- Great move. I am fully committed to you guys. SGP is making astronomy fun.
- Maybe … you would consider a mac version in the future ? (…runs for cover)
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It’s a pretty rare event when users of a piece of software are almost volunteering to pay more. Kudos to Ken & Jared for a job well done.
I echo that upgrades to the next version are somewhat cheaper than full price.
Another alternative is to give it away for free, then make us watch a commercial every 5 images. Or add some spyware. 
Just kidding of course.
Again, job well done!!
SGP allowed me to cast off the dreadfully archaic, TSX “Camera Add-On” with my Paramounts.
For that benefit alone, I’m forever grateful to Ken and Jared and will support them as long as I’m in the imaging hobby.
I will wait to buy SGPro 3.0
Will it be translated into Spanish?
Thanks for your work
I think this is a good direction. I have no problems paying some extra for an upgrade. SGP is quite remarkable actually. At the same time I was testing SGP, I was also testing The Skyx and found out I had to by all these separate third-party addons to make it work. And SkyX was really difficult to navigate the screens and menus. Didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I found SGP to be the most intuitive of all. The screens, layout and menus make sense. It does everything too all in one. I took to SGP very quickly in getting it up and running. I’ve had some issues yes. I haven’t always been impressed with no reply to support questions. But I like SGP and where its going. I think careful consideration has to be taken as to the upgrade costs. Hopefully though it gets better and better with this new direction. Look forward to SGPro 3 and beyond.
To me, it simply depends on what features are added.
I’d upgrade for sure if the “selectable area for autofocus” were added: http://forum.mainsequencesoftware.com/t/selectable-area-for-autofocus/787
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Its such a damned good piece of software. Pleeeease let me pay more for it.
Its a great honour to be a user of SGP, can’t wait for 3.0.
SGP changed my life, i was such a fool before.
Thank you.
Robert
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I would like to suggest another small change while you are changing the model. I currently have used all of my three licenses and could use another. although only two of the three run systems (one local, one remote), having SGP on other PCs lets me write plans and such more conveniently.
How about a modest charge to add more PC’s to the license? That might help some folks that have multiple PCs and laptops and such.
May I suggest this model:
Minor updates (i.e. 2.1>2.2, 3.1>3.2 etc) 25% annual software maintenance fee, so $25 per year.
Major upgrades (i,e, version 2 > version 3) = 50% of original “new” cost. Publish the release notes and user can decide if they want to pay. This is on top of the minor updates annual charge.
Fixes within a major release (aka patches) free.
Craig Stark (Nebulosity) did an upgrade fee (less than full cost) for any major release if you already had a license. Updates within that release were no charge. So moving to 2.0 major release, upgrade fee. Any updates within it, 2.1 >2.3 > 2.4 etc were free. Then at 3.0, upgrade fee if you wanted to keep current. While I have no problem paying more and supporting the cause, I wouldn’t want to be paying for every minor update in between major releases. And patches should be free.
I think we should give it a break. The full price of SGP is the same as a decent 11-inch dovetail plate or a middle of the range eyepeice in the UK. I don’t understand how folks continually underestimate the value of software. Just because you can get an app for your phone for a few bucks is not the same as something like this. If that were the case, hardware would have no markup either, and you would buy a premium telescope mount for a fraction of what they sell at today.
Software is an investment along with everything else. Investing in a couple of diligent individuals such as Ken and Jared is a good thing, as it gives them the ability to continue their development and take advantage of new things, such as the recent ASCOM device observing conditions class last year.
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I think the forum and this thread is a place for discussion and ideas. The thread was started with that in mind. Regardless, I don’t believe anyone is under estimating the value of SGP. Whatever happens will ultimately be the decision of Jared and Ken, their business model, the future road map of SGP and how best to keep it accessible and affordable for all current users and new users which I would imagine encompasses a diverse range of backgrounds and situations. IMO.
Just to clarify some things:
- We won’t be charging for minor releases. This was never on the table. You buy 3.X and you’ll get all 3.X updates.
- We’ve actually always been planning on releasing major revisions for an upgrade but this never happened. We’re generally bad at business things and good at software
(we’re both engineers and not salesman) - When it’s time for a new major release we’ll generally stop support for the previous version. We may elect, at our discretion, to fix issues in older versions. However I would not count on this and it will absolutely be an exception rather than the “norm”.
- Whatever version you use you can use for life. You buy 3.X you can use 3.X even if we have released 4.X, 5.X, etc.
- Licenses will be backwards compatible with at least the last release of the previous version. So you upgrade to 3.0 and for (whatever reason) you want to use 2.X on one of your machines…you can do that.
- We haven’t figured out what, if any, discount there will be for version jumping. (You have 3.0, we release 5.0 and you never updated to 4.0, etc) It may just be the normal update cost, it may be full price. Probably the former, but still undetermined.
(we’re both engineers and not salesman)Hope that helps to clear up any confusion.
We still don’t have an idea on timing for the 3.0 release. We’ll be releasing a 3.0 beta soon. It will be a self expiring beta similar to how we did betas a few years back with the Notification System and Framing and Mosaic Wizard. You’ll need a valid 2.X license and the beta will die after 45 days. So we’ll be releasing new betas every 30ish days until we’re ready for release.
Thanks,
Jared
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Sounds good to me 
Wonder what goodies will be in this beta then ?
Primarily the planning tools.
And potentially INDI support which may come later. Those will likely be the major features. Naturally some other smaller things mixed in.
Thanks,
Jared
Will a filter offset wizard be in 3.0?
Thanks
Dan
At this time it is still unplanned, meaning we haven’t determined if or when this feature would get implemented. Could be 3.0, could be 4.0, could be never.
Thanks,
Jared
The altitude and planning tool looks great. One suggestion I would have is to incorporate over time user azimuth constraints. Indeed, many of us do not have 360 degree visibility and deal with balconies, trees etc…
One nice solution would be to add as part of your location profile an azimuth mask. It could be quite simple with a list of coordinates (azimuth, minimum altitude).
For example if my tree is blocking altitude below 60 from az 30 to 40, the file would indicate:
0-90
29-90
30-60
40-60
41-90
360-90
The planning tool would take this into account as an additional constraint. I really think this would immensely simplify life for all of us who don’t have a nice observatory with clear access to the sky…
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The filter offset wizard and user definable focus area would make SGP perfect for me.
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SGP is the centerpiece of making astrophotography “doable”.
It’s the least expensive part of my kit, and among the most important.
I don’t even know if i can buy a spare cable for $100
I would pay full price for the upgrade and not think twice about it, including all the add-ons I bought
I can’t believe there is a discussion of tens of dollars for exceptional software in a hobby that is orders of magnitude more expensive than that.
B
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