***************************
* NOT IMPLEMENTED at this time
***************************

* Double stars - include a plot of the double star system, not just of orbits of doubles.
[COMENT While this would be straight forward for simple system, the plotting becomes quite
complex when dealing with all the permutations of double star identifications. Pairings
like AB-C, A-BC, Aa,Ab and so-on.

* Allow the user to say where a generated OccelmntSubsetForOW.dat file is to be placed.
That way I can specify my OW Personal directory so the events will appear in a
OW Personal Predictions list. Right now I have to copy and paste from the Occult/Generated
Files directory to the OW/Personal directory. It would be extra nice if somehow OW
could purge the Personal Predictions when a new Occelmnt file was placed, but I suppose
that's for Hristo to do.

* On colored maps I'd be inclined to make site names less obtrusive by displaying
them in a darker color. When the cursor is very close to a site, its name and
coordinates could be shown beside the cursor. The current floating coordinates
label tends to blink randomly, so perhaps that should be moved to a fixed position.
A click on the map could produce a temporary site displayed in a different
color to the others.

* Allow user to specify which columns to show in the Asteroid Summary of Events table.
For example, I don't much need to know the RA & Dec of an event because OW and
my planetarium program know those, but I would like to display the azimuth of the
event (altitude is already shown) so I can quickly tell if it is visible from my
backyard.
[The changes required to implement this are quite significant.]

* Would it be possible in the local summary file for occultations to add a column:
- for asteroid magnitude
- for the time of event with second accuracy (replacing the existing minutes with
decimal like 34.6 minutes with 2 columns like 34mn 38s)?
- An extra column for distance in arc seconds in addition with the one in kms would
be also nice.
[The changes required to implement this are significant.]

***************************
* TOO LARGE FOR THE CURRENT REVISION
***************************

* In asteroid occultation predictions, plot satellites of asteroids (or double asteroids)
[COMMENT This is a feature I have wanted to do for some time, and some parts
of Occult have been built with an expectation of this functionality. However there
are only about 6 asteroids which have useable orbital elements, and there is
significant development required to implement the determination of the position in orbit.]

***************************
* NOT IMPLEMENTED *
***************************

* In the Star Catalogue Comparison window, say "Get from Vizier & display"
instead of "Get from France..."
[COMMENT VizieR is accessible from 9 sites, which can be selected under
the menu item Vizier site... The relevant button displays the VizieR
server that is being used.]

* If it's not too complicated, would it be possible to have, in the panel
"Search for occultations by the Minor Planet...", in addition to the year
and month, the possibility to choose the search for events between two dates ?
For example : the events from 1 to 15 February, or from 10 to 20 April, or ...
[COMMENT Occult uses a 10-day integration scheme. Because of this there
is little advantage to be had in specifying a start and end date within a
month - and significant complications in ensuring that the specified dates
are within the start and end date of the 10-day integration scheme.]

* A trivial change - could we have use of the cursor keys for navigating
through occultation files. Left and right move from event to event and up
and down change the plot scale.
[COMMENT Use of Cursor keys can't be done - cursor is used for text box
entry on the form. However Short-cut keys are already provided on the form.
F8 moves to the next event. Shift-F8 moves to the previous event. Similarly
the plot scale can be changed with keys F2 to F6.]

* (Following from the previous) Regarding the plots, if the cursor keys become
available, the maximum scale could be extended a couple more levels down
to covering two degrees of latitude so its a suitable scale for planning
mobile observations.
[See previous comment. Plus for detailed planning, GoogleEarth/GoogleMaps
is a better mapping environment.]

* In the Jupiter mutual events predictions is it possible to
have an option to include the small moons? Similar to the option in Graphics of
Planets and their moons. Back in May In was up and failing to find an MP but
Jupiter was up and did a recording for a while. I have recently finished
analysing the data and the light curves attached are the result. The dip at about
17:22 seems to coincide with Thebe (XIV) being the nearest moon to Io. But not
near enough to be occulting Io. The question I am trying to answer is : Could it
be an eclipse by Thebe? I have played with C2A and Stellarium to try to see what
they say but don't show small moons either.
[In principle this could be done, with all the key changes being in the interface.
However on a consideration of the physics of the situation, the loss of light
caused by the shadow of a small moon like Thebe on a large moon like Io is
so small as to be undetectable. Hence no value in implementing a relevant interface.]

