Cygnus Release Notes
Cygnus 1.3.0 (Oct 9, 2026)
Highlights
This release replaces the study types of earlier versions, so a workspace containing a study saved by any earlier version can no longer be opened, and its studies must be recreated in a new workspace. In their place are four studies — Ephemeris, Aspect Ephemeris, Graphic Ephemeris and Graphic Aspect Ephemeris — each with a Coord. Origin dropdown that measures positions from the centre of the Earth, the study location or the Sun, where each origin used to be a separate study. Graphic Aspect Ephemeris is itself new, graphing the cycle angle and separation of pairs of bodies over time.
New
• Graphic Aspect Ephemeris Study: A new study, Graphic Aspect Ephemeris, graphs the cycle angle and separation of each pair of inner and outer bodies over time, measured in longitude or, under the equatorial reference plane, in right ascension. Each line is drawn in the Graph Settings colour of its inner body, and hovering a line names the pair and the metric.
Improved
• Coordinate Origin Dropdown: Every study now has a Coord. Origin dropdown, between Zodiac and Ref. Plane, that chooses whether positions are measured from the centre of the Earth, from the study location, or from the Sun. The separate geocentric, topocentric and heliocentric versions of each study are now a single study each: Ephemeris, Aspect Ephemeris, Graphic Ephemeris and Graphic Aspect Ephemeris. A new study starts on the origin set in Default Settings, including one chosen there in Cygnus 1.2.6 or earlier, when that setting had no effect, and switching to or from Heliocentric keeps every selected body that both perspectives offer.
• Graphic Ephemeris Icon: The Graphic Ephemeris icon on the toolbar, in the File menu and in the Studies list is now drawn with a bolder line and arrowhead, so it reads more clearly at small sizes.
Fixed
• Default Settings Editor Title-Bar Close: Closing the Default Settings Editor with the window's own close button now asks whether to save your changes, as its Close button does, instead of discarding them without warning. A value still being typed into a field counts as a change.
• Default Settings Editor Cancel: Answering Cancel when the Default Settings Editor asks whether to save your changes now leaves the editor in front, with your changes still in it. Before, the editor dropped behind the main window, so it looked as though it had been minimized.
• Unrecognised Study Settings: Opening a workspace in which a study holds a zodiac, coordinate origin, reference plane or time unit that this version does not recognise, such as a damaged file or one saved by a later version, now fails with a message naming the study, the setting and the value. It previously failed with “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”.
Breaking changes
• Workspaces Saved by Earlier Versions: A workspace that contains a study and was saved by any earlier version of Cygnus cannot be opened in this version, because the study types it names have been replaced by the four studies above; recreate its studies in a new workspace, since re-saving it in an earlier version does not help. A default column layout customised for one of the old study types is not carried over.
Cygnus 1.2.8 (Sep 30, 2026)
Highlights
The Light theme is now a white, high-contrast scheme shared by every Rhythm Seven application, with darker text, clearer control borders and more legible graphic ephemerides. The change that matters most is to saving: if a save failed when you exited, Cygnus used to close anyway and lose your changes, and it now stays open so you can try again. The Locations Editor also gets its macOS keyboard shortcuts and Delete behaviour corrected.
Improved
• Light Theme: The Light theme is now a white, high-contrast scheme shared by every Rhythm Seven application, in place of its blue-grey backgrounds. Text is darker, control borders are clearer, and icons, warnings and errors stand out on the new background. In the graphic ephemerides the gridlines, axes and crosshair are drawn more clearly in the Light theme; the Dark theme is unchanged.
Fixed
• macOS Save Shortcut in the Locations Editor: In the Locations Editor on macOS, Cmd+S now saves, matching the shortcut every other window already used. Ctrl+S no longer saves in that editor on macOS. On Windows nothing changes: Ctrl+S saves as before.
• Delete After Adding a Row in the Locations Editor: In the Locations Editor, Delete is now available as soon as Add creates a new row. It previously stayed greyed out over the new, highlighted row until the row was clicked again.
• Failed Save on Exit: If you chose to save your changes when exiting and the save failed, Cygnus closed anyway and the changes were lost. It now stays open after reporting the failure, so you can try again or save the workspace somewhere else.
• Delete Key on macOS in the Locations Editor: On macOS, the delete key now removes the selected locations from the Locations Editor. Previously only Fn-Delete did, and Backspace now does the same on Windows. Pressing Delete or Backspace while typing in a cell now changes only the text, where on Windows Delete also asked whether to delete the location.
