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Asteroid/Comet options Fixed levels Toggle user datasets Make PostScript file Make .BMP File ---------------- Find conjunction Show eclipse ---------------- Install to hard drive The "DSS/RealSky Images" option leads to a dialog box in which images from the Digital Sky Survey and RealSky datasets can be extracted and their display controlled. This is discussed in detail starting on page 54. "Get Star Catalog data" provides some options to access several truly immense star catalogs, and to control their display. This is discussed starting on page 56. "Asteroid/Comet Options" provides control over how asteroids and comets are displayed. You can also reach it when you right-click on an asteroid, then on Display... Options. It is discussed on page 59. Guide used to work, by default, on "fixed levels": for example, one went from a field of view of 20 degrees (at level 4) to one of 10 degrees (at level 5), with no intermediate step. You couldn't access a "level 4.5, 15-degree" field of view; the best you could do was to change level 4 or 5 to be equal to 15 degrees, using the Set Level Size option in the Settings menu (p. 31). Now, by default, "fixed levels" is turned off. You can get to any desired field of view by dragging a box open on the screen. You can still "go to level 4" to get a 20-degree field of view, and other aspects of zooming in and out are unaffected. The only real change is that you can get those intermediate fields of view. However, some people liked the "fixed levels" option, so a toggle for it remains in the Extras menu. The "Toggle user datasets" opton is slightly misleading. In reality, Guide already contains a number of datasets in the user dataset system, including catalogs of galaxies, quasars, radio objects, nearby stars, the Palomar survey plates, and so forth. These were originally intended as examples, but many Guide users have submitted useful datasets that are now incorporated into the program. Hitting "Toggle user datasets" brings up a list of these datasets, plus any you may have added using the instructions on the Project Pluto Web site. You can click on those you wish to change. You'll get a small dialog box where you can turn the dataset on or off, change its color, set a magnitude limit, and so on.
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