v24.3

[alex-w]

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

Release notes

The Stellarium Team has released version 24.3.

The major changes of this version:

• Performance improvements for computation of Solar system bodies positions
• Improvements in plugins and AstroCalc tools
• Updates in sky cultures
• Updates in GUI

Behind the scenes, many more minor issues were fixed.

TELESCOPE USERS

We have identified 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 a batch drawing of asteroid and comet markers (GH: Threaded planet computation (and a few more speedups) #3847)
• Added tiny circles as optional markers for minor bodies (GH: Threaded planet computation (and a few more speedups) #3847)
• Added multithreading computations of positions for Solar system bodies (GH: Threaded planet computation (and a few more speedups) #3847)
• Added tooltip for new option in AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool
• Added ability to use a wider range of dates for AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool (GH: Added ability to use a wider range of dates for AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool #3880)
• Added a reddish tint over the landscape when sun is low (GH: Cast a reddish tint over the landscape when sun is low. #3858, Tint landscapes orange and red at sunrise/sunset #3855)
• Added abort telescope slew signals to LX200 and NexStar telescopes (GH: Add abort telescope slew signals to LX200 and NexStar telescopes #2754)
• Added setting dynamic limits for wide range of dates in AstroCalc tools
• Added ability to use a wider range of dates for AstroCalc/RTS tool
• Added links for multi-opposition unnumbered objects and one-opposition objects into bookmarks in Solar System Editor plugin
• Added info for total candidates for adding in Solar System Editor plugin
• Added ability to use a wider range of dates for AstroCalc/Phenomena tool (GH: AstroCalc: Wider range of dates #1327)
• Added ability to hide the constellation art button (GH: Hiding buttons #3830)
• Added context support for exoplanet detection methods and exoplanetary classes (GH: Exoplanets Plugin is not shown in native language. #3798)
• Added comments for tooltips (GH: toolTip message duplicate #3786)
• Fixed coordinates in '20 Fun Naked-Eye Double Stars' script (GH: double_stars.ssc : RA and Dec are shift. #3835)
• Fixed typos in Maya skyculture
• Fixed linking with which may require libtbb
• Fixed messing in solar eclipse maps (GH: Solar eclipse map are messy in many dates #3894)
• Fixed TimeZone for Xochicalco (GH: TimeZone for "Xochicalco" not found: "America/Mexico" #3897)
• Fixed missing old-fashioned storing of new settings (GH: Threaded planet computation (and a few more speedups) #3847)
• Fixed saving new option for AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool
• Fixed the circumstances discovery for few comets
• Fixed parsing MPC large numbers in Solar System Editor plugin (GH: SSE plugin: Asteroids above 619999 cannot be imported in MPC-1 liner format. #3882)
• Fixed Andromeda lines for Modern (S&T) sky culture (GH: (modern ST) Constellation line different IAU web site's one. #3865)
• Fixed Calendars plugin
• Fixed support common names for sky cultures (GH: skycultures northern_andes : three tiny bugs. #3845)
• Fixed typos in sky cultures (GH: skyculture khoi-san : There are a few spelling errors in the files. #3854, skycultures anutan file mistake. #3838, skycultures tongan file mismatch. #3842, skycultures northern_andes : three tiny bugs. #3845)
• Fixed working Search Tool/Lists tool when list of asterisms is empty (GH: if skycultures asterism_names.eng.fab is nothing, the list in the search window is not cleared. #3853)
• Fixed duplicate Satellites filter window (GH: Satellites PlugIn : duplicate Satellites filter windows #3825)
• Fixed landscape label drawing
• Fixed “group”/“groups” mistake in Satellites plugin (GH: Satellites PlugIn "Group" and "Groups" display BUG. #3826)
• Fixed mistake in novae catalog (GH: Nova PlugIn : novae.json file include mistake. #3831)