Cygnus 1.2.7 (Sep 20, 2026)
The following bugs were fixed:
• Coordinate Origin Default: The Coord. Origin dropdowns have been removed from both columns of the Default Settings editor. Every Cygnus study type is tied to a single coordinate origin — geocentric, topocentric or heliocentric is the study you choose from the Ephemerides menu — so the default was never applied to any study you created.
• Windows License Identification: On Windows, Cygnus now identifies your computer from information it can read reliably. Earlier versions could not read that information at all and fell back to an identifier that described no particular computer. Because your license is tied to that identifier, it is re-issued for your computer the next time you open R7.Activator, by itself and without using up an activation. If R7.Activator asks for your registered name and activation code, enter them once. Computers running macOS are unaffected.
Cygnus 1.2.6 (Sep 17, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Save Prompts: You are no longer asked to save a workspace you have never saved. Work in a brand-new workspace is yours to keep or abandon - closing the application, creating another workspace, or opening one takes it away without a question. Once a workspace has been saved to a file, you are asked about unsaved changes exactly as before. The indicator beside the toolbar still shows whether there are unsaved changes either way.
The following bugs were fixed:
• A Saved Workspace Emptied of Its Studies: Deleting the last study from a saved workspace and then creating a new workspace or opening another one discarded the deletion without asking. You are now asked whenever a saved workspace has changed, however many studies it holds.
Cygnus 1.2.5 (Sep 7, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Positions follow the study's reference plane: a study calculating in the equatorial reference plane now reports positions as right ascension only, for every body without exception — the Ascendant, Medium Coeli, Descendant and Imum Coeli included, which also gives them a real declination for the first time, in the table and on the graphs alike. Sign Position is switched off and cannot be selected while that plane is in use, and Right Asc is selected in its place.
The following bugs were fixed:
• Sign positions reported for equatorial studies: studies using the equatorial reference plane filled the Sign column with a zodiacal position derived from right ascension. That column is no longer produced in this plane.
Cygnus 1.2.4 (Aug 30, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
The following bugs were fixed:
• Unsaved Changes Prompt When Closing With The Window Chrome: Closing the Locations editor with the title-bar close button or Alt+F4 discarded unsaved edits without asking. All four ways of closing the editor — File ▸ Exit, the Close button, the title-bar close button and Alt+F4 — now raise the same Unsaved Changes prompt, and Cancel keeps the window open with the edits intact.
• CSV Import No Longer Discards The First Line: Importing a Locations CSV whose first line was neither the exported column header nor a complete data row discarded that line and then reported the import as successful. Such a line is now reported so it can be corrected, and a file whose values are all quoted — as a spreadsheet writes when told to quote every text field — now imports every row, including the first.
• Tenet Position Accuracy: The Tenet (planetary barycentre) calculation used mass weights that were divided by a mistyped total and included two mis-transcribed planetary constants, leaving Tenet slightly out of position. The weights are now derived directly from the published JPL DE440 values, so studies that include Tenet report corrected positions.
Cygnus 1.2.3 (Aug 17, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
The following bugs were fixed:
• Default Ephemeris Preset On A New Study: Creating a study no longer reports an error when the default ephemeris preset was saved with a different coordinate origin — for example a geocentric preset and a new heliocentric study. The preset's coordinate origin is now ignored, since each study type works in its own frame, and the preset's location, zodiac system and reference plane are applied as usual. The same applies when a preset is chosen from a study's preset list.
Cygnus 1.2.2 (Aug 14, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Graph Scroll Bar: The graphic ephemerides now have a horizontal scroll bar along the bottom of the graph. Its thumb shows how much of the study's date range is on screen and where that window sits within it — drag the thumb to scroll, click the track to page a screenful at a time, or roll the mouse wheel over the bar to nudge it. Scrolling never changes the zoom level, and screen readers can now read and move the visible time window directly.
• Graph Scrolling Performance: Scrolling, panning, and zooming a graph that plots many thousands of data points is now much smoother. Dense series are reduced to what the screen can actually resolve before they are drawn, and the graph no longer repeats layout work while it is being scrolled.
• Checkbox Styling: Checkboxes now carry the same styling as the dropdowns and text boxes beside them, keeping one background and border whether they are ticked or not, so the tick alone shows whether a setting is on. A checkbox that has the keyboard focus now draws the same accent-colored border every other field draws, where before it gave no sign of holding the focus, and the accent color is no longer used to fill a ticked box.
The following bugs were fixed:
• Pasting Into Date and Time Fields: Pasting into a date or time field with the keyboard — Ctrl+V on Windows, Cmd+V on macOS — now replaces the value as expected. Previously the keystroke did nothing whenever the field already held a complete date or time, and the value could only be replaced by right-clicking the field and choosing Paste.
