StarGazer FAQ (updated Oct 23 2010)

  Q1. What is StarGazer?

  A. Stargazer is a web based system for drawing finding star charts. 
     Currently it works with GSC-ACT, SAO, YBS, a subset of USNO-A2
     and several other catalogs. 

I. Searching.
  
  Q1. Why there is no result when searching the phrase "NGC", "M", "SAO" etc?
  
  A. This are catalog abbreviations. Should StarGazer return the whole catalog?
     Some of them have over million of entries ;-)  
     Be more specific please!
     
  Q2. Why Searches of planets do not return any results?

  A. Planets do not have constant coordinates. Their positions change 
     in time. StarGazer does not calculate their positions and it 
     is not designed to do so.  

  Q3. Why Searches of Constellations do not return any results?

  A. Constellations are not included in Stargazer's database. Its purpose 
     is not getting maps of constellations. If you need a map of some 
     constellation try some other sources.

  Q4. Why my search does not return any results?

  A. Make sure you are searching an existing object! Check for some typos!
     StarGazer knows only the objects included in its database. It is not 
     able to find planets, asteroids, comets, Moon, Sun, constellations 
     etc (see Q2 and Q3). Here are some very frequent bad searches: "double 
     stars", "New stars", "photo", "pictures", "azimuth", "black hole".
     Remember StarGazer is not an astronomical encyclopedia ;-)  

  Q5. What can I search in StarGazer?

  A. Briefly, only objects included in the catalogs imported in its  
     database. For example : "HD 12321", "GSC 123-876", "PPM 5432", "M 15", 
     "NGC 6426", "SAO 2340" etc. Also you can search some common star names 
     like "Mizar", "Altair", "Sirius" or "Aqr Lambda", "CVn 21", "Cae Alpha" 
     etc.

II. Charts.
  
  Q1. Why my browser does not show the chart?
  
  A. Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed for PDF charts or 
     GhostScript installed to view PS charts. Note that only PDFs could be 
     displayed in the browser window (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 
     plugin).  
  
  Q2. Why there is no GIF, JPEG, BMP, XPM etc. output?
  
  A. PS and PDF are vector formats and GIF, JPEG, BMP, XPM are raster formats.
     In other words printing quality will be significantly reduced with raster 
     graphics in our case and we want high quality prints, do we?
     
  Q3. Why am I being asked for Right Ascension when I enter only Object name
      in StarGazer's Title field?
     
  A. The contents of Title field is not used for searching. Use the search 
     form to find the object data and then press the corresponding "Get Map" 
     link in the results table. 
      

Rumen G.Bogdanovski