• Added new set of navigational stars: Soviet aviation
• Added new set of navigational stars: Soviet/Russian manned space programs
• Added new set of navigational stars: Vixen Starbook
• Added new set of navigational stars: Argo Navis
• Added new set of navigational stars: Orion Intelliscope
• Added new set of navigational stars: Sky Commander
• Added "is-waning" to planet info map
• Added Skywatcher SynScan HC and Pro App alignment stars for Navigational Stars plugin (GH: Add Skywatcher SynScan HC and Pro App alignment stars #3327)
• Added Meade Autostar 494/497 HC alignment stars for Navigational Stars plugin
• Added set of navigational stars from Apollo space program for Navigational Stars plugin
• Added show current location of object for AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool (GH: AstroCalc: show current location of object #3289, astronomical calc: show current object #2937)
• Added missing timezone (GH: Summary of unknown TimeZones: "Asia/Calcutta" #3316)
• Added support transparency for landscapes (GH: Add support transparency for landscapes #3293, Allow opacity setting for ground_color in polygonal landscapes #3214)
• Added discovery circumstances for comet P/2023 M1
• Added CLI option for logfile name
• Fixed blending DSO hints (GH: New DSO marker colour problems #3302)
• Fixed type for Interstellar objects in Solar System Editor plugin
• Fixed bad performance in Mac M1 (GH: Bad Performance in Mac M2 #2947)
• Fixed crash in Telescope Control plugin for Qt6-based packages (GH: Crashes of Stellarium 1.1 (1.22.4 based on Qt 6.4) #2874, stellarium-1.1.1-qt6-win64.exe quits when using SharpCap #2821)
• Fixed background color for artwork (GH: Ugly artefacts in the Leiden Aratea skyculture #3299)
• Fixed handling Stellarium' scripts on Macs
• Fixed mistake in DSO catalog
• Fixed a slow reaction with touchpad on Macs (GH: Slow reaction with touchpad on Mac #2778)
• Fixed missing translations
• Fixed various typos (GH: Fix various typos #3411)
• Fixed clarification on Spout in SUG (GH: Black screen with spout sender  #2922)
• Fixed hiding splash when starting stellarium from a script (GH: splash doesn't stop when starting stellarium from a script #3407)
• Fixed a logfile warning (GH: Unable to find module called "GridLinesMgr" #3324)
• Fixed location update with landscape in RemoteSync plugin (GH: RemoteSync: Changing location does not sync zero landscape color #3274)
• Fixed observing list import/export (GH: Fix observing list import/export  #3207, Importing observe list doesn't replace default observe list #3206)
• Fixed error when downloading stars (GH: Error when downloading stars #3395)
• Fixed link to supplemental TLE (default lists)
• Fixed list of MSVC++ versions
• Fixed moving to a NomenclatureItem location (GH: NomenclatureItems: Goto crashes #3355)
• Fixed the botched logic of storing details for the orbit drawing (GH: Unchecking "Only orbit for selected object" still hides other planets' orbits #1842, Fix: orbit details #3348)
• Fixed overflow on bad implementations of tanh() (GH: White sky when zooming out (ShowMySky) #3351)
• Fixed discrepancy between SUG and an Oculars tooltip (GH: Discrepancy in the definition of "Prism/CCD distance" #3346)
• Fixed crash of Nav. Stars plugin (GH: Crash when selecting stars using Navigation stars (Apollo) #3341)
• Fixed bug: avoid dereferencing null pointer
• Fixed bug: prevent artifacts in limb darkening
• Fixed computation of signed phase angle of a planet (GH: Fix computation of signed phase angle to determine apparent magnitude #3306)
• Fixed the name of a uniform in a location query
• Fixed FPS: restore minimizing fps when idle
• Fixed crash Oculars plugin: Lens can potentially be a null pointer, so must not be dereferenced without a check (GH: Segfault opening Oculars in version 23.2 on Mint 21.1 #3322)
• Fixed OpenSSL issue for Qt5-based packages for Windows (GH: problems with data update #3321, HIPS Survey Deep Sky List in Qt5 version #3326)
• Fixed a DSO name confusion mentioned at Transifex
• Fixed object search with HIP numbers
