Stellarium v0.21.0 has been released!

The major changes of this version:

• We have finally completed our work on accurate planet axes, including Lunar libration
• Visualisation of Earth shadow for Lunar eclipses
• Better texture for the Lunar surface
• Added the latest algorithms for planet magnitudes
• Enhanced Calendars plugin
• Replaced “arabic” by more accurate “al-Sufi” skyculture
• Planets are now scalable and Solar glare switchable for didactic applications

We have also published a scientific paper about the application of Stellarium in cultural astronomy: https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.17822

Thank you very much to community for bug reports, feature requests and contributions!

Full list of changes:

• Added accurate planet axis orientation and rotation (GH: #502, #151):
• Added lunar libration (GH: #877)
• Added lines for the Invariable Plane and Projected Solar Equator (GH: #358)
• Added solar altitude to planetary feature nomenclature
• Added describe planetary coordinates and changes in the nomenclature display into Stellarium User Guide
• Added new language: Spanish (Latin America)
• Added ability to scaling of Sun and planets (GH: #1263)
• Added new magnitude algorithms for planets from Mallama&Hilton 2018 (GH: #574)
• Added Earth shadow circles for topocentric observer (GH: #430)
• Added new 4k texture for the Moon (required re-balancing planet shader brightness)
• Added lower limit for aFOV parameter of ocular in the GUI to avoid input wrong data (GH: #1487)
• Added visibility of an antisolar point for other planets (GH: #1481)
• Added ability to get all designations of DSO in scripts (GH: #1477)
• Added ability to show hourly motion in decimal degrees (GH: #1478)
• Added more cardinal points (GH: #1522, #1529)
• Added ability to switching off drawing of Solar glare (GH: #1538)
• Added a new sky culture based on Al-Sufi “Book of Fixed Stars” written ~ 964 AD (GH: #1548)
• Added Old Hindu calendars
• Added Islamic (algorithmic) and Hebrew calendar.
• Added French Revolution calendar (arithmetic version)
• Added Persian (arithmetic) calendar
• Added button to set standard atmosphere
• Added ability to translation/transliteration of Roman (latin) terms (GH: #1511)
• Added ability to use UTC time when navigational stars are displayed (GH: #1416)
• Added acknowledgment section into Help/About window (GH: #1568)
• Added cosmetic fix for radio communication data: no need extra precision to show data in Satellites plugin
• Fixed compatibility of ToneReproducer shader with GLES (GH: #1549, #1550)
• Fixed retranslation of calendars (GH: #1545)
• Fixed vertical position of calendar info panel
• Fixed height-dependent twinkle for star-like objects (GH: #1542)
• Fixed capturing a screenshots under macOS High Sierra and later (GH: #102)
• Fixed documentation for API
• Fixed display the extincted magnitudes for all objects
• Fixed reading textures (GH: #1547)
• Fixed alignment of an intercardinal direction markers (GH: #1552)
• Fixed work of multisampling mode when in Spout isn’t used (GH: #1537)
• Fixed visualization zodiacal light at low Bortle values (GH: #1489, #1510)
• Fixed the drawing a degrees on compass on HiDPI devices
• Fixed search short phrases (GH: #1528)
• Fixed orientation of Jupiter, Uranus and Venus (GH: #357)
• Fixed inexact rotation of Moon (GH: #347)
• Fixed wrong rendering of Jupiter (GH: #1261)
• Fixed incorrect moon terminator (GH: #973)
• Fixed a skybox.ssc script (GH: #1461)
• Fixed crash when trails are enabled (GH: #1471)
• Fixed crash when choosing Zero Horizon landscape (GH: #1466)
• Fixed displaying labels of coordinate grids on HiDPI devices (GH: #1445)
• Fixed a labeling hour angles (GH: #1457)
• Fixed API docs
• Fixed styles of QMessageBox and QColorDialog (GH: #1451)
• Fixed WUI of Remote Control plugin
• Fixed HiDPI issue for Observability plugin
• Fixed the placement of cardinal marks when compass mark is enabled on the HiDPI devices
• Fixed placement of the value of equation of time for HiDPI devices
• Fixed crash at exit (GH: #1479)
• Fixed work of Spout mode: inhibit multisampling when in Spout mode (GH: #1507)
• Fixed DOI link for “Calendrical Calculations” (GH: #1562, #1566)
• Fixed missing strings for translation (GH: #1562, #1566)
• Fixed tooltips and placeholders (GH: #1562, #1566)
• Fixed comments for translators (GH: #1562, #1566)
• Fixed updating placement of calendars when visibility of calendars are changed (GH: #1567)
• Fixed artifacts in the GUI when language is changed
• Fixed images and typos in Stellarium User Guide
• Fixed bibliography in Stellarium User Guide
• Fixed the figure of Virgo constellation (GH: #1570)
• Fixed stupid typos in satellites.json file
• Fixed illumination during Lunar eclipse in Scenery 3D plugin (GH: #1506)
• Fixed behavior “Clear” button in Script Console (GH: #1499)
• Fixed lunar magnitude: try an accurate Lunar magnitude formula (GH: #1350)
• Fixed lunar eclipses: redo the eclipse push effect for lunar eclipses
• Fixed behavior of Bookmarks tool when pressed button “cancel” in import dialog (GH: #1497)
• Fixed Mesa mode for Windows (GH: #1551)
• Fixed multisampling on non-Windows systems (GH: #1553)
• Fixed typos in Al-Sufi skyculture
• Fixed bug for calculation the leap years: restore leap year rule in our astronomical year counting
• Updated translations
• Updated translations of landscapes descriptions
• Updated translations of 3D sceneries descriptions
• Updated translations of skycultures descriptions
• Updated AstroCalc/Phenomena tool (GH: #1520)
• Updated planetary features data
• Updated building instructions for Windows (GH: #1444)
• Updated core: slight restructuring of Planets, Comets, MinorPlanets, SolarSystem loader
• Updated core: using data from WGCCRE reports 2009, 2015 and Explanatory Supplement to the AA 2013 (with error fixed by the 1992 ed.) for rotation elements
• Updated core: keeps original Stellarium planet rotation model (undocumented) where new rotation elements are unavailable
• Updated core: make StelToneReproducer’s xyYToRGB.glsl core function reusable (GH: #1468)
• Updated code of INDI client to version 1.8.5
• Updated code for building Stellarium without NLS and Scripting support
• Updated GUI (GH: #1204)
• Updated Satellites plugin
• Updated default satellites database
• Updated GUI of Navigational stars plugin
• Updated default pulsars catalog
• Updated description of supernovae plugin (GH: #500)
• Updated description of calendars plugin in Stellarium User Guide
• Removed proper name for NGC 2194 (GH: #1530)
• Removed Arabic skyculture: Arabic SC was replaced by more accurate “al-Sufi” skyculture