Cygnus 1.2.1 (Aug 5, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• About Dialog Icon: The About dialog now shows the application's full-colour icon image in place of the previous single-colour symbol.
• Mouse Wheel Zoom On Graphs: Graphic ephemerides can now be zoomed with the mouse wheel. Rolling the wheel forward zooms in and rolling it backward zooms out, centred on the date under the mouse pointer, so the point of interest stays where it is. The vertical axes are unaffected.
• Open A Chart In Compass From A Record: Double-clicking a row in a study’s ephemeris records table opens a chart for that moment in Compass. The chart is cast exactly as the record was calculated — same location, zodiac system, coordinate origin and reference plane — and plots the bodies the study plots, with an aspect study’s aspects applied. If Compass is not already running it is started automatically.
• Open A Chart In Compass From A Graph: Double-clicking any plotted point on a graphic ephemeris opens a chart for that point’s moment in Compass, mirroring the records table. Any point the crosshair read-out can report is one you can double-click. Double-clicking the date axis or a value axis still resets that axis as before.
• Emphasised Grid Lines On Graphs: Graphic ephemerides now draw the most meaningful grid line of the graphed metric a little heavier than the others, so it stands out at a glance without competing with the axis lines. Longitude and right ascension emphasise the quarters of the circle at 90°, 180° and 270°. Latitude and declination emphasise zero, where a body crosses the ecliptic or the celestial equator, and speed emphasises zero, where a body turns retrograde or direct. A graph's horizontal grid lines belong to one metric at a time, so the emphasis follows whichever metric owns them.
• Timekeeping System: The application's timekeeping system has been brought up to date.
The following bugs were fixed:
• Graph Axis Labels On Fractional Scales: Graph value axes that step in halves — for example a distance axis running 0 to 30 AU — labelled their grid lines with rounded whole numbers, so the labels named values the lines were not actually drawn at. Such axes now label every line with its true value.
Cygnus 1.2.0 (Jul 31, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Uranian Bodies: The eight Uranian (Hamburg-school) hypothetical planets — Cupido, Hades, Zeus, Kronos, Apollon, Admetos, Vulkanus, and Poseidon — are now selectable in ephemeris study body lists as a new Uranians group, which always appears last. Workspaces saved with Uranian bodies are not readable by earlier Cygnus versions.
• Keyboard Study Reordering: Studies in the main window list can now be reordered from the keyboard — ALT+UP and ALT+DOWN (OPTION+UP and OPTION+DOWN on macOS) move the selected study one position. Dragging a study with the mouse continues to work as before.
• Graphic Ephemeris Studies: Three new study types — Geocentric Graphic Ephemeris, Topocentric Graphic Ephemeris, and Heliocentric Graphic Ephemeris — plot body metrics (Longitude/Right Ascension, Latitude/Declination, Distance, and Speed) as an interactive graph over time instead of a records table. The graph supports panning, drag-zooming the time axis, adjusting each value axis by dragging, and a hover read-out showing the body, date/time, and metric value; generated results are saved with the workspace and restored instantly on reload.
• Graph Settings: A new Graph Settings window — opened from the Edit menu or the toolbar — assigns the line color each body is plotted with on graphic ephemeris graphs. Color changes preview live on open graphs, and a Reset button restores the built-in palette.
Cygnus 1.1.0 (Jul 26, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Control Labels: Control labels were re-styled with a slightly smaller font size, so they sit more subtly beside the values they describe.
• Location Import and Export: The Locations editor now has a menu bar matching the Natal Records editor, including a Data menu for importing and exporting the location collection as a CSV file with Name, Latitude, Longitude, and Height columns.
Cygnus 1.0.8 (Jul 8, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Grouped Body Selection Lists: The body selection lists now organize celestial bodies under collapsible groups — Diurnal Angles, Planets, Barycenters, Lunar Axis, Asteroids, and Centaurs. Click a group's row (or press Space or Enter on it) to open or close the group, with the chevron rotating to show its state. The Planets and Lunar Axis groups start open, and each group's open/closed state is remembered while the study remains open; a group's checked bodies are always preserved, even while the group is closed.
• Animated Chevrons: The chevron indicators on the dropdown, date picker, and time picker controls now animate smoothly as they open and close, giving clearer visual feedback.
The following bugs were fixed:
• Records Columns Out of Sync: Fixed an issue where the records grid columns could stop matching the selected bodies and metrics. For example, after generating an ephemeris, unlocking it, then deselecting some bodies and changing which metrics were shown, some bodies could keep displaying the wrong columns — such as a Sign column that stayed visible after Sign Position was turned off. The visible columns now always reflect the current body and metric selections.
