SkyMap Pro RIP....

[Hallingskies]

It seems that Chris Marriott’s venerable and excellent Sky Map Pro is no longer available.  The SkyMap Pro url now takes you to a gaming website, and from digging around on the web I understand that Dr. Marriott has decided to call it a day.  

I have used SMP for 20 years, both as a planetarium mapper and as a goto driver for my telescopes, and now really regret not getting a Win 10 compatible version...

[JamesF]

Not a piece of software I'm familiar with, but if he's just called it a day and doesn't want to do anything more with it, it's a shame not to at least release the source and stick it on Github or somewhere similar.

James

[Hallingskies]

3 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Not a piece of software I'm familiar with, but if he's just called it a day and doesn't want to do anything more with it, it's a shame not to at least release the source and stick it on Github or somewhere similar.

James

I found a few download sites on the web, but nothing I would trust...😱😱😱

If anyone knows anything more I would like to know.

[fireballxl5]

I'm a long time user of SkyMap (on floppy disc) and then SkyMap Pro (USB stick nowadays). In the Nineties before I had GoTo or when travelling before smartphone's it was great for planning and the accurate printed star maps it could generate. I still use it as my Windows planetarium software (big fan of Sky Safari on the phone/tablet though).

Chris did say that he wouldn't be developing the software some time ago for personal reasons and then it was announced earlier in the week that the last USB stick of v12 had been sold and so that would seem to be it☹️ You can find some details on the SkyMap Google group if needed. 

https://groups.io/g/skymap/topic/skymap12_remainders_expired/77296160?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,77296160

PS link may not be open access.

Edited October 7, 2020 by fireballxl5
PS

[symmetal]

19 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

It seems that Chris Marriott’s venerable and excellent Sky Map Pro is no longer available.  The SkyMap Pro url now takes you to a gaming website, and from digging around on the web I understand that Dr. Marriott has decided to call it a day.  

I have used SMP for 20 years, both as a planetarium mapper and as a goto driver for my telescopes, and now really regret not getting a Win 10 compatible version...

Hi Hallingskies,

The latest Skymap Pro version I have is V10 on CD from 2003 along with a Pictures CD, and the upgrade disc to V11 from 2005.

I haven't used it for 10 years or so, when it was used under Windows XP I think, and I tried installing it on Win 10 (64 bit). It reported that it was incompatible and couldn't run. However, if instead of clicking on Setup.exe (or using the CD autorun.exe feature) you double click Skymap32.exe on the CD it runs fine. I just copied the CD contents to a folder on the hard drive, along with the separate Pictures CD, and ran it from the hard disk without issues.

The V11 upgrade CD contains everything apart from the Skymap.exe program so I copied them to the existing V10 folder overwriting everything, and Skymap still ran fine, although it reported it was still running V10.

I believe the Setup.exe file on the CD is a 16 bit program to enable the 32 bit Skymap program (or any other program) to be installed on 16 and 32 bit systems. Windows 10, (32 bit and 64 bit) will run 32 bit programs but not 16 bit which is why it baulked when running setup.exe.

If your version won't run by running Skymap32.exe directly, I can let you have my version 10 plus V11 upgrade, if you wish, as I don't use it anymore. 🙂

Alan

 

[Hallingskies]

26 minutes ago, symmetal said:

Hi Hallingskies,

The latest Skymap Pro version I have is V10 on CD from 2003 along with a Pictures CD, and the upgrade disc to V11.

If your version won't run by running Skymap32.exe directly, I can let you have my version 10 plus V11 upgrade, if you wish, as I don't use it anymore. 🙂

Alan

 

Alan: Thank you for the reply and for your generous offer.  I have the V10 already and indeed “manually” lifted the folders from the disc into Win10 on my new(er) laptop and it runs fine for most things.  However, I can’t do things like input new comet ephemerides or CCD chip sizes for field framing.  I have a workaround where I do that in XP and then copy the whole data file over to Win7/Win 10 - newer versions of Windows won’t let me edit the individual lines directly.  It’s a minor thing but I think the V12 loaded and ran directly on 64 bit W10.

I suppose the freebies like Carte Du Ciel are out there now, but I am so familiar with SMP that I am loathe to change to a different planetarium programme.  

I guess I’m just “resistant to change” as the SGL moderators like to say...☹️☹️☹️

SMP as a front end for telescope control under EQASCOM SMP is so easy to use.

[Hallingskies]

20 hours ago, fireballxl5 said:

I'm a long time user of SkyMap (on floppy disc) and then SkyMap Pro (USB stick nowadays). In the Nineties before I had GoTo or when travelling before smartphone's it was great for planning and the accurate printed star maps it could generate. I still use it as my Windows planetarium software (big fan of Sky Safari on the phone/tablet though).

Chris did say that he wouldn't be developing the software some time ago for personal reasons and then it was announced earlier in the week that the last USB stick of v12 had been sold and so that would seem to be it☹️ You can find some details on the SkyMap Google group if needed. 

https://groups.io/g/skymap/topic/skymap12_remainders_expired/77296160?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,77296160

PS link may not be open access.

Thank you for the information.  I did think about getting the “stick” version a year or so ago but didn’t for some reason.  Now it seems I’ve missed the boat!

Ho hum...

[symmetal]

1 hour ago, Hallingskies said:

Alan: Thank you for the reply and for your generous offer.  I have the V10 already and indeed “manually” lifted the folders from the disc into Win10 on my new(er) laptop and it runs fine for most things.  However, I can’t do things like input new comet ephemerides or CCD chip sizes for field framing.  I have a workaround where I do that in XP and then copy the whole data file over to Win7/Win 10 - newer versions of Windows won’t let me edit the individual lines directly.  It’s a minor thing but I think the V12 loaded and ran directly on 64 bit W10.

That's a pity. I didn't check all the features out, just that the program ran. I don't think the V11 upgrade will help anyway, as I assume you need to run the setup.exe on it to patch the V10 program which it won't let you do.

I do have an old xp machine I could install V11 on, and then copy the files over to the win 10 machine. Is there a quick test that I can do to verify whether it then works OK on Win 10, and would save you having to swap files across between the  two machines.

Alan

Edited October 8, 2020 by symmetal

[michael8554]

Many years ago SkyMap Pro was my very first planetarium, on Windows 98  !!

A free version from what I remember (V3 ?)

At the time an amazing piece of software I thought.

Michael

[Hallingskies]

15 hours ago, symmetal said:

That's a pity. I didn't check all the features out, just that the program ran. I don't think the V11 upgrade will help anyway, as I assume you need to run the setup.exe on it to patch the V10 program which it won't let you do.

I do have an old xp machine I could install V11 on, and then copy the files over to the win 10 machine. Is there a quick test that I can do to verify whether it then works OK on Win 10, and would save you having to swap files across between the  two machines.

Alan

Hi Alan - PM sent.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Non-astro sites have download links to the 'demo' version of SkyMap Pro and have a limited time/life span of about 2-4 weeks.
After that, that's it. It is no good trying to re-install it either... as your PC/laptop knows you have previously installed it.

[Brad43]

I'm using Skymap Pro v6.0. I use it to control my 8SE with Windows 10. I don't know what bells and whistles, besides star colors, Chris added for all the versions up to 12, but 6 has everything I need, and it does an excellent job of controlling the scope.