Problems with KStars 3.5.7 on macOS

[Bill Tschumy]

Rob,

Thanks for responding.  I hated being critical because I’m sure many people have worked really hard on this.  But it just seems like many things aren’t working as I’d expect.  The extra downloads are one thing.  I’m also a bit surprised by the identification of stars.  I will hover over a star and I get “star: 4.8m”.  I have to bring up the Info pane to see what star it is.  Now maybe I can understand this with stars from the USNO catalog that just have a long designation.  But these are Hipparcos and HD stars.  Why aren’t they named in the hover display and in the status bar (which just says “star”).

Also not sure how you are supposed to select things like open clusters to get more information.  Now sometimes I don’t even get the dotted ring around the cluster and I think KStars has forgotten that I’ve download the NGC info.  Even if there is the dotted ring, clicking in it doesn’t seem to select the cluster.  How do I bring up info on this?

I’m just wondering if something is really broken on my installation (although I’ve installed on two machines with the same result).

Just so you know, I’m one of the primary authors of SkySafari so much of my expectations are the result of that and other planetarium programs I’ve used.

Bill

> On Mar 5, 2022, at 4:07 PM, Robert Lancaster <rlancaste at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Bill,
> 
> I can’t say I am a big fan of the “Download New Stuff” or “Get New Stuff” system.  This isn’t actually a part of KStars, it is a KDE package that KStars and other KDE apps use.  It isn’t a problem that is just on MacOS, it is an overall problem with that system in my opinion.  But KStars developers don’t have control over that code.  I don’t like the interface myself. 
> 
> As for the help button, I don’t know much about that one, I haven’t used it before.  I usually spend my time working on Plate Solving algorithms and making the astrophotography parts of the program better.  But I also was the one who first ported it to work on a Mac and I maintain the Mac version.  But even though I don’t know about this feature, I will definitely look into it for you, that could mean something is missing in the  Mac bundle or there might be a bug.  Let me see.
> 
> I wouldn’t say Kstars is flaky really, it is highly sophisticated fully automated astrophotography suite, that has allowed me and lots of other people to have many successful nights of imaging under the stars.   But sometimes there are bugs and we need people to test and find the bugs so that we can work on making it better.  We are all volunteer developers who contribute so that everyone can get a free and great program for taking astrophotos.  So please let us know and we can look into issues like this.  We especially need more people to test the MacOS versions.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rob
> 
>> On Mar 5, 2022, at 5:25 PM, Bill Tschumy <bill at otherwise.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I seem to be having numerous problems with KStars 3.5.7 on Mac.  I’ve tried it on the latest macOS (12.2.1) as well as one two years old (10.15.7).
>> 
>> I’ve tried downloading the “Extra Data”, both from the Startup Wizard and from the Data menu item.  I will install something and then later, when I go back it says it is uninstalled.  Some of the larger downloads will say “Installing…” but then al of the sudden say "Install Again”.  Often if I install again it will indicate it is installed.
>> 
>> I have downloaded the USNO stars and initially is said it was installed.  However, if I go back now it says for me to install them.  Yet if I zoom in, I do see 14th mag stars so it really is installed.
>> 
>> I have been trying to get the inline thumbnails to install, but they never show up in the chart.  I did see them at one point while playing around,  but now they are gone.
>> 
>> Clicking the Help button in the Configure window (shown by choosing Preferences…) causes the app to hang.
>> 
>> Things just seem really flakey.
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
>> -- 
>> Bill Tschumy
>> Otherwise -- Longmont, CO
>> www.otherwise.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 

-- 
Bill Tschumy
Otherwise -- Longmont, CO
www.otherwise.com



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