• Fixed a string for StelObject info (GH: TextUserInterface PlugIn display bug #3813)
• Fixed missing feature for limiting magnitude for Solar system bodies (GH: Oculars plugin Limit magnitude is not autochanged Solar system body. #3817)
• Fixed re-display data when "boundless" flag is changed in AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool (GH: Astronomical Caliculations Ephmeris redisplay #3811)
• Fixed sorting rules for phase and elongation in the AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool (GH: Astronomical Caliculations Ephmeris sort bug #3810)
• Fixed tooltip in AstroCalc/Graphs tool (GH: Astronomical Caliculations Graphs strange toolTip message #3809)
• Fixed Andromeda lines for Modern (IAU) sky culture
• Fixed messages in tooltips for AstroCalc tools (GH: Astronomical calculations(Phenomena) strange toolTip message #3801)
• Fixed selection of objects in AstroCalc/WUT tool (GH: Astronomical calculation window: Another object selected. #3799)
• Fixed translation issue for multiple detection methods for one exoplanet (GH: Exoplanets Plugin is not shown in native language. #3798)
• Fixed translation issue for exoplanetary classes of potentially habitable exoplanets (GH: Exoplanets Plugin is not shown in native language. #3798)
• Fixed displaying of morphological descriptions for globular star clusters (GH: DSO(Globular star cluster) info bug #3782)
• Fixed bug in TUI plug-in (GH: TextUserInterface plugin BUG #3784)
• Fixed coordinates of SN 1181A
• Fixed custom user dir option
• Changed core: small speedup for Preetham atmosphere
• Changed core: avoid StelBottomBar redraws when not needed
• Changed core: speed-up InfoPanel
• Changed core: avoid some costly computations
• Changed core: Allow display of colors for each planet and per minor body type (GH: Orbit color and selection improvements #3878, Orbit mode "Planets plus selected" #3849)
• Changed core: Allow to draw planet orbits together with orbit of selected object (GH: Orbit color and selection improvements #3878, Orbit mode "Planets plus selected" #3849)
• Changed core: speedup for nomenclature items
• Changed core: use QLatin1String for string literal comparison for Solar system objects
• Changed core: simplify gridline intersect callbacks (GH: Simplify gridline intersect callbacks  #3792)
• Changed core: Use QLatin1String for string literal comparison in Planet and SolarSystem classes
• Changed core: Restored code of QtCompress (optional; bundled) (GH: Bundled QtCompress #3802)
• Changed core: Allow disabling StelAudioMgr at runtime (GH: Allow disabling StelAudioMgr at runtime #3775)
• Changed GUI: Obvious improvement for Oculars GUI
• Changed Exoplanets plug-in: The list of detection methods of exoplanet has been revised
• Changed Satellites plugin: setting the new defaults for timerate limits for displaying satellites (x1000 or ~16 minutes per second) for smooth rendering the scene (GH: Stepwise running #3890)
• Changed Satellites plugin: speedups of computations
• Changed Telescope Control plugin: Disable ASCOM on Qt6 (GH: Disable ASCOM on Qt6 #3887)
• Changed Telescope Control plugin: Disable sync button if telescope does not support it
• Updated default list of locations
• Updated default catalog of satellites
• Updated default catalog of pulsars
• Updated default catalog of novae
• Updated default catalog of exoplanets
• Updated default list of minor bodies
• Updated photometry data for satellites
• Updated discovery circumstances for comets and minor planets
• Updated planetary nomenclature data
• Updated translations
• Updated lists of interesting stars
• Removed old comets
• Removed erroneous DSO names
• Removed links to dead wiki (GH: Some hyperlinks in plugin descriptions lead to dead SourceForge-hosted pages #3874)
• Removed link to MPC Numbered objects list from bookmarks in Solar System Editor plugin (a huge data)
• Removed unused code
• Removed unneeded tooltips (GH: Observing list strange toolTip message #3797, Navigational Pugin strange toolTip message #3796)

Packages notes

package	note
stellarium-24.3.tar.gz	Stellarium 24.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: 375367ffdfbbe3e4d4443ecebacf97ae SHA256: c3ffb56a049061c7754bafab176146a2c4474ecede108d650f3c7551e1eae50a
stellarium-24.3.tar.bz2	Stellarium 24.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: 1b601909f727bfdd7d72ea5a70fa3962 SHA256: bf8f24496fdecceefd75ec4ee60f57f7973905d94e3cd4c195d4d188dc25c8ce
stellarium-24.3.tar.xz	Stellarium 24.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: a2f0a8dd0f2aeb49c05fb38aa63f929b SHA256: 03dad30f4031bdc2d200146e7c587249ea75dbdb88c8ae13632829aac5540b08
stellarium-24.3.zip	Stellarium 24.3 for UNIX/Linux (source code). MD5: ceb89c2742f2d051ae9fdcf882025296 SHA256: dfad69ba4d1a24e738a9ed2fc3a2f167410f1f92c044355a4a8a0b3a387fa20a
stellarium-24.3-qt5-win32.exe	Stellarium 24.3 for Windows (x86_32; Windows 7+) based on Qt 5.12.6 (Visual Studio 2017). MD5: d45dea6a3878cdb22676189b9bed8a11 SHA256: 35ef9fe4c4217c5dd36d611b29382c5af61423edec9c7ef13c2b27ce6b80a5ad
stellarium-24.3-qt5-win64.exe	Stellarium 24.3 for Windows (x86_64; Windows 7+) based on Qt 5.12.6 (Visual Studio 2017). MD5: 3be9f2296cc0165faef74253b64bbb0f SHA256: 60faba4a4570a7591e333836cec247bb1992719a04cb41c902194ba6f27394cb
stellarium-24.3-qt6-win64.exe	Stellarium 24.3 for Windows (x86_64; Windows 10+) based on Qt 6.5.3 (Visual Studio 2019). MD5: ffc5d67216eef800bc865ab40502c1b7 SHA256: d137912a94c1f2c3f25b0b36f20e2e7d3610b337b854bcd82bb66dba61e38a01
stellarium-24.3-qt6-arm64.exe	Stellarium 24.3 for Windows (ARM64; Windows 10+) based on Qt 6.5.3 (Visual Studio 2022). MD5: 39a8856bf539e1b6efb33b82b2a554f5 SHA256: 3615dbfca0e962b4ecc66f0010a2173337d87074f5ad4c05ec24b94547069512
Stellarium-24.3-qt6-macOS.zip	Stellarium 24.3 for macOS (universal; macOS 11.0+) based on Qt 6.5.3 (AppleClang 16.0.0). MD5: 99a660bba53af10703eef112c68d11b2 SHA256: 52462403d3d5c16613c364b023efbddbb1b036140d60e68f70f67a6c0dc8e519
Stellarium-24.3-qt5-x86_64.zip	Stellarium 24.3 for macOS (x86_64; macOS 10.14+) based on Qt 5.12.12 (AppleClang 13.0.0). MD5: 24d42ee209cdab22cbc4f2b0722a98a2 SHA256: 6e4fb74715010f213fa4bf55affa1661b572b4b9e1705aa3f882744293350394
Stellarium-24.3-qt5-x86_64.AppImage	Stellarium 24.3 for Linux (amd64; glibc 2.31) based on Qt 5.12.8 (GCC 9.4.0). MD5: 075ca71b9f07fef80f3d2984bcc52dbc SHA256: 2c136618ede7fb0687d8371a95a004e4bf9f00e0a1a83359de88b04aeec1cf0b
Stellarium-24.3-qt6-x86_64.AppImage	Stellarium 24.3 for Linux (amd64; glibc 2.35) based on Qt 6.2.4 (GCC 11.4.0). MD5: be7710c2323197b0bbb637c3c6f6e92a SHA256: 304764814caa5a23c0b848abc7e429e0ec1ef9e1f90ae999d9ef197c422562b3

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-24.3.tar.gz.asc stellarium-24.3.tar.gz

---

This discussion was created from the release v24.3.

[eseavey7]

I installed 24.3 and now the ASCOM radio button under Telescope Control Connection has been greyed-out. Has the ASCOM functionality been removed completely? I went back to 24.2 so that I can use ASCOM.

Thanks

[alex-w]

I installed 24.3 and now the ASCOM radio button under Telescope Control Connection has been greyed-out. Has the ASCOM functionality been removed completely? I went back to 24.2 so that I can use ASCOM.

Please use Qt5-based builds

[gzotti]

@eseavey7 did you use ASCOM with a Qt6-based build before? Did it work without crashes? We only know what others tell us. Qt6 and ASCOM seem to not like each other.

[eseavey7]

Qt6 24.2 was the first Qt6 version I used that would unexpectedly crash. Last month I was able to use it and imaged a few nights, but with the program randomly crashing on my Windows 10 machine. Everything would have been great id it weren't for the random crashes.
I can install the Qt5 and let you know how that works.

[eseavey7]

I installed Qt5 24.3 and so far that is working on my Windows 10 machine.

Thanks.