Cygnus 1.0.7 (Jul 4, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• House System Removed from Default Settings: The House System option has been removed from the Default Settings editor. No studies use a house system, so the setting had no effect.
• Start Time, Interval, and Time Unit Added to Default Settings: The Default Settings editor now includes the Start Time, record Interval, and Time Unit for both the Application and Workspace defaults, so new studies are initialized with your preferred chronological settings.
Cygnus 1.0.6 (Jun 29, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Improved Look & Feel: The user interface has received a visual refresh, with tidier layouts and more consistent styling throughout the application for a smoother, more pleasant experience.
The following bugs were fixed:
• Time Interval Numeric Entry on macOS: The Time Interval field in study settings now correctly rejects non-numeric input on macOS, matching the behavior on Windows. Typing letters, signs, or other symbols no longer enters them into the field, and pasting mixed text keeps only the digits — so the field always holds a positive whole number.
• Click to Select a Date or Time: Clicking into a date or time field now highlights the whole value so you can immediately type a new one — the same as tabbing into the field. Clicking a second time places the cursor where you click, so you can still edit just part of the date or time.
Cygnus 1.0.5 (Jun 20, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Date & Time Controls: New date and time entry controls have been added for defining study parameters. They use the same source code as the equivalent controls in the Natal Records Editor. This ensures a consistent data entry experience within the application and across applications.
• Clear All Bodies: The body selection lists now offer a Clear All command in the right-click menu, directly below Deselect. Selecting it unchecks every body in the list at once, regardless of which rows are highlighted. The option is available whenever at least one body is selected.
• Clear All Metrics: The metric selection lists — including the body metrics and aspect metrics lists in the ephemerides studies — now offer the same Clear All command in their right-click menus. It unchecks every metric in the list at once, regardless of which rows are highlighted, and is available whenever at least one metric is selected.
• Dark Theme by Default: On first launch — before any theme preference has been saved — the application now starts in the dark theme instead of the light theme. Your saved theme preference is still remembered and applied on later launches, and you can switch between light and dark at any time.
• Application Colors: A critical review of the application color scheme was done.
• Faster Study Switching: Switching between studies is now near-instantaneous. Previously, selecting a different study unloaded the current study's results and rebuilt the next one from scratch — a noticeable delay for studies containing many records. Each study's results are now kept ready in the background, so switching is immediate, and a study's column layout and selected row are preserved when you return to it.
• Code Maintainability: An extensive refactor of the application's source code was completed. It introduces no change to how the application looks or behaves, but it streamlines the underlying code so the application can be maintained and enhanced more easily going forward.
The following bugs were fixed:
• Workspace Memory Leak: Closing or replacing a workspace did not release all of its study-creation commands — the commands for the heliocentric and topocentric aspect ephemerides studies were kept in memory until the application exited. All commands are now released when a workspace is closed.
• Editing Date & Time Fields: Highlighting only some of the digits within a segment of a date or time field — a day, month, year, hour, minute, or second — and typing now replaces just the highlighted digits in place. Previously this cleared the entire field and the typed digits landed at the very beginning. For example, with the year 2152 you can now highlight the "15" and type "26" to get 2262.
Cygnus 1.0.4 (May 31, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Keyboard Navigation: Improved keyboard navigation behaviour when tabbing from one control to another for mutliple control types.
• Spacebar Toggle: When one or more rows are selected (highlighted) in a list of selectable items (e.g. list of bodies), pressing the spacebar will now toggle the checkbox state.
• Metrics List Keyboard Behaviour: The selectable Body Metrics and Aspect Metrics lists now share the same keyboard behaviour as the selectable bodies list: tabbing in highlights the focused row, Space toggles the highlighted rows, and toggling a row's checkbox or running Select / Deselect from the context menu no longer drops focus to the main menu.
• System Updates: All software components have been updated to the latest versions.
The following bugs were fixed:
• Location Editor: Fixed a bug that put the first row of the location editor into edit mode when the user initially clicked on the row to select it.
• Row Highlight: Fixed a bug where tabbing onto a selectable bodies list (or other selectable items list) left the focused row unhighlighted until the user pressed an arrow key.
• Recent Files: Fixed a bug that left the application in an unusable state when opening a workspace from the Recent Files menu whose containing folder no longer exists.
Cygnus 1.0.3 (Apr 7, 2026)
The following functionality has been added or enhanced:
• Update Notifications: When a new version of Cygnus is available for download, a toolbar button with a download glyph will appear next to the theme toggle button in the top-right region of the application window. Clicking on the button opens the download page for Cygnus in the user's default web browser.
• System Updates: All software components have been updated to their latest versions.