astronomical calc: show current object

[axd1967]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I've calculated the path of a comet, but I can't see it unless it is selected.
Related: #1427

Describe the solution you'd like
Add an option in the astrocalc dialog to highlight the object(s) that has/have been selected (irrespective of actual magnitude/visibility), so that it is visible even without selection.

Describe alternatives you've considered
select the object.

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[alex-w]

Apparently I don’t understand the request for selection without selecting, but did you tried select any line in table?

[axd1967]

Selecting a line inside the table does highlight a position along the computed path (as in #1200), and double-clicking jumps to that direction in time, but that's not what I want.

The problem with that approach is that I lose the overview of the sky; I want to be able to see how (e.g.) a comet moves relative to other objects (as I can do with e.g. planets relative to DSO), but I cannot do so without a focus on that object, because often the object is too .

The idea is (1) to see a symbol (similar to a planet marker, if possible a bit larger) regardless of the computed magnitude (2) that corresponds to the currently selected time (rather than the time of a computed row in the astrocal dialog).

A solution could be to show a special marker(s) that corresponds to the position of the objects (there could be 2) in the astrocal dialog, computed for the current time (regardless of the computed rows in the astrocal dialog). A checkbox in the astrocal dialog could implement this: "show as marker" or something. The marker could be large enough so that it shows up on top of astrocalc plots.

Note that the marker(s) could be drawn without any astrocal data (because their positions must be recomputed anyway).

Workaround

Disable the SSO magnitude limit to show the comet position regardless of its actual brightness. It might also be necessary to also disable the atmosphere and/or increase the amount of labels/markers. This still poses a problem in that too much information is present in the display:

[github-actions]

Hello @axd1967!

Thank you for suggesting this enhancement.

[github-actions]

Hello @axd1967!

Please check the fresh version (development snapshot) of Stellarium:
https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium-data/releases/tag/weekly-snapshot

[github-actions]

Hello @axd1967!

Please check the latest stable version of Stellarium:
https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/releases/latest