Last updated 2022 Jan 26
You can click here to download the Guide 9.1 ISO. It's about 3.3 GBytes. The file is on Google Drive, but you need not have a Google Drive account or log in to Google Drive to access the file.
Once you have downloaded the file, burn it to a DVD using the program of your choice. Then put the DVD in the drive; the installation program should start up automatically, leading you through a choice of language and of where the program should go on your hard drive. This installation usually takes only a few seconds, with an icon then appearing on your desktop.
On some systems, the install program doesn't start automatically. If that happens to you, just run the 'setup' program from the DVD.
The installation is very quick, but then requires that the DVD be in the drive to access the data. To get around this, you can start up Guide, then click on Extras... Install to Hard Drive, and select the pieces of data you want on the hard drive. Turning everything on and clicking OK will consume about 3.5 GBytes. After installing some or all of the data, you can remove the DVD and store it, or install the program on other machines. (If you change your mind about what data you want installed, you can put the DVD back in the drive and use Extras... Install to Hard Drive again.)
The user manual is available in HTML form, as a series of pages, or as a single PDF document.
If you already have Guide 9.0, you don't have to download the above ISO and burn a DVD and install it. You can simply download the updated software. (The download is small, under a megabyte.)
Important note: The licensing has changed to a GPL model. This means (among other things) that the program can be freely copied.
What's new (relative to Guide 9.0): This update includes a small list of improvements and bug fixes made since Guide 9.0 was released. Note that you can get the same improvements and bug fixes simply by downloading and installing the update provided on the linked page, and further updates will be applicable to both Guide 9.0 and Guide 9.1. So Guide 9.0 users do not really have much reason to order this new version.
Also, Guide 9.1 ships with a DVD only (no printed manual). You can, however, click here for the HTML version of the user manual or click here for the PDF version of the user manual.
What's new (relative to Guide 8.0): The biggest improvement came from the fact that the program and data are now distributed on DVD, instead of on the two CD-ROMs used for Guide 8.0. This provided about four GBytes of room; things were very packed with only 1.3 GBytes on two CDs. Of course, producing new DVDs also meant I could update all the datasets, many of which were showing signs of obsolescence. This meant:
• Much better star charts, more and better data about stars. In Guide 9.0, stars are drawn using the UCAC-3 catalog. Previously, all versions of Guide used the Hubble Guide Star Catalog (GSC). The GSC revolutionized astronomy when it was released in 1991, but it's showing its age. UCAC-3 has five times as many stars (about 100 million), with much more accurate positions and magnitudes.
For star charts, this means the charts actually match the sky much better than before. There are almost no spurious stars, and far fewer stars erroneously omitted from charts.
It also means that when you click on a star and ask for information about it, you get some color and proper motion data and cross-reference information that was simply unavailable from the GSC.
• Updated asteroid, comet, variable star, and DSO data: As mentioned above, star catalogs have improved greatly since Guide 8.0 was released. But also, tens of thousands of asteroids have been found, numbered, and/or named since the last Guide 8.0 CDs were pressed. Hundreds of comets have been found and variable stars added to catalogs. The production of new disks has also given me the opportunity to update dozens of other lesser datasets.
• Greater ease of use: One drawback of the two-CD solution was that people tended to install the first disk, then completely ignore the second disk. The second disk had a lot of very useful things on it (a high-resolution lunar map, better planetary and asteroid ephemerides, etc.), but most people never saw them because dealing with two disks was a pain. Putting everything on one disk definitely makes things easier.
The software itself is not very different from the current Guide 8.0 software update. If you look at the link, though, you'll see that this means a long list of improvements relative to the originally-released Guide 8.0 software, with much better telescope control; access to many on-line databases released in recent years; a lot of improvements in accuracy; and a very long list of user interface improvements.
It must be admitted that you can get almost all of the software improvements just by downloading the updated Guide 8.0 (which I suggest you do, just to get a feel for some of what is in Guide 9.0). However, the only way to update all the datasets is with the new DVD.
System Requirements: Guide remains quite undemanding in its requirements. All Windows OSes from Windows 95 to Windows 11 are supported. If you install the entire program to your hard drive, it will consume about 4 GBytes. I am mindful that many people run Guide on elderly computers, and have striven to keep it fast and able to run with limited resources when needed.
Running on Linux or OS/X : The program can be run on Linux using the freely available Wine software; in fact, I did a lot of testing of Guide 9 this way, and several people have been running Guide 8 in Wine. I've heard from one user who is using Wine to run Guide 9 on Mac OS/X. There is some documentation on how to install Wine on OS/X (it's not a simple "click here to install" process, the way it is in Linux.) Of course, OS/X users have a variety of other (non-free) ways of running Windows applications under OS/X, such as Boot Camp and Parallels; Guide will also work with these.
Licensing change: Previous versions of Guide had a "traditional" proprietary license. Guide 9.0 and 9.1 are released under the GPL (General Public License). This means that you can copy the DVD freely (install it everywhere, give it to friends, schools, etc.)
As is required under the GPL, all source code will be made available, though this will take a while. (Some of the source is available here. The main reason it's not already posted is that much of it dates back a few decades, and is really a mess. Guide grew from a DOS program to a 16-bit Windows one to a 32-bit Windows program over a period of over two decades. Those of you who have maintained software that "just grew" will understand that the result is rarely pretty.
The source code that I have posted, for example the code I have put on GitHub, is high-quality stuff. I can point to it without embarrassment, and it's straightforward enough for people to actually use. I just can't say that about most of the Guide source code.
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