• Fixed behavior of DitheringMode with QVariant in Qt5 (GH: Fix behavior of DitheringMode with QVariant in Qt5 #3307, RemoteSync issues with Qt5 #3304)
• Fixed Qt5 build without PCH
• Fixed restoration for default list of TLE source in Satellites plugin
• Fixed handling Unicode in Telescope Control plugin (GH: Telescop control : cannot open serial device  #2934, Ensure Unicode strings are converted when compiling with Unicode enabled #3301)
• Fixed connection to a renamed signal in Telescope Control plugin
• Fixed connections to renamed signals in RemoteSync plugin: this restores excluding features from synchronisation (GH: RemoteSync issues #3303)
• Changed core: a tiny improvement for sorting data in Search Tool
• Changed core: Reduce dumping cities for unknown timezones
• Changed core: avoid recomputation of RTS at every frame (GH: Try to cache RTS to avoid costly recomputation #3275)
• Changed core: preserve texture binding when rendering text (GH: No cross-marking for antipoints (antapex, SCP, SEP etc) #3356)
• Changed core: improve text rendering quality (GH: Improve text rendering quality #3353)
• Changed core: show comets a bit less restrictively
• Changed core: use optional "immediate save" for Nomenclature detail settings (GH: Nomenclature plot fixes #3342)
• Changed core: draw crater type NomenclatureItems (craters, Lunar maria, satellite features which AFAICS are always craters) as ellipse (GH: Nomenclature plot fixes #3342)
• Changed core: suppress forward scattering peak in the sky pseudo-reflection behind landscape
• Changed core: reduce code duplication in xyYToRGB shader and updating the code
• Changed core: enable stencil buffer in the main OpenGL surface format
• Changed core: always use texture-based text rendering in StelPainter
• Changed core: Turn dithering into a global post-processing effect (GH: Turn dithering into a global post-processing effect #3335)
• Changed core: Use GLSL 3.30 whenever OpenGL >= 3.3 is in use
• Changed core: Move OpenGL 3.3 Core glfuncs() getter to StelOpenGL
• Changed core: Explicitly choose texture unit in spherical mirror distorter
• Changed core: Move InitFailure from AtmosphereShowMySky to the base class
• Changed core: updated code for vector maths
• Changed logger: cosmetic fixes for better reading the data
• Changed NavStars plugin: simplifications
• Changed RemoteSync plugin: Allow suppressing debug messages
• Changed RemoteSync plugin: Allow finetuning of debug output
• Changed RemoteSync plugin: Add useful diagnostic in case of problem
• Changed Scenery3D plugin: changed logging type
• Changed requirements: Qt 5.12 is minimal version now to building
• Changes in Windows installer: using better compression algorithm
• Updated SUG: Clarify that our J2000.0 coordinates include aberration. (GH: wrong coordinates #3309)
• Updated instructions for building planetarium from source code
• Updated OnlineQueries plugin
• Updated default list of satellites
• Updated list of exoplanets
• Updated discovery circumstances for minor planets
• Updated comet discovery circumstances (GH: Updated comet discovery circumstances #3389)
• Updated list of locations
• Updated default settings for macOS bundle
• Updated settings for doxygen (GH: Scripting API, what is a substitution for StelSkyDrawer.setBortleScaleIndex? #3390)
• Updated plugins: Removed logically wrong code (unused by the fact)
• Updated plugins: Switched to use static variables for sync visibility of stars labels
• Updated Solar System Editor plugin
• Updated ssystem_1000comets.ini file
• Update Espenak & Meeus DeltaT equation
• Updated nomenclature data
• Updated GUI: Disable dithering config GUI when dithering is not supported (GH: Turn dithering into a global post-processing effect #3335)
• Updated contact address in few sky cultures
• Removed --fix-text option
• Removed locales with translation progress lesser 1% per whole time
• Removed outdated code for support the version of Qt prior 5.12
• Removed fov options from RemoteSync plugin: is now StelMovementMgr.currentFov property (GH: RemoteSync issues #3303)

