NightCal Astronomical Calendar Software

A new piece of ephemerides software is here in the form of the first
beta release of 'NightCal' Astronomical Observing Calendar
software.

NightCal is a simple, practical tool for basic observation session
planning. It produces a single A4 sheet monthly calendar telling the
user when it gets dark, when the Moon rises and sets and what the Moon
should look like when it does make an appearance. It also provides
data on the elongation of the inferior planets and a quick aide
m=E9moire for planetary conjunctions. The output is designed to be
printed so that you can stick it on your notice board at home or work
or saved as a graphics file for inclusion in newsletters or publishing
on the web.

To find out more and to download your free copy visit
http://www.nightcal.co.uk . I hope you find it useful. As this is a
first beta release we are especially looking for feedback (good or
bad). Please e-mail us to let us know what you think.

PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO TRADITIONAL HELP FILE WITH THIS FIRST BETA
RELEASE. TEXT AND ACROBAT HELP FILES ARE HOWEVER INCLUDED IN THE
DOWNLOAD.

Bob and Michael Morris

We've just had a look at the first external website to reproduce one
our our calendars and realised that NightCal is missing something.
Apart from the link to NightCal website, there is no way for people
browsing a website where a calendar is reproduced to know how to
interpret the NightCal output. This is an oversight on our part.

As a fix we've have produced a long thin legend in the form of a Gif
file that can be placed underneath or above one of the calendars on a
website. Please could users have a look at it and tell us what you
think. If it gets the thumbs up, we'll include it in the download and
amend the help files and website to draw users attention to it. You can
download a copy of this Gif file (15 kB) from the Nightcal website at
www.nightcal.co.uk.

As a longer term solution, we'll see if it's practical to have a user
option to automatically produce such a key when saving or printing
calenders.

PLEASE GET BACK TO US AT TO TELL US WHETHER THIS
ADEQUATELY ADDRESSES THE PROBLEM SO THAT WE CAN INCLUDE IT IN FUTURE
ZIP FILES.