[Kstars-devel] Menu Support for HA Rey Constellations

[Jason Harris]

Hi James,

Fantastic!  I can't wait to see it in action :)

James Bowlin wrote:
> There is a minor flaw in the current UI I used.  I just added
> an "H. A. Rey" option to the existing list of constellation name
> options.  This means that it is not possible for a user to select
> a localized translation of the Rey names.  This is not a fundamental
> problem in the code, it is just a question of arranging buttons
> properly.
> 
Yes, maybe we have to re-think how these options are presented in the UI 
now.

> Questions
> ---------
> 1) There were 13 stars that I needed for the Rey constellations
> that I couldn't find names for.  Since they needed names in order to
> make the constellation outlines, for each constellation where names
> were needed I named the stars "?? 1", "?? 2", ...  If someone knows
> where I can get names (they weren't in the "Sky Atlas 2000.0") or
> if someone has an idea for better names than question marks, I will
> be glad to go back and rename these 13 stars.
> 
Perhaps we can find a way to uniquely identify stars, even if they are 
unnamed.  I think this would be a better solution than making up new 
star names :)

> 2) Is there some standard that was used for the existing kstars
> constellation outlines?  I compared them with the outlines found
> in "The Nation Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky" and
> there seemed to be too many differences for them all to be mistakes.
> 
Honestly, I don't remember exactly where they came from.  The original 
constellation lines didn't use stars as the vertex points; the vertices 
were their own separate sky points.  This changed when I added proper 
motions of stars.  Anyway, I got the original points from some online 
source, but when we switched to star vertices, I redid it from scratch 
(but kept the same geometry), which is why I claim copyright on the 
file.  It's probably a bit nuts to copyright something so trivial...

thanks,
Jason