Hi Eithanius, long time no hear.

I don't think anyone will carry Astronomy software in stock here in M'sia. Too much piracy to compete with lah.

Any would-be distributor will also have same overheads to bring in the boxed set and not enough margin to justify becoming a distributor. Especially when anyone can just order online hassle free.

yo dude... wassup...?

I would have gone for the upgrade path hadn't my current v5 an *ahem* one... that one costs only USD100 only compared to the original USD249.95 full version plus 35 for shipping....

*Ahem* one at USD100? you sure live in style, man.

erm.... i mean the v6 upgrade path which costs USD100 over my *ahem* v5....

Well, going legit is classy ( ), and keeps those nice programmers in business......

Do you upgrade your "ahem" with the original upgrade? Why are we coughing frequently these days?

I am quite sure that I am going to improve my English.

possible only with the serial number... of which i have.... but then again if it doesn't work, USD100 just fly off like that....

that's the reason I wanted to buy a full version.... maybe a Pro Plus version...

the ahem virus is everywhere. I've caught it too....need to upgrade my version 4.5....cough, cough.
Is it really worth upgrading to version 6? Much improvement?

*ahem* to original, that's an improvement....

apparently they have a feature that fully utilises graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.0 to display real images on the entire sky....

Actually, I don't need such an expensive candy. I don't think you need a Pro Plus version if you don't do astrophotography.

The first pictures from the MRO using the HiRISE camera have been posted!
Here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/mult...-20060929a.html

It looks like Google Mars could be available soon.

We have a new astrophotography opportunity for October: Comet Swan.

for the ephemeris and orbital elements, see here: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?ID=dK06M040;orb=1;cov=0#orb

For this week, it will be in the dawn sky. Later part of the month, it will be in the evening.

Whoopppeeee!!! And I thought it was going to be a dull month.

Finally there is a photo-op again. What's the magnitude of this comet?

Visually reported at around 6th magnitude.....going to be another difficult one.

I've just tried running the comet's ephemeris in SNP. It looks like we won't be able to catch it in the evening sky later this month.
The comet is moving northwards, and those lucky people further North will have a better view, but not us. For us, the comet will set before the sky gets dark enough. One of the drawbacks of living near the equator.

So we have only this week to catch the comet.

This week? Do you mean catch it with the hazy skies?

I keep praying for a miracle. Very religious this week.

BTW, there's another new comet to try for at the same time. David Levy of the famous Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1994) has just found a comet near Saturn. This is reported at magnitude 10, so you will need a fairly fast telescope to see it.

This will be David's 22nd comet discovery.

Wow, he is so expert in comet discovering. I wish I will have the skill one day.

well, the last time he discovered the former, it broke into many fragments and slammed into Jupiter.... who knows, this one might just venture too close to Saturn and slam into it as well....

Do you read the book about the images taken by Hubble?

err.... was i in error...? or the book's expensive....?