EQMac

I am pleased to release an update to EQMac that fixes several bugs and provides access to the new 3-point star alignment algorithms. Bugs fixed in this release are:

• Gamepad configuration now working once again
• Sky chart map rotation works correctly (previously stars and other objects would rotate in opposite direction)
• Fixed a bug where slewing would stop prematurely if you had PHD guiding enabled (guide pulses would somehow interrupt the slew)

Features added:

I finally managed to get some testing done on the next version of EQMac at the weekend. Most things are working fine, but unfortunately the 3-point alignment has a way to go yet. I've also found that it would be beneficial to add some backlash compensation to get more accurate slews. So I've decided to release with what is working. New features include a sync point manager window where you can manage your sync points (delete them, choose which ones are active, view them on a sky map).

I've decided to do a bit of work on the website recently, and among the changes are the ability to create an account allowing you to login to the site. The main benefit that this provides is access to a small set of forums that can be used to discuss EQMac and make suggestions etc. Creating an account requires approval from me and this is really a security measure to prevent spam robots and so forth from signing up. I have absolutely no interest in using any registration details for "marketing" purposes. EQMac is free and I don't need to make money from it.

It has been a while since I've managed to produce any new releases of EQMac and I thought it might be good to let everyone know that I haven't given up on it by any means. In fact, I've been working on a few significant enhancements, mainly around the pointing model. In my development version, you can now SYNC on multiple stars as you always could, but now the software will use the sync point data to form 3-point triangles to improve the alignment process.

To address the issues people have reported on older versions of OS X, I have rebuilt the application and tested it on OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) and OS X 10.7 (Lion). This should address all of the recent compatibility issues and allow me to get back to adding the next new feature - N-point star alignment using 3-point triangles where possible. Please let me know if you are still experiencing issues.

Some users are reporting problems launching EQMac v1.2.1 on older versions of Mac OS X including Snow Leopard (10.6.x) and Lion (10.7.x). It has been confirmed to work on Mountain Lion (10.8.x), which is the system I have used to produce the software. It is supposed to work on Snow Leopard and above, and I am working towards correcting this issue. I hope to have a fix in place sometime next week. In the meantime, you will likely find that older versions of EQMac will work ok, so please continue to use whichever version you can get to work until I can release a fix for this problem.