Packages notes

package	note
stellarium-23.3.tar.gz	Stellarium 23.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: 04bcc9996f73f9861700126eba1645ce SHA256: 55afd3bd44de76c156dadb17d52023ed5d4a74297dcff3c98eb71adef0fd66d9
stellarium-23.3.tar.bz2	Stellarium 23.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: d3ea7c501a66ef700b43be4751f10ec9 SHA256: ba1ac84412f469a49fc066ae0dd76eb3a8da053d14399cd6c4336ab6e0d4f2fc
stellarium-23.3.tar.xz	Stellarium 23.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: e57c9962212500c5b726bb89d427dc99 SHA256: 179420e9e9f11278b78dc54e14458452c92055cc8923538748c8a0f961714fc2
stellarium-23.3.zip	Stellarium 23.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: 0affda954c0fe4d4847be4a1981183c8 SHA256: 48aca3198e1d2ee07ab73746269a75c32a3388ae4a8d55e4d9120142cdb5b145
stellarium-23.3-qt5-win32.exe	Stellarium 23.3 for Windows (32-bit; Windows 7+) based on Qt 5.12.6 (Visual Studio 2017 Community) with media support. MD5: 55d34c5fa4b65b252ff99a8086397959 SHA256: c210f125f4a40093f434327df4c27d9fef7b9366747c6f6c48e88c0fabc86917
stellarium-23.3-qt5-win64.exe	Stellarium 23.3 for Windows (64-bit; Windows 7+) based on Qt 5.12.6 (Visual Studio 2017 Community) with media support. MD5: ebfcbd88b2ea8ece7ac28d93573cd8e6 SHA256: a303292a47e8f7a256a50c870ec54f9d10909eec97b7d41090f9658e42599889
stellarium-23.3-qt6-win64.exe	Stellarium 23.3 for Windows (64-bit; Windows 10+) based on Qt 6.4.2 (Visual Studio 2019 Community) with media support. MD5: dcddda4ef590c0e502cba71377e878c9 SHA256: d89bb44594c3470da9df0aed2f2ede730a6fd5650e56bbabe2bf544e3f598697
Stellarium-23.3-qt6-macOS.zip	Stellarium 23.3 for macOS (universal; macOS 11.0+) based on Qt 6.5.2 (AppleClang 15.0.0) with media support. MD5: 77929dc913565106a93e5c9b6e30d374 SHA256: 96fb8c70b0aaa6ff5c1a863d906151df42a040eab81f151e8fd2b08fd822dabd
Stellarium-23.3-qt5-x86_64.zip	Stellarium 23.3 for macOS (x86_64; macOS 10.14+) based on Qt 5.12.8 (AppleClang 11.0.0) with media support. MD5: a6cfab514218ff0950dbad3ffe0283a2 SHA256: b87265ce43e5239c2302aa911a9eb57b12288e39820099b69fd804a49c4c67f3
Stellarium-23.3-qt5-x86_64.AppImage	Stellarium 23.3 for Linux (amd64; glibc 2.31) based on Qt 5.12.8 (GCC 9.4.0) with media support. MD5: 0f4342962948f29ffa3e348fbea611c3 SHA256: bf27b276246842a3a080860cf2751b3258437676bfa5c0752d5c31b883656041

Verify

GPG signature

1. Import Stellarium's GPG key
   curl -O https://stellarium.org/files/stellarium.gpg
2. List Stellarium's GPG key
   gpg --with-fingerprint --show-keys --keyid-format long stellarium.gpg
   id: rsa4096/BF38D4D02A328DFF 2012-04-07
   fingerprint: 7915 1C2E 6351 E727 8DA1 A730 BF38 D4D0 2A32 8DFF
3. Verify the binary file is valid (tarball for example)
   gpgv --keyring ./stellarium.gpg stellarium-23.3.tar.gz.asc stellarium-23.3.tar.gz

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This discussion was created from the release v23.3.