Changelog

22 December 2023

fix a problem where the camera settings are not displayed properly on some computers

20 November 2023

New Calibration Assistant tool
Multi-star guiding improvements: better tolerance to passing clouds or loss of stars after a large dither
Various enhancements for mounts with high precision encoders
Reduced CPU utilization when rendering the camera image on the screen
The star profile can now be viewed without interpolation
Improved help content and error messages
Updated camera libraries: ZWO ASI, Moravian, Svbony, QHY, Touptek, Altair
New/updated translations: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Czech, Japanese, Spanish

22 February 2022

Guiding Assistant updates
Updated defaults for new profiles: HFD checking and multi-star enabled, star mass checking off
The star profile window now shows the centroid coordinates
Add support for observatory-class focal lengths
Updated camera support: Svbony, Touptek, ZWO ASI
Updated translations: French, Spanish

26 June 2021

New Multi-star guiding option
Various small UI improvements and minor bug fixes
Updated camera support for Altair, ASCOM, INDI, QHY, SBIG, ToupTek, WDM, and ZWO ASI cameras
Added support for Moravian and Svbony cameras
Updated translations - Catalan, French, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
Updated Help file

4 July 2020

Updated Help file
Guiding Assistant: improved dec backlash measurement to better handle some poorly behaving mounts
Polar Drift Align: add Mirror option for OAG users
Log uploader: do not display empty logs by default
Fix background color in the Drift Align window to honor the window manager color theme
INDI: remove the obsolete driver port selection option
New Galician translation
Updated French translation
Updated Portuguese translation

3 May 2020

No longer display an alert when little South movement is detected after calibration
Altair cameras: update to SDK version 46.16909.2020.0404 (Windows)
QHY cameras: fix incorrectly-reported bits-per-pixel value for 16-bit cameras
Better tolerance of INDI/ASCOM mount drivers that incorrectly report guide speed
Updated Traditional Chinese translation

4 February 2020

Mac: 64-bit version of PHD2 for macOS Catalina
PHD2 now produces a single debug and guide log per night rather than a set each time the app is launched
Added checks for specific mount driver quirks
Improvements to the log upload tool
Altair cameras: update to SDK version 38.15031.2019.0706 (Windows)
iOptrion iGuider camera support added
Omegon Pro camera selection added
QHY cameras: update SDK to version V2019.11.15.0 (Linux) and V20191115_0 (Mac)
ZWO cameras: update SDK to version V1.14.1108 (windows, mac, linux)
INDI camera improvements
Workaround for imaging apps which fail to un-pause PHD2: stop button now un-pauses guiding
Updated French, Korean, Russian, Traditional Chinese translations
New Japanese translation of the help file
Automatically update guide settings for changes to binning, pixel size and focal length
New button on the main toolbar for auto-selecting a star
New option to enable/disable audible beep for lost star
Improvements and clarifications of various messages in the application
Changing the Dec Flip calibration option now triggers a new calibration
Guiding Assistant: improved guide setting recommendations
Equipment profile wizard improvements, including specialized settings for mounts with high preceision encoders
New server methods and notification updates
Updated Help file
Debug log and guide log improvements

24 March 2019

Lots of improvements to the Guiding Assistant
Updated camera support: Altair, QHY, SBIG, SSAG (Mac), ZWO ASI
New ToupTek camera support for Windows
New MallinCam SkyRaider camera support for Mac
INDI SBIG AO support
Better detection of problems like runaway guiding, excessive backlash, and calibration problems
Improved backlash compensation
New Meridian flip calibration tool
New ZFilter guide algorithm
Guide algorithm None has been removed
INDI improvements
Various minor user interface fixes
Updated Help file
Updated translations

30 April 2018

New Static Polar Align tool and Polar Drift tool
New tool to upload log files for review (Help > Upload Log Files)
Improved Backlash compensation with additional controls and improved backlash measurement in the Guiding Assistant
New Profile Wizard improved detection of properties of connected gear
Improved handling of camera binning and mount guide speed changes
Dither settling now ignores dec distance when dec guide mode is None
Some minor UI tweaks like more explicitly labeling pixels vs arc-seconds units, showing help info in status bar as menu items are highlighted, and layout fixes for high resolution displays
Remove modal dialog boxes from most camera connections
Allow star auto-selection to select stars closer to the edge of the frame
Altair Cameras: update SDK to version 20_12_2017
Atik Cameras: binning support added
ZWO Cameras: updated Windows SDK to V1.13.1.9
Guide log enhancements (additional logging)
INDI fixes
Server API additional methods
Updated translations - French, German, Russian, Traditional Chinese

25 September 2017

New Predictive PEC Guide algorithm for RA
INDI support added for Windows and Mac
Updated native camera support for QHY, ZWO, SX, and Altair cameras
Improved detection of low-SNR stars by more accurate background calculation
PHD2 now checks for PHD2 updates
AO: better stability when large bumps are required
Various UI improvements, such as allowing arbitrary camera exposure durations
New option for avoiding hot pixels: minimum star HFD threshold
New option for star saturation detection: max ADU threshold
New image logging options based on trigger events like star lost or large offset
Comet tracking improvements
Server API: addition of new API methods
Diagnostic improvements including log file enhancements and more info in fits headers for saved images
Updated translations including a new Portuguese (Brazilian) translation
Help file updates

12 February 2017

Reliability improvements and SDK updates for various cameras: ZWO, SX, Altair, SBIG, and WDM webcams
Comet tool fixes
Display improvements for small screens and high-DPI screens
New star-cross test tool
Stats window now displays image size and guider FOV
AO enhancements: display RA and Dec directions on the AO graph, automatically increase bump step size when dither settling
Allow Dec dither when Dec guide mode is north or south by temporarily switching to bi-directional dec guiding until dither settles
Star mass change detection now works when exposure is Auto
OSX: disable AppNap on OSX versions >= 10.9
Server API: various new functions added
Various logging and diagnostic improvements
Updated translations
Updated help documentation