For information only. Looking ahead, the significant changes to Occult that can be expected in the next year or three are:

1. Implementation of UCAC4
2. Implementation of a new subset of PPMXL that will incorporate UCAC3 and CMC14 data
3. A complete revision of the 'Tycho2' catalogue as used in Occult for asteroidal predictions and reductions. Any revised format will include uncertainty data.
4. Revision of the XZ catalogue on the basis of UCAC4 and/or PPMX(L).
5. For asteroid predictions, incorporate the ability to compute the position of asteroidal moons from their orbital elements [there are only about 6 systems where this is currently possible.]
6. Once the Archiving of lunar occultations has been completed, development of tools for 'data mining' the archive. [NOTE The editing of the Archive preparatory to its submission is expected to be completed within the next month or so...]
7. Assessing the data from the Lunar Reconnaissance orbiter re whether it can provide limb data that is improved over the Kaguya data.

important update to Occult that will be critical for some users. It is version 4.0.9.10.

The update corrects 2 issues that where identified while I was away, and adds one minor feature. The issues corrected are:

1. Using the UCAC3 catalogue. As a result of some queries regarding a recent asteroidal prediction in Europe, an error was detected in the calculation of the proper motion from the UCAC3 catalogue. The error results in the proper motion correction being too small by the factor 1/cos(declination). For anyone generating predictions using UCAC3, this update is VERY IMPORTANT.

[The error arose as a result of UCAC2 and UCAC3 storing the proper motion in RA slightly differently. In UCAC3, the proper motion is multiplied by cos(declination) whereas in UCAC2 it is not - and this difference was not noticed when adapting the UCAC2 routine to read UCAC3. oops!]

2. Baily Beads plots of solar eclipses. Associated with some changes considered at v4.0.8.18, the treatment of the solar radius was changed slightly. Unfortunately some consequential changes in the Baily Beads analysis and plot were overlooked - with a result that the solar radius being used was about 1.6" too small [irradiation]. This has been corrected. Another oops!

The additional minor feature added is:
3. In lunar occultation predictions - the star coordinates can now be displayed as an apparent position (rather than a J2000 position). This option is set in the User Settings, under the Lunar occultation predictions box (about 70% down the form) - with the first check box in that group.

How to get the update:

A. If you are running Occult 4.0.9.9, and have set the 'Check for availability of updates...' in the User settings) to something less than monthly, you will get a notification about the availability when the program next checks for the availability. In any case, you can access the update from the main form, under Program Updates... Check for program updates.

B. If you have not previously updated to 4.0.9.9, and are running Occult 4.0.9.0 to 4.0.9.8 - you will not get an automatic update notification (due to a bug that was fixed in 4.0.9.9). In any case, you can access the update from the main form, under Program Updates... Force program update with latest version.

C. If you are running 4.0.8.18 to 4.0.8.32 - you should be able to proceed as in [A]. Otherwise proceed as in [B].

D. If you are running an older version of Occult - contact Dave Herald. Depending on how old your version is, a new installation might need to be considered.

New general release version of Occult - v4.0.9.14.

The primary change in this version relates to weather predictions - which are now working again. Occult (& OccultWatcher) access the 7Timer numeric predictions generated by Ye Quanzhi from the NCEP Global Forecasting System. Some months ago 7Timer effectively went off-line. It has now been re-established on a much better server, with a much-improved response time. You can read all about it at:
http://7timer.y234.cn/V3/wordpress/?p=376

There are a number of other minor bug fixes etc, which can be viewed using Program Updates.. List version changes. They are listed in the several prior beta versions

Occult - 4.0.9.17.

The changes are:

1. The URL for the database of asteroid light curves was recently changed, and also the file format was slightly changed. Occult has been updated to use the new URL and file format. [This issue is relevant to anyone using Occult for analysing asteroidal occultation observations.]

2. For occultations by planets or their moons. Occult allocates a unique identifier for occultation events, to suppress the output of duplicate events. For occultations by a planet or a planetary moon, the unique identifier did not allow for the possibility of more than one star being occulted in a 24hr period - which resulted in only one occultation being displayed in those circumstances. An improved unique identifier is now used. [This issue is effectively only relevant for predictions of faint stars by the Pluto system..]

3. For occultations by planets - if the duration exceeded 99999 seconds (about 27 hours) a field overflow occurred, resulting in an invalid Occelmnt file. This has been fixed.