[sci.astro] Planetary position software: summary of replies.

peter@memex.co.uk (Peter Ilieve) (12/11/89)

Here is a summary of the replies to my request for planetary position
software a few weeks ago.

The clear winner is ephem, a program written by Elwood Downey.
It doesn't do any astrology, but then I was not really expecting that from
sci.* newsgroups. The author mailed me, and coincidently the latest version
just appeared in comp.sources.misc.

Another program mentioned was Voyager, for the Mac, authors/agents unknown.

One specifically astrological program mentioned was BlueStar, for which I
do not yet know the source, but which has the drawback that it is commercial
and costs about $500.

Other suggestions were any decent public domain/shareware PC software catalog
and the PD1:<MSDOS.EDUCATION> directory on simtel.army.mil. I can't ftp to
anywhere so I can't vouch for this last one.

Thank you, normal service will now be resumed ...

		Peter Ilieve		peter@memex.co.uk

horst@pcsbst.UUCP (horst) (12/28/89)

Some remarks on ephem: The Man pages do not mention that for "watch"
mode (solar) it is convenient to switch off the display of the outer planets
if you are interested in the inner ones. You can only switch off the
display before you select watch mode. (Only to avoid the
disappointment that I felt.)

Horst     horst@pcs.com