Night Observer - my free astronomical software

AstroJaWil · (#1)

Hi all. My name is Janusz Wiland, I live in Poland, where for many years popularizing astronomy. I just finished working on my second program, astronomical. I am ready to demonstrate to you the effect of my several months of work. The program called "The Night Observer" because it has to serve me during the night of observation. If any of you will like this program can use it for free. The program is written in the language of Polish and English.
Have a look at screenshots of this program and there is also a link to download the full version.
Let me know if anything to change / improve or add.
Clear skies.
Nocny Obserwator - darmowy program astronomiczny.

malc-c · (#2)

Downloading now and will give it a try... looks interesting

malc-c · (#3)

Un-packed the zip file to a folder, ran the no.exe and get a black window with the attached error popup

Also all the readme.txt files are in polish so no help to us non polish speaking people I'm afraid (and yes I did click on the full version download)

ianaiken · (#4)

I get the same error.

malc-c · (#5)

Ian, glad to hear that it's not just me !

Hopefully the author will get it sorted as the screen shots looked promising

ianaiken · (#6)

I was thinking the same until I also saw your post :-).

I'm running Windows 7 x64 in case the author needs to know.

malc-c · (#7)

Running Windows Vista Business here

AstroJaWil · (#8)

I have WinXP and this system running OK. I think, that if You change in Regional Settings a Decimal Separator to ',' (comma) the problem with this error disappear. Program no sets the decimal separator to comma, but in other systems, I think, it is not effective. I will try to find other solution this problem, but please try to change this regional decimal separator to comma.

Gina · (#9)

You should be able to provide the dot option for the decimal point. Maybe have an option to choose in a setup screen. That's what I used to do many years ago when I was writing software for general use. Good luck with your venture, I'll try it later (I'm on a Linux machine ATM) - it's always good to see new software being written

AstroJaWil · (#10)

Thank You Gina for advice. I will try it.
But for temporary solution i find in net something like that:

1. Open Regional and Language Options
2. Under "Format" pick anything else. (eg: English (United States)).
3. Press "Apply"
4. Under "Format" pick your desired locale (eg: English (United
Kingdom)).
5. Press OK.

source:
That GetThreadLocale bug, again (aka Delphi has more users than I originally thought) - Sorting it all Out - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Maybe it will help.

Starlight 1 · (#11)

Anyone got this program to work ,All I get is the same as malc-c have put in.

malc-c · (#12)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstroJaWil

I have WinXP and this system running OK. I think, that if You change in Regional Settings a Decimal Separator to ',' (comma) the problem with this error disappear. Program no sets the decimal separator to comma, but in other systems, I think, it is not effective. I will try to find other solution this problem, but please try to change this regional decimal separator to comma.

Under the regional settings both the digital separator and and digital grouping symbol are comma's - still get the error

malc-c · (#13)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gina

Maybe have an option to choose in a setup screen.

Gina, there is no setup exe - you simply unpack the zip file to a folder and run the one application no.exe to launch the program. We are then getting the error before the program completes loading

malc-c · (#14)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstroJaWil

I have WinXP and this system running OK.

Was the application tested on other platforms ?

AstroJaWil · (#15)

Is it really truth, that anybody can run my software? It is really strange. Even on WinXP it doesn't work?
I suppose, that problem is in Regional settings. Many of my friend in Poland run it without any trouble.
Software is written under Delphi XE.
Can somebody help me how to set this regional decimal separator in each Windows systems?

malc-c · (#16)

OK now have it working..

Under the regional settings everything was set for comma. I changed the separators to a full stop and ran the program - got the same error - End tasked the application and then reset all the separators back to comma - program launched without any error messages.

Wouldn't know if this was a windows issue (but as we're all running different platforms I doubt it) or a programming issue??

malc-c · (#17)

Quick question. Does this software interface with ASCOM drivers to control a telescope - I can't see any option for that ?

AstroJaWil · (#18)

As I said in the program I set the decimal separator as a comma, but this is probably only effective in WinXP. How to do it in Delphi XE, so there is separator set in Win7 and Vista, I do not know. Can anyone help me?

Starlight 1 · (#19)

Quote:

Originally Posted by malc-c

Quick question. Does this software interface with ASCOM drivers to control a telescope - I can't see any option for that ?

I was looking in the files and its got no interface for telescope.

Gina · (#20)

I used Delphi many years ago for writing Windows software but not touched it it for a few decades now. I use the Linux platform for my own software now.

AstroJaWil · (#21)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starlight 1

I was looking in the files and its got no interface for telescope.

It is my intention to put inside an interface for telescope. Please wait in a near future, I think

malc-c · (#22)

The only knock on effect is that all my Excel spreadsheets are displaying commas as the separator, and I had to reset the formatting to only display two decimal points.

Nice looking program, with several good features.... but still in beta testing I think !!

malc-c · (#23)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstroJaWil

It is my intention to put inside an interface for telescope. Please wait in a near future, I think

My opinion is that any modern day planetarium program must have a means of easily interfacing to the telescope control. Most have the option to right click on a target and select go-to or Telescope > slew to move the scope via ASCOM or LX protocol.

Hope that helps

Ptarmigan · (#24)

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstroJaWil

As I said in the program I set the decimal separator as a comma, but this is probably only effective in WinXP. How to do it in Delphi XE,

You have googled "delphiXE decimal separator" I suppose ?

This sounds like a classical throwback to keybord etc configs, I'm surprised to see it in the modern world !

But the screen grabs look impressive !
I look forward to seeing this in real life :-)

Same prob as malc-c et al. in
Wdoze vista, cmdprpt(dosVM), the patch, adminpriv, eventually gave up cos I'm not about to mess with my keyb or ansi !

malc-c · (#25)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ptarmigan

You have googled "delphiXE decimal separator" I suppose ?

This sounds like a classical throwback to keybord etc configs, I'm surprised to see it in the modern world !

But the screen grabs look impressive !
I look forward to seeing this in real life :-)

Same prob as malc-c et al. in
Wdoze vista, cmdprpt(dosVM), the patch, adminpriv, eventually gave up cos I'm not about to mess with my keyb or ansi !

If I follow some of the threads on google it's because the program is hard coded to expect a full stop as a seperator but where regional settings are such that it finds a comma then it crashes...

If it helps, I have it so that the the comma is used for thousands, but full stop for decimal... ie 12,345,678 for whole numbers and 12.3456 for decimals