[Kstars-devel] KStars - Star database matters.

[James Bowlin]

On Tue September 25 2007, Ian and Kathy Whiteley wrote:
> I would be pleased to have your comments on the above contribution,
> especially if it is believed an enhancement to KStars could be made
> which implements these suggestions.  

This is an excellent idea!

I've discussed your idea with Jason (the lead KStars developer).
He would like to see the Hip number, the SAO number, and the
HD number added to the detail box for stars.  I'm also assuming
that you would like to be able set the central focus point by
specifying either an SAO number or a Hip number.  Is this correct?

KDE 4.0 is in a feature-freeze ATM, preparing for a December 11th
release.  The modified release schedule is available here:
http://techbase.kde.org/Schedules/KDE4/4.0_Release_Schedule

Therefore the earliest we could get these features into the production
code without breaking lots of rules would be for the 4.1 release.  I'm
not sure exactly when that will be, my wild guess would be the first
quarter of 2008.  If you have a very strong desire to have these
features available sooner than that then it _might_ be possible to
make a non-production version for you but that would require extra
work for us and for you.

This does not address the idea of exporting Meade compatible guided
tours but if you want the SAO number included in those tours then
adding the SAO number to KStars is a necessary prerequisite.

-- 
Peace, James