Version 5.2 - 17th June 2024
The following information is intended for existing users who are already familiar with AstroGrav and want to quickly find out about the main changes.
Version 5.2 of AstroGrav is an upgrade containing a large number of improvements, bug fixes, and performance improvements. If you already have a copy of AstroGrav, all you need to do is to download Version 5.2 and use it in place of your old version. If you have any problems with this new version, please don't hesitate to contact us so that we can help you out.
Version 5.2 of AstroGrav has the following new and improved features.
Background Stars
Version 5.2 of AstroGrav includes the following improvements to the faint background stars that are available as separate downloads.
- The faint background stars are now derived from the more accurate Gaia DR3 data, instead of the less accurate Gaia DR2 data.
- The faint background stars are now available down to magnitude 17, instead of down to magnitude 15. This increases the maximum number of stars available from 36 million to 158 million.
- The faint background stars now include the correct velocities, instead of always having zero velocities. This provides a major improvement to the positional accuracy of stars with relatively large proper motions, particularly at times far from the base epoch of 2016.0.
- View window popus now include the velocities of faint background stars.
The old faint background star files (supplied for AstroGrav 5.1 and earlier) still work with AstroGrav 5.2, but with none of the advantages listed above.
Sample Simulations
Version 5.2 of AstroGrav includes the following improvements to the sample simulations.
- Several minor improvements have been made to the Solar System / +Basic sample simulations.
- Several of the Solar System / Comets sample simulations have been improved by using the correct absolute magnitudes for the comets, instead of using a default that was often very inaccurate.
Other Improvements
Version 5.2 of AstroGrav also has many other minor improvements and bug fixes, including the following.
- The angular diameter column has been added to ephemeris tables.
- A bug has been fixed that sometimes prevented the Edit / Find... command from working when searching for a background star using its Bayer designation.
- The SLIM, IM-1, and Chang'e 6 landing sites have been added to the list of Moon locations.