jonke@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Stephen Jonke - Code 522) (08/10/90)
Is there a public domain, shareware, or commercial program for the Mac that will create star maps based on the current date, time and position on earth? On my cheapo sinclair QL (which is 68008 based) I have a program written in BASIC that does an amazingly good job at this, as well as providing basic information about each of the stars, and detailed information on all of the planets. The only problems are its very slow, only covers about 300 stars (plus Halley's comet), the interface is real clunky, and it doesn't produce very good printouts of the star maps. Is there a better program for the Mac? Steve -- Steve Jonke/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
owen@raven.phys.washington.edu (Russell Owen) (08/10/90)
In reply to Stephen Jonke's inquiry: > Is there a public domain, shareware, or commercial program for the Mac that > will create star maps based on the current date, time and position on earth? ... Voyager sounds like exactly what you want. It has an excellent user interface, and offers many of options and features. A wonderful program. Voyager is from Carina Software (415) 352-7328 I don't know if it is also available from places like MacConnection. Russell Owen Astronomy Dept. FM-20 University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195
dnewman@ut-emx.UUCP (Dave Newman) (08/13/90)
Try MacStronomy. I think it will do what you want. Unfortunately,
I can't give you more information since I gave the program to my Dad
who is the amateur astronomer of the family.
>>Davehuub@phoibos.cs.kun.nl (Huub van Thienen) (08/13/90)
dnewman@ut-emx.UUCP (Dave Newman) writes: >Try MacStronomy. I think it will do what you want. Unfortunately, >I can't give you more information since I gave the program to my Dad >who is the amateur astronomer of the family. >>>Dave Could someone provide some more information on MacStronomy (features, availability etc.). It seems to be interesting. Tanks Huub van Thienen (huub@cs.kun.nl)
weigele@fbihh.UUCP (Martin Weigele) (08/15/90)
huub@phoibos.cs.kun.nl (Huub van Thienen) writes: >dnewman@ut-emx.UUCP (Dave Newman) writes: >>Try MacStronomy. I think it will do what you want. Unfortunately, >Could someone provide some more information on MacStronomy (features, >availability etc.). It seems to be interesting. Don't know about MacStronomy, but I have read a recension about the Guide Star Catalogue (the basis for the (in)famous Hubble telescope), based on SAO and AGK, 18.819.291 objects on two 2 CD-ROMs. It is available for PCs and Macs. The Mac version (at least) includes software for plotting star maps from the catalogue. Apparently it is available from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 390 Ashton Av., San Francisco, CA 94112, USA, for 54,95 bucks. Of course you need a CD device. I'ld be interested in hearing if someone likes it. Martin Weigele FB Informatik, Universitaet Hamburg, Bodenstedtstr. 16, D 2000 Hamburg 50
lrm3@ellis.uchicago.edu (Lawrence Reed Miller) (08/16/90)
Unfortunately, he Guide Star Catalogue is not generally useful as a star atlas. While it does contain over 18 million stars and galaxies, they are all below magnitude 7, which makes it the largest collection of uninteresting objects ever compiled! None of the stars in the catalog are visible to the naked eye. Neat stuff like Vega, Messier objects, planets, etc are not included in the catalog. The display software included with the program, while useful for planning out observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, does not produce displays that are very useful for finding things for a small telescope (I have not seen any information on display software other than the "Pickles" program which is shipped with the disk. If anyone knows of any other programs for viewing the Catalog, I would love to hear about it!). While there are certain applications for which the Catalog is useful, I have not found it particularly handy for "normal" amateur astronomy. Software which could read data off of the GSC disks and display it along with a database of "interesting" objects would be really ideal, but I don't think anything can do this yet. Still, it is fun to have the precise positions and magnitudes of 18 million objects lying around on your desk. The fun thing is that, at $55, its only about $0.0003 per object!!! :^) However, of you are looking for a catalog, I would look elsewhere. Lawrence Miller