AstroPix - by uziq

This plugin gets astronomy pictures from http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Put the plugin in the plugins folder, and the example config in the configs folder.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Add a new plugin meter, and on the Source tab choose AstroPix.dll.
2. Select the GetAstro function.
3. Click Configure to specify the options.
4. You can also check Allow Meter-Linkage on the General tab, so you can go to the webpage.  This allows you to get the larger image and explore links.


NOTE:
- You may need to click Test All Plugins a few times before anything is returned. 
- For an image, you need to use the Image Draw Type.  Go to the Display tab and check Maintain Aspect Ratio.
- It is perfectly ok to use a low refresh interval, such as 1000ms.  But if the pictures are cycling too fast then go to the General tab and specify a Refresh Interval.
- Your config should never lock up or be unresponsive while a new image is being downloaded.  So it's ok if your connection is lost, or if it's not fast. :)




-----------------------------------------


There's over 3500 pictures (815 GIFs / 2697 JPEGs) dating back to June 20, 1995.
The images and their explanations are automatically saved to Samurize\plugins\AstroPix\
All the images + explanations is about 200MB.

The average image size is 56KB, but a few (mainly animated GIFs) are larger.
The average dimensions is 594x438 (WxH), so a 1.35 ratio is recommended.


Here's a breakdown of the image sizes:
Size : # of Images (Total Size)
500K-973K:  11 images (6.64MB)
400K-499K:  14 images (6.35MB)
300K-399K:   9 images (3.11MB)
200K-299K:  33 images (7.95MB)
100K-199K: 280 images (34.1MB)
3K-99K:   3165 images (137.0MB)
Total: 3512 images (195MB) and text files (2.90MB)


__________________________________________________________
http://www.geocities.com/samurize@swbell.net/samurize.html
uziq@hotmail.com