AstroGrav 3.3 Released for Windows and Mac
AstroGrav adds a range of useful new features and enhancements to its precision solar system simulator
4th March 2016 - AstroGrav 3.3 includes new features for displaying the distances between objects and the closest approaches between orbits. Several new categories for filtering tables of comets and asteroids have also been added, including most significantly, the 'potentially hazardous' category. Full details are available from:
http://www.astrograv.co.uk/version-3_3.htmlNew Features
Two new features allow the display of distances between pairs of objects and the points of closest approach between pairs of orbits, known as the minimum orbit intersection distances or MOIDs for short. These are continually updated as a simulation evolves, making it easy to see how they change with time. There is also a new command that opens up the page on which can be found all the latest news related to AstroGrav. The preferences also have a new feature that provides a choice of 15 different date formats, with the default being the date format that was used in earlier versions of AstroGrav.
Importing Objects
Several new categories of comets and asteroids have been added for use when filtering large tables of objects to produces subsets of interest. The most significant of these is the 'potentially hazardous' category that applies to both comets and asteroids. This filters a table of objects to show just the ones that have an absolute magnitude below 22, and whose orbits approach the Earth's orbit to within 0.05 astronomical units - the conventional definition of 'potentially hazardous'. New comet categories also include Kreutz Sungrazers, Meyer Sungrazers, Kracht Sungrazers, Marsden Sungrazers, General Sungrazers, and Jupiter-Family Comets.
Other Improvements
Improvements to the movie-making software allow movies to be made showing various different areas of the screen, including an option to use the entire screen so that multiple windows can be shown if desired. Improvements have also been made to the way that undo and redo work, making them more intuitive and easier to use. 40 major astronomical observatories have been added to the standard list of Earth locations, and for Mac users the installation process has been simplified to the familiar operation of dragging the AstroGrav icon onto an 'Applications' alias.
Upgrade
The AstroGrav 3.3 update is free of charge to all AstroGrav 3 license holders. They may download and install the update immediately from:
http://www.astrograv.co.uk/download.htmlAbout AstroGrav Astronomy Software
AstroGrav Astronomy Software produces astronomical and gravity simulation software for astronomers, researchers, educationalists, and students. For more information, visit the company's website:
http://www.astrograv.co.uk/Press Contact:
Russell Calvert
AstroGrav Astronomy Software
russcalvert@astrograv.co.uk