User`s guide

178 Starry Night User’s Guide
the file, you must resave the file from the
Favourites->Save Favourite menu.
A small info icon will then appear to
the left of the file name in the
Favourites pane. Click this icon to read
your notes. If you wish to edit the note you
added, select File->Edit Document Notes
and resave the file to make the changes
permanent.
Custom Asterisms
Different cultures see the stars in different
ways, joining them together to form
recognizable patterns. Each one of these
patterns is called an
asterism. While today,
the stick figures for the 88 "official"
constellations are the best-known set of
asterisms, many other sets exist. Even for
the 88 "official" constellations, there is
more than one way to draw the stick
figures. Starry Night makes it possible for
you to create your own set of custom
asterisms. To create a new set of asterisms,
you need to create a plain text file in the
proper format, and save this file in your
“Starry Night\Sky
Data\Asterisms” folder (on the
Macintosh, you will need to
Ctrl-click on the Starry Night application
icon and choose
Show Package Contents, then open the
“Resources” folder to view the “Sky
Data” folder). The next time you run
Starry Night, open the Options pane and
expand the Constellations layer. Open the
Constellation Options dialog box. Your
new set of asterisms will be listed
alongside the other sets of stick figures.
To see the format for an asterism file, open
the text file "Oriental Moon
Stations.txt" in your “Starry
Night\Sky Data\Asterisms”
folder . This is the exact file which Starry
Night uses to render the Oriental moon
station set of stick figures onscreen. The
format is quite straightforward. You need
to specify a name for your new set of
asterisms (for example, "Oriental Moon
Stations"). For each asterism in this set,
you need to enter the asterism's name, the
approximate position in the sky of the
asterism's centre, and each of the lines
between stars that define the shape and
size of this asterism.
Note: If you create a new set of asterims
and would like to share it with other users,
please contact us at http://
www.starrynight.com/supportl. We would
love to have a reference set of files that
depicts the figures of many cultures!
Backing Up Custom Data
You may wish to back up your custom data
in case of a computer problem. If you ever
change computers, you will also need to
move this custom data. This section
outlines where each piece of custom
information is stored, so you will know
which files you need to back up
Windows/Mac File Structure Differences:
Most custom data is stored inside the
“Sky Data” folder or the “Prefs”
folder. On Windows, the “Prefs” folder
is inside the “C:\Documents and
Settings\<user name here>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Imaginova
Canada” folder. On the Mac, the “Prefs”