Notices

OK, guys, sorry that Mephemeris is not exactly what some people are looking for re: an astronomy app for Maemo, but in the meantime I decided to add a few more features to it:

2009/03/20 = version 1.12
- add new 'ini' file options for sources of asteroid, comet, and NEO data
- add options to plot asteroids, comets, and NEOs on both sky and solar system plots
- add menu and initial options, such as 'quit' and 'help'
- add options to edit/save 'ini' file settings
- add options to edit/save 'messier' image URL file settings
- add options to edit/save 'misc' image URL file settings
- add search options for all appropriate object types
- add better proportional planet sizes during extreme zooming
- add realistic shading, tilt, gridding, and info to the 'Moon Phase' window
- fix bug in object size not affecting some object types
- fix bug (!) of program ending when date/time direct setting is done

Some of these features were indirectly requested in the past. The new menu/table features were skills I picked up while writing 'MGedcom'. As before, a lot of these were not easy, and a lot of hair-pulling occurred in the process

I have to remind everyone that this app is cross-functional on the desktop as well on the N8xx -- but it sure runs a lot faster and looks a lot nicer on the 'big screen' -- especially in 'fullscreen' window mode, since there is a lot more 'elbow room'.

The newest version is about 25% larger than the old one.

The website for it, as always, is here:

http://darethehair.googlepages.com/software.html

I made new 'screen shots', which can now be clicked for a real-size appearance.

Let me know if you try the new version, and whether it works out OK for you!

Hi Darethehair,

I tried to install MEphem today, and I find that the Python-GPSbt library which is required, is no longer available. There is a news item on the Maemo-Python web page that says they are dropping it because of freemantle?

Any help here?

I'm a N810 w/ Diablo

Thanks

Ouch! I have not (yet) verified your dilemma re: GPSBt availability, but it sounds nasty -- and unnecessary, since why would they stop *existing* users of Diablo from wanting to use it?

I just did a search and found this -- why not try to install it from here?

http://repository.maemo.org/extras/p.../python-gpsbt/

This contains:

python2.5-gpsbt_0.1-18osso2_armel.deb

When I query my own version, I get:

python2.5-gpsbt 0.1-18osso2

What happens when you try to install it the 'normal' way?

it's dropped from Fremantle, nothing has changed for Diablo. Mephemeris doesn't appear to be be in Extras, that's probably "root cause" for installation difficulties (you have to manually install depencies)

I installed mephemeris-1.22-1 some days ago and worked. But now it doesn't work anymore, since it crashes. This is what I get:

python2.5-xml wasn't necessary before, and I don't want to install it since it's big.

Thanks for your help,
L.

Hello! Thanks for trying out MEphemeris! Unfortunately, I am not the best one to diagnose your problems or suggest a solution. However, here are my (perhaps incorrect) thoughts:

1) MEphemeris requires Python XML functionality, so I don't think you have any choice except to install "python2.5-xml". I am not aware of a smaller/alternative library

2) I am puzzled that it 'used' to work for you, and now it does not. The suggests that you *did* (?) at one point have the necessary XML library, and it was removed from your system -- the behavior of MEphemeris should not change from one day to another, I think

P.S. I continue to work on a newer version of MEphemeris, but I am not 'touching' the XML part at all.

Yes, it seems there is another python package that provides XML, and that one was removed. Perhaps you should add python2.5-xml as a requirement...?

Thanks a lot for your nice work!
Cheers,
L.

PS: BTW, if you can add telescope control (Meade/Celestron) to mephemeris (for example using INDI) that would be a dream come true!!

If I remember to do so the next time I create a package, I will add 'python2.5-xml' as a dependency.

As for the INDI thing, I totally agree at how cool that would be! Unfortunately, I have no computer-controllable scope myself to test anything I would write -- but if a couple of people here would purchase one for me, I would certainly give it a try!

That would be cool, wouldn't it??

Two more things:

1) I would expect to click in certain region in the sky, and that region to be centered. However, it goes somewhere in another universe...

2) IMHO, I would concentrate on speed of the skyview. It is quite slow now, at least in my N800.

Thanks for your work!
Cheers,
L.

1) In the next version, I believe that I have improved (but sadly not perfected) the ability of a sky region click to re-center properly.

2) Sadly, no obvious ways present themselves to speed up the sky display much beyond what it is now -- I think this is mostly due to the app being written in Python, rather that C -- rather than my own coding skills (though that always remains a possibility). Right now, the only way to 'speed it up' is to reduce as much of the 'options' as possible i.e. reduce visual magnitude, turn off objects that you do not need to display, turn of grids, etc..