Voyager 4.5 Enhancements

My all-time favorite planetarium software program is Voyager 4.5 from Carina Software.  Hardly a day goes by when I am not using it, and I've been using Voyager since 1993.

Listed below are enhancements I would like to see in Voyager 5.0.  If you have suggestions to add to this list, please contact me and I will add them to this list (giving you credit for the idea, of course).


#1  In the Time Panel window, add the altitude of the Sun at the top of the window after the word "Time".

#2  In the Time Panel window, add two more choices to the pull-down menu activated by the right arrow button to the right of the clock: Nautical Dusk and Nautical Dawn.  The pull-down menu would then look like this:
Set Date and Time...
--------------------------------------
Midnight
Astronomical Dusk
Nautical Dusk
Civil Dusk
Moonset
Sunset
Noon
Sunrise
Moonrise
Civil Dawn
Nautical Dawn
Astronomical Dawn
0 hours UT
--------------------------------------
Show Local Time (LMT)
Show Universal Time (UTC)
--------------------------------------
Show Daylight Color


Nautical Twilight begins (dawn) and ends (dusk) when the Sun is geometrically 12° below the horizon.  (The corresponding values for civil and astronomical twilight are 6° and 18° below the horizon, respectively.  Civil twilight occurs between sunrise or sunset and when the Sun has an altitude of -6°.  Nautical twilight occurs when the altitude of the Sun ranges between -6° and -12°.  Astronomical twilight occurs when the altitude of the Sun ranges between -12° and -18°.)

#3  The Moon needs to be brightened up a bit as it is almost invisible during the crescent phases unless one is zoomed in quite a ways.

 

12 Nov 2015: Recently, Voyager 4.5 has ceased being able to import comet and asteroid orbital elements. Carina Software is aware of this problem and hopefully it will be fixed soon. In the meantime, do the following:

  1. Navigate to http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/Soft00Cmt.txt and save this page to a file, which will automatically be called Soft00cmt.txt.

  2. Navigate to http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPCORB.html and under Available Files do a "Save As" on MPCORB.DAT (uncompressed) and save it to a file, which will automatically be called MPCORB.DAT. DO NOT open this file in your web browser as it is 135 Mb in size! Edit the MPCORB.DAT file, remove the header lines at the top of the file, and save the file.

  3. In Voyager 4.5, go to Tools : Select Asteroids and Comets... and then to the right of Show: select Comets. Click on Import... and then select the file Soft00cmt.txt you saved earlier. A message box will pop up asking you Before importing new data, do you want to delete all current asteroid/comet/satellite data? Don't worry, click Yes. The latest orbital elements for all comets will import into Voyager.

  4. In the Select Asteroids, Comets, and Spacecraft window, to the right of Show: select Asteroids. Click on Import... and then select the file MPCORB.DAT you saved earlier. A message box will again pop up asking you Before importing new data, do you want to delete all current asteroid/comet/satellite data? Don't worry, you'll only be replacing your asteroid list, and the comets you just imported will remain unscathed. Click Yes. The latest orbital elements for all asteroids, TNOs, etc. will import into Voyager.