What's New?

New Updates, Firmware and Everything Else at
the Astro-Physics Website

Watch this page for the latest news and features concerning the Astro-Physics website.

Other What's New! sections:
Notification Update
New Products
Technical Support - Check this section for updates on our instructions and manuals. All entries are dated so you can easily see what's new and if your original manual has been updated.

October 21, 2008. A bug was identified in v. 4.16 that only manifested itself on rare occasions, but definitely required a fix. Affected keypads would freeze up during initialization, especially when resuming from Reference Park 1. The issue has been resolved in v.4.17 which is available now in the Technical Support section of the website.
July 7, 2008. A bug was identified in v.4.15 that only affected older keypads. It has been corrected with the release of v.4.16. Customers in eastern longitudes who have older keypads can now upload this firmware from our site without losing the keypad's clock function. V.4.15 has been removed from the website. All earlier information about v.4.15 still applies to v.4.16.
March 24, 2008. We have a new keypad firmware version - v.4.15 - ready for download that deals with a few of the issues that customers in Eastern Longitudes were experiencing. This is NOT a complete new firmware release. (That will be the upcoming version 4.20.) It is, however, an important fix for any customers who use their mounts in longitudes between 0 and 180 degrees EAST. Customers whose mounts never leave the western hemispherre have no need to upgrade, and should probably not do so. Follow this link to our main downloads page. There, you can learn about the firmware download / upload process and find additional documentation on v.4.15.
August 20, 2007. Instruction manuals for our older model mounts have been added to our Vintage Products page. If you own one of these classics, or are just curious to see the evolution of Astro-Physics mount production, be sure to review this page.

October 30, 2004. Our new Product History section provides useful information and specifications regarding our previous products. If you are planning to purchase a used Astro-Physics instrument, this is the place to review the specs. At the present time, the information is limited to the telescopes and mounts that have been featured since our website was active. We will add specifications from our earlier instruments as time goes on.

Walk down memory lane with us on our new Advertising Over the Years page. Our earliest ad appeared in the July 1975 issue of Sky & Telescope - almost 30 years ago! Check it out.

October 9, 2004. New keypad upgrade to v4.12 available. Click on the Downloads section in our Technical Support section for further details.

August 20, 2004. U.S. customers may now place orders using our Online Shopping Cart. Simply go to our price list and click the "Add To Cart" button.

August 30, 2003. Our sidebar now includes a search engine powered by Google. Type in any part number, product name or other keyword to search for information regarding our products, technical support or other information available on our site. Google will confine its search to the Astro-Physics.com website and display the results the familiar Google format.

May 13, 2003. Color curves are now available for all of our current lens designs. The Mounting Plate accessories section has been totally updated with additional product descriptions, photos and instruction sheets. Take particular note of our new 16" Dovetail Plates for the 900 and 1200 mounts. They will provide solid support for your 17.25" Losmandy D Series Dovetail Plates.

March 5, 2003. Images of galaxies, telescopes and fun from the Winter Star Party are posted in the Events section and Artists of the Night Sky Gallery. Excellent seeing conditions allowed enthusiastic observers to see fine detail on Saturn and Jupiter and CCD imagers to obtain superb results. We also feature several fine sketches of the planets. For fun, you may wish to compare a sketch of Jupiter drawn by Stephen Russell at the Winter Star Party on February 6 with the image Stepan Siep took on Feb. 14, 2003 from Stuttgart, Germany.

November 1-3, 2002. We were honored that the coordinators of the International Space Station - Amateur Telesope (ISS-AT) project selected the Astro-Physics 1200GTO for installation at Winer Observatory in Sonoita, AZ. Walter Piorkowski of Astro-Physics assisted in the installation of the mount, C-14, SBIG ST-9E and other equipment. He documented the occasion with a series of photographs..

September 20, 2002. Catch a glimpse of Astrofest 2002, sponsored by the Chicago Astronomical Society from September 12-15, 2002 in Kankakee, IL. We have also added the photos from Astrofest 2001, which had not been uploaded yet to the website.

February 22, 2002. Auto-guider pinout for the GTO and QMD mounts.

October 29, 2001. New keypad upgrade to v3.09 available. Click on the Downloads section in our Technical Support section for further details.

October 9, 2001. Our new Gallery is now open. Over the next few days, we will be adding some fabulous images from some of the best astro-artists in astronomy today. We are also featuring photos of our customers with their equipment. Check back often.

October 2, 2001. The Coolsites section is finally a reality. We have gathered many links to customer websites and others of interest.

September 12, 2001. The new Downloads section is now available in our Technical Support section. This is the area to go for keypad upgrade information and downloads.

September 10, 2001. Software Bisque released version 5.00.014 update with a much improved driver for the AP GTO mounts. Upgrade your Level IV, Version 5 copy of TheSky at the support section of their website. Refer to TheSky version 5.00.014 Windows Update - AP Driver Features" for more information.

July 12, 2001. In the next few weeks, we will send a mailing to everyone who has received a GTO mount. If you purchased yours from Company Seven, Perceptor or another person, please contact us so that we can add your name to our database. We are trying to locate people who purchased a mount from Company 7, Perceptor or used from another person.

April 5, 2001. Software Bisque recently announced version 5.00.012 Windows update which includes a driver for the Astro-Physics GTO mount. If you already own version 5 of TheSky, you can download this upgrade from the support section of the Software Bisque website. New features include higher-resolution RA, motion control, set tracking rates, park (parking available only for GTO Control Box chips dated 11-13-00 or later). Refer to TheSky version 5.00.012 Windows Update - AP Driver Features" for more information.

November 15, 2000. Our new Gallery section opened featuring new images taken with our 10"Maksutov-Cassegrain. We'll be adding more images from customers in the future. We have also updated the specifications for the 10" Mak-Cass with some new photos of the tube assembly and updated information.

July 19, 2000. Introduce a new section entitled What's Changed?. When you notice that the site has changed, click this link on the home page to find out what's been updated.

July 5, 2000. Information regarding the Astro-Physics User Groups goes online. The ap-ug and ap-gto groups have been active for a year now. We are pleased to offer these quick links to join.

March 28, 2000. Technical Support section goes online. This area will develop more fully in the coming months.

February 18, 2000. Asteroids - Roland Christen of Astro-Physics and Al Nagler of TeleVue Optics were recently honored by Brian Skiff, astronomer with the Lowell Observatory. Brian named two asteroids that he discovered in the 1980s after Roland and Al. Roland was a bit sheepish about putting this on the web site, but Marj insisted.

October 22, 1999. Photos and account of our eclipse adventures August 11, 1999 at Baader Planetarium

October 6, 1999. Prices, Availability and Order Info is now available.

September 25, 1999. Astrofest '99 pics and comments in our new Events section

September 20, 1999. Products goes on-line at last. More features coming.

May 21, 1999. Shipping DigitalSky Voice™ software.

April 3, 1999. Astro-Physics Inc. website goes online.

Astro-Physics, Inc.
11250 Forest Hills Road, Rockford, IL 61115, U.S.A.
Phone: 815-282-1513 Fax: 